I’m graduate trainee (fresher) in structural design department, I just wanted to know what did you all do, or the department expects us to do, I feel like I’m not doing enough civil engineering work yet but also I’m not as knowledgeable as by fellow colleagues (as all of them are Masters and experienced) My probation ends soon and now I’m having second thoughts, it’s like I did nothing, then it’s like okay I’m being supporting hands, and then it’s like I’m not gonna learn much if it goes the same way. I mostly work on excels, qty sheet and rarely the design part like very rare. The company is real estate developer (client side ). I feel like if I get challenged enough then it’s worth learning and faster understanding. What are your thoughts? Is this all normal or am I being a liability to them?
Most of my first year was spent nursing gigantic Excel sheets that someone else had spawned years earlier and honestly that was valuable. Every formula you trace is a tiny lesson in how the company really moves money and concrete around. The trick is to treat each grunt task as reconnaissance, what assumption does this column hide, who signs off at the end, which number causes a panic when it shifts by two percent. Keep a scratch file of questions, chase one or two per week, and you will backfill the theory faster than any Masters lecture. If no one volunteers to explain the design bits, book fifteen minutes with a senior and arrive with a specific drawing and a single clear question. Repeat. You will look engaged, they get a dopamine hit from teaching, and you inch closer to the interesting work.
Is that what the kids call it now? We called them freshmen in my day
Pretty sure that's corrupted English term used in India
Also used in the UK. First year university students are called freshers, but more often than not it is used during "freshers week" or "freshers fortnight" which is the first week or two of a new academic year during which there are lots of events/socialising, then after that people would generally call them "first-years".
Never heard "fresher" for someone in their first year of work though.
😭😭🙏The real topic was different and I apologise for my English.
No stress. lots of people from different countries here - sometimes people have different terms for things :)
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Well being colonized for hundreds of years by the original English speaking country could be a reason. Just engineers, not historians I guess.
Does the real estate developer actually do design??
If yes, then to be honest your senior should be teaching you as well, yes you won’t have responsibility and you will be doing shitty work for a while but from time to time they need to teach you.
How long have you been working with them?, if you are learning nothing then start looking for somewhere else
I mean most of the part (say the main structural frame) is like they get designs from consultant firms But all with respect to the standards set by client company. So, the structural team here checks and optimises it. The actual design part they do is mostly infra works like retaking walls and all or steel sheds, etc. most of my seniors are also from different consultancy companies or so.
I spent a year checking shop drawings, drafting, and file keeping. It’s completely normal.
I look at this way. Your real learning starts now. You try to have the over all activities being carried out in your organisation and try to fit in whatever you do (excel qty compilation etc) in those activity.Also track the activity you do comes from what earlier activity and goes to what next activity and see when it gets completed in the overall flow. it is slow process and you shall gradually get to know the sequence.spread your actvity in learning updating and mastering that segment you are on.try to get hold of other segments as you go on.you should allocate some hours daily to update learn and link it to what you know already and build a knowledge tree of your own which shall take you a long way in your career