Civil Engineering Guide
Focus now!!! Stop thinking nonsense things and pay attention to what you’re reading.
In this Step-by-Step Guide, you will understand how to get the highest skills and apply for any job in any field of Civil Engineering while wasting as less time as possible on useless things. So, let’s get you started.
Where do you stand?
Are you just getting started with BECE? Or are you Sophomore or a Junior? Maybe a Senior. Actually, i least care. There is just one thing you should understand. If you’re following the conventional university way of learning, i have a bad news for you. That way has Expired! That is 20% work and 80% bullshit. So, congratulations if you’re not a freshman. You’ve actually wasted most of your degree solving useless assignments, preparing for worthless quizzes and exams. But it is never too late to mend. We shall start from very beginning of Civil Engineering and go to very advanced level in every field with the least wastage of time and resources. During the process, you should ignore the parts you’ve already gone through. Obviously that goes without saying. Lets Dive In Shall We?
How is this Guide Structured?
First, you will learn the very basics of Electrical Engineering, what does it stand for, and how to get started with it in the first year. You’ll learn what to do in EE and particularly what NOT to do in EE. We’ll teach you the very basic skills that are crucial for each and every field in engineering and after that, the skills that are crucial especially for EE degree. After that, we’ll take a Top-Down approach towards the EE career. If i summarize it in one sentence, We’ll first decide what we want to achieve and then we’ll establish a systematic process to get to our final goal without any deviations. To decide our major field in EE, we’ll get a detailed overview of each field. Then we’ll get some necessary hands-on experience of each sub-field of EE. Then we’ll decide our final goal based on different indicators and factors. After deciding the field we want to opt for, We’ll take a deep dive into that particular field and learn the way to get expertise in that field in minimum amount of time and resources. Now onto our first section
Getting Started with Electrical Engineering
Now on, you need to take notes of all the points mentioned in Bold. When students are starting their Electrical Engineering Degree, almost 95% of the batch makes the same mistakes and they never realize it. That’s the main reason of them wasting their 80% of time.
If you’re not much into reading, you can take the short-course which is developed around the same guide you’re currently reading. Check it out or if you like to read, i would recommend that you read through the complete guide instead of taking the short course since the written material is much more detailed than what is covered in that course.
How is this Guide Structured?
First, you will learn the very basics of Civil Engineering, what does it stand for, and how to get started with it in the first year. You’ll learn what to do in Civil and particularly what NOT to do in Civil. We’ll teach you the very basic skills that are crucial for each and every field in engineering and after that, the skills that are crucial especially for your degree. After that, we’ll take a Top-Down approach towards the developer career. If i summarize it in one sentence, We’ll first decide what we want to achieve and then we’ll establish a systematic process to get to our final goal without any deviations. To decide our major field in Civil, we’ll get a detailed overview of each field. Then we’ll get some necessary hands-on experience of each sub-field of the field. Then we’ll decide our final goal based on different indicators and factors. After deciding the field we want to opt for, We’ll take a deep dive into that particular field and learn the way to get expertise in that field in minimum amount of time and resources. Now onto our first section
Getting Started with Civil Engineering
Now on, you need to take notes of all the points mentioned in Bold. When students are starting their Degree, almost 95% of the batch makes the same mistakes and they never realize it. That’s the main reason of them wasting their 80% of time.
Failing to Plan = Planning to Fail
The main reason why 95% of students are stupid: I talk to a lot of students and i ask them a very simple question. “What do you want out of this degree?” Most are like “Ab aa gae hain toh dekhte hain ke kya krna hai”. They never plan ahead. They never prioritize their goals. They don’t even know their goals. They just go with the flow. And at the end, the complain why they all are failures. You’re probably one of that 95% students. The first step to getting successful is to admit that you’re a failure. Most of the students never admit that they are useless. They just wanna feel good. So, they just keep going with the flow getting some dopamine from here and there which keeps their morale just enough to keep them alive in the race. You need to make a decision. “Are you Okay being in that 95% who are just trying to deceive themselves and just trying to feel good in life?” If you’re not okay then you should be worried. You’re a failure and you don’t know how to get out of it. Good news!!! I will teach you step-by-step how to plan your goals of life in general and goals of university in particular. Check out the Goal Planning course below. It is completely free and i’m not using any marketing tactics. This is for your own good. Take it or leave it.
First year courses
In your first year, you have a couple of courses that are the same in every university. Others change over time. These are Fundamentals of Computer Programming, Civil Engineering Materials,and Applied Physics. If you’re in the university to get a career in civil engineering, focus on these and only these. All other courses are utter bullshit. The Mathematics courses like Discrete Mathematics or Calculus I & II or Linear Algebra, etc., have 10% practicality and 90% wastage of time. From your university, all you get is that two or three basic courses in your first year. No need to waste your time on anything else.
What not to do
Here’s the point where most of the students get it wrong. Every final year student says “I wish i knew it in my freshman year”. And every freshman who knows this just ignores it. These completely simple steps are following:
1. Assignments are bullshit. Don’t waste your time over them
Most of the freshman starting their degree seem to have the highest motivation levels in the world. As if they can conquer the world by themselves. All that energy and adrenaline of a new start in life and everything else keeps you running for about 2-3 months. The point is not to waste that energy on some bullshit named as Assignments. 95% of the freshmen when given their first assignment or quizzes spend hours preparing for them and trying to achieve perfection. “I need a 10 of 10 in the quizzes and assignments”. And if you don’t get good results in first assignment or quiz, students tend to panic like their whole life is at stake. The Point is: They literally don’t matter at all. Not in your GPA, nor in your skills, nor in anything else. I don’t know a better way to put it. If you have the energy to do something, then utilize it in something useful. Not on bullshit assignments and quizzes. Give them the least time possible and focus on things that really matter. The ones which will be introduced further in this guide.
2. Don’t pursue a career just because it seems cool and everyone else is doing it
It is one of the things that most people already know. But for some unknown reason, the crowd keeps on doing it. Maybe one of the reasons is that everyone is stupid. That is definitely a part of the reason. But another part of the reason is that most students just don’t have the courage to delay the gratification and pursue the career which actually matters. Since the actually beneficial tasks take time and require patience. Students just want to start learning some software or programming language and start freelancing in that field which is 180 degrees opposite to Civil Engineering. I’ve met many of my colleagues in Civil Engineering who are doing freelancing in Graphic Designing. It seems quite attractive but If you’re smart and know how to plan, you would know that is a no-go area for starters in Civil Engineering.
4.00 GPA is insanity
This is quite similar to the previous point. If i be honest, when i started my degree, i was guilty of this too. I came in with the aim of getting a 4.00 and i’ll admit that i was completely stupid. A 4 GPA is as stupid as it can be. Eventhough it indicates highest level of hardwork and competitiveness but it also indicates the lowest level of prioritization and lack of control in your life. It indicates that you haven’t made a single decision throughout your degree by yourself. You’ve just done what was asked of you. That is why the topper of class aren’t liked very much in industry jobs. Step No. 3: Forget the 4.00 GPA.
Essential Skillsets for any degree
There are multiple very basic skills that you crucially need to start your bachelors degree. If you don’t get that skills as soon as possible, you’ll waste a lot of time in your degree on the cliche things.
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- Basic Computer Usage, WhatsApp and Social Media
Almost all the nerds and geeks today know these. I haven’t met anyone in university except myself who didn’t know how to use a computer or whatsapp before coming to university. So, i’ll assume all of you know aswell. If you don’t, ask your friend
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- Typing
Almost 90% of students in my batch don’t know the full-hand typing. They type real slow looking at their keyboard. Even the Computer Science and Software Engineering students do the same. If they spent about 30 hours before their degree learning full-hand typing, they would have saved more than two thousand hours of their degree. But they don’t because they’re stupid.
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- Microsoft PowerPoint
Most of the students coming to university have never given a multi-media presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint. So, When they start with the presentation here, they end up wasting a lot of their time experimenting with the Software and designing their presentations, etc. Instead, if you take out about 15 hours to learn the PowerPoint, you’ll save a lot of hours in your degree and would avoid such situations.
I’ve added the link to a bestseller PowerPoint Udemy course below which is completely free on my website. I would recommend you to take that course.
[Udemy] Microsoft PowerPoint From Beginner to Advanced [Kyle Pew]
This course has been designed for students who have little to no experience with Microsoft PowerPoint or for those that wish to fill in the gaps within their PowerPoint experience
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- Microsoft Word
Same issue as above, most students don’t know how to use word or how to type. So, they end up wasting a lot of their time in typing the lab reports and assignments on word. They don’t know how to format their reports or what formatting techniques are there. I would suggest you to take a course on this aswell so you can avoid that wastage of time aswell. Below is the link to bestseller udemy course on microsoft word from the same instructor as the previous course. Do check that out.
[Udemy] Master Microsoft Word Beginner to Advanced [Kyle Pew]
This course is intended for students who wish to expand their skill set within Microsoft Word You will learn how to take full advantage of Microsoft Word Begin with the basics of creating Microsoft Word documents Various techniques to create dynamic layouts Preparing documents for printing and exporting Format documents effectively using Microsoft Word Styles...
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- Microsoft Excel
You can complete your whole degree without knowing Excel. But it is one of the most used softwares for data organizing, tables, marksheets, and stuff like that. If you learn this, you can use it in many of your own personal chores aswell.
[Udemy] Microsoft Excel - Excel From Beginner to Advanced [Kyle Pew]
This Microsoft Excel courses will take you through 4 levels of Microsoft Excel topics (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Macros/VBA). If your looking to take your Excel skills from beginner to advanced level and beyond, then this course is for you.
Essential Skillsets for Civil Engineering
There are multiple basic skills you should learn before Civil Degree if you don’t want to waste your time during the degree trying to discover those.
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- Git & GitHub
This is one of the most important software to learn for Engineers. It is a version controlling system. In simple words, whatever project you’re doing, you need to track its progress, different versions, share it with other team members, collaborate with them, etc. GitHub allows you to do that. It is absolutely essential and the most important in this list. See the link below for its course
[Udemy] The Git & GitHub Bootcamp [Colt Steele]
The following sentence is annoying, but also true: the best time to learn Git was yesterday. Fortunately, the second best time is today! Git is an essential tool for work in any code-related field, from data science to game development to machine learning. This course covers everything you need to know to start using Git and Github in the real-world today!
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- AutoCAD Basics
AutoCAD is one of the most fundamental skills in civil engineering. And the fun part is: It never gets outdated. It will be here 20 years from now because of such a large influence over educational sector. You don’t need any technical pre-requisites to start learning AutoCAD 2D Modeling. I recommend the following course from Udemy to learn this software.
[Udemy] The complete AutoCAD 2018-21 course [Jaiprakash Pandey]
This course is a full-length AutoCAD 2018, 19, 20 and 2021 learning package which contains almost all of the topics that you will ever need to work with this software. The course is designed for a beginner as well as seasoned users. A beginner can start learning the software right from scratch by following the course along just from lecture one. A seasoned AutoCAD user will also find this course very comprehensive and they can choose the topics they want to learn about skipping the basics.