A Planning Engineer's Job

• I recently interviewed Syed Abid Masood Gilani (SAMG) who is working as a Planning Engineer at a reputable organization in Saudi Arabia. He's been in this field for about 4 years and has worked on many highway projects.
• This interview is presented mainly for undergrad. students in Transportation Engineering or related field who want to know more about the career of construction planning and management and how they can pursue a profession in these field.

SAMG : Planning Engineer

SAMG : The field of Planning in context of construction is basically a part of the framework of Project Management (PM). PM has different phases namely initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and closure of a project. My area of work mainly deals with initiation, planning and monitoring processes.

SAMG : It depends on the project phase. At the start of any project, which by the way is the most hectic phase, a planning engineer collects historic data about costs, design, material procurement, etc from relevant departments and proposed construction site. Later, when the contract of building (construction) is awarded, one monitors the on-going works by keeping track of schedules, budgets, etc. This is actually a team work.

SAMG : Again, this depends on the phase of the project I am dealing with. Usually in the monitoring phase I take some site photographs and collect project related data e.g. available manpower, total manpower, available equipment, shop drawings, material procurement, etc from relevant departments in my organization. I use these data to generate monthly and weekly reports in MS Excel which are later distributed to relevant personnel. I also process these data in Primavera software which helps me keep track of project schedule and/ or causes of delays, risk factors, etc and give recommendations for taking preventive and remedial measures.

SAMG : I would say that basic arithmetic is very important and students should work hard in subjects like Construction materials & machinery, Construction management, Probability & statistics and Highway design.

SAMG

• MS Office Suite i.e. Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc
• MS Project
• Primavera P6
• Basic Programming skills

SAMG : Try to get your first job in a construction project and keep it for at least 2 years. The knowledge you get while working in field is what you apply in a planning position. You should acquaint yourselves with construction materials, machinery, manpower and their corresponding productivity.

SAMG : Yes. Project Management Institute (PMI) offers a variety of certifications e.g. Project Management Professional (PMP), Project Schedueling Professional (PSP), etc. They have a Lahore chapter too.

SAMG : This field requires extensive experience for career growth. This is not to say that graduate studies are not important. There are different options e.g. Master's in Construction Management but in my personal opinion experience plus PMP certification is the best pathway.

SAMG

• Scheduler
• Planning and scheduling engineer
• Project planner
• Project control engineer

SAMG

• You get confidence and knowledge while interacting with all sorts of people like HR department, procurement offices, etc while collecting data
• It is an office job; good for people who don't want to work on-site outdoors
• It is a decent and respectful job.

You can contact me at umairdurrani87@gmail.com