Phase 4 · Meet the Core Objectives
2. Communication
That you can make yourself understood — in drawings, in writing, and out loud — to engineers and to people who are not engineers. This is the one objective you are assessed on continuously: your portfolio, your report forms, your presentation and the interview itself all feed into it.
Who this is for:Candidates at any stage ·Mentors
Minimum standard: Ability for Incorporated-Member, Ability for Chartered Member.
Core Objective 2 — what IStructE says
Institution of Structural Engineers
- This objective is intended to demonstrate candidates have an ability to communicate effectively in a variety of situations and demonstrate appropriate interpersonal skills.
- Minimum standard, Incorporated-Member: B — Ability. Perform the subject without supervision and be competent to advise others.
- Minimum standard, Chartered Member: B — Ability. Perform the subject without supervision and be competent to advise others.
From IPD Guidance — Chartered Member, Institution of Structural Engineers.
What strong and weak evidence look like
Worth doing
- Sketches and diagrams that explain structural behaviour rather than decorate the page.
- A report or note written for a non-technical reader, where you can say what decision it unlocked.
- Correspondence showing you resolving a disagreement, not just recording one.
- A presentation you gave, and what the audience did afterwards.
- Evidence of giving positive critical feedback on someone else's work.
Avoid
- A portfolio that is itself badly organised — it is being assessed under this objective.
- Documents where you are invisible: no indication of what you wrote or decided.
- "Excellent communication skills" as a claim rather than a demonstration.
- Not giving a presentation at the interview, which fails this objective outright.
Portfolio items that tend to work here
5 items · saved in this browser only
Suggestions, not a required list. What matters is that the item is yours, that it is annotated, and that it demonstrates the standard rather than the subject.
Questions to ask yourself
Who did not understand, and what did I do about it?
Communication evidence needs an audience with a gap in it.
Is my portfolio itself well made?
It is assessed under this objective. A disorganised portfolio argues against you before a word is spoken.
Can I explain my most technical project to someone who is not an engineer, in two minutes?
Reviewers ask, and it is harder than it sounds.
The same objective, in different kinds of work
| Setting | What the evidence tends to look like |
|---|---|
| Design office | A sketch that settles an argument; a technical note that sets out options and a recommendation. |
| Site | Briefing a change of method so that it was actually followed, not merely issued. |
| Client-facing | Turning a structural risk into a decision the client could actually make. |
Illustrative. The objectives are written to be met in a range of ways by anyone practising as a structural engineer.
How reviewers tend to approach this objective
- The presentation itself, and how you handle interruption.
- Asking you to explain a detail from your portfolio as though the reviewer were not an engineer.
- Asking about a disagreement and how you resolved it.
- Probing whether you produced the drawings you have submitted.
There is a bank of original practice questions in the interview question bank, filterable by objective and by grade.
Related pages and tools
- Core ObjectivesWhat IStructE assesses, what Knowledge, Experience and Ability actually mean, and where the two grades differ.
- EvidenceThe difference between describing a project and evidencing a Core Objective, and what reviewers are actually reading for.
- Evidence matrixBuilding the grid of objectives against evidence, so you can see coverage rather than hope for it.
- Gap analysisWhat to do about an objective you cannot evidence — and how long each kind of gap actually takes to close.
- The portfolioWhat the portfolio is for, when it has to be ready, who receives it, and the format rules that decide whether it is read.
- Question bankPractice questions across all ten Core Objectives, filtered by grade, by the standard they are pitched at, and by depth.