Managing your career in an era of change

The practice of civil engineering is becoming more global each day. No longer is American know-how required on major international infrastructure projects. The Kansai Airport in Osaka, Japan, the Chek Lap Kok Airport in Hong Kong, the Three Gorges Dam in China, an open copper mine dam in Argentina, a major container port in the Netherlands, and a major dam construction in India are some examples of significant civil engineering projects with little or no American engineering involvement. You can also see this trend closer to home, where foreign firms are successfully "out bidding" America's firms for design and construction projects in the United States. With our society taking engineering for granted, U.S. civil engineers must retool or become obsolete, except as technical processors-using the computer to meet the requirements of codes, standards, and regulations.