Question: Do you ever do any hands on civil engineering?

Ivanka Brown answered on 16 Mar 2012:

I would have to say no. I work as in a consultancy firm and spend most of my time researching, designing or responding to queries on my designs from the builders. Even as an engineering working for a contractor I wouldn’t ‘get my hands dirty’ as the tasks required are generally skilled that need trained technician to carry them out. Most of the building work is done by machines so I’m not sure whether you would qualify this as hands on!
The closest I comet to getting my hands dirty is during ground investigation where it sometimes helps to look at the soil for its constituents and to test it with my hands to understand its strength.