You shouldn't go into the construction industry, right?
Just the other day, I happened to walk into a restaurant and overheard this conversation.
"You shouldn't go into the construction industry. And construction management is definitely out of the question. There's a lot of overtime, and it's bad for your physical and mental health."
My honest reaction upon hearing this was one of frustration—I couldn’t believe that the construction industry and construction management are still viewed this way.
"You shouldn't go into the construction industry." Is that really true?
Memorable Disaster Recovery Projects
This is a story from when I was assigned to the site to work on the landslide restoration project.
LandslideA resident living in the house directly above the site once told me, “My house isn’t holding up either, so please take some measures to address that as part of this construction project.”
It’s true—right below the residents’ homes, the soil had collapsed, leaving a sheer cliff face. It was a situation where it wouldn’t have been surprising if the houses had collapsed the next time it rained heavily.
However, the projects we had been contracted to do were public works, and naturally, the client flatly refused, stating, “We cannot repair private property.” I remember how my heart ached at the thought that we couldn’t do anything to help the people suffering from the disaster right before our eyes.
The Director's Surprising Action
After the client had returned home, the site manager—who was the project director at the time—visited the resident’s home and made the following proposal.
"It's certainly going to cost some money, but how about restoring the spray coating using just the cost of materials?"
That really surprised me. It was because he was proposing work that had nothing to do with his own project and trying to help others as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
The director had a long-time acquaintance who was a construction contractor, and apparently, whenever a disaster struck, he would team up with the contractor to carry out charitable activities.
It's wonderful that he can think on his feet like that, even when he's in the middle of a tough situation at work.
Civil engineering is a profession that protects people's lives.
I still vividly remember what the director told me back then: “Civil engineering is a profession that protects people’s lives.”
When a disaster strikes, we rush to the scene to carry out disaster recovery efforts, and then we perform construction work to prevent future disasters. There’s no doubt that it is we, civil engineers, who protect the world’s infrastructure.
In our day-to-day work, it often feels like we’re just building things. But once a structure is completed, we often realize that it’s protecting the lives of many people—including our own.
Finding true fulfillment isn't easy in any line of work. However, there's no doubt that civil engineering is a field where it's easy to find that sense of fulfillment.
As someone who builds the infrastructure essential to daily life, I feel a sense of pride every time I drive past or see a site I worked on, and it brings back memories of what it was like there at the time.
Civil engineering is a fun and rewarding profession. As someone who works in the field, I can say this with pride.
