Civil Engineers

design construction information realistic interests facility drawing civil structure blueprint project site estimate

Civil Engineer, Design Engineer, Project Engineer, Structural Engineer

What they do:
Perform engineering duties in planning, designing, and overseeing construction and maintenance of building structures and facilities, such as roads, railroads, airports, bridges, harbors, channels, dams, irrigation projects, pipelines, power plants, and water and sewage systems.
On the job, you would:
  • Direct engineering activities, ensuring compliance with environmental, safety, or other governmental regulations.
  • Manage and direct the construction, operations, or maintenance activities at project site.
  • Inspect project sites to monitor progress and ensure conformance to design specifications and safety or sanitation standards.

Knowledge

Engineering and Technology

  • design
  • product and service development

Math and Science

  • arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, or statistics
  • physics

Arts and Humanities

  • English language

Business

  • management

Skills

Basic Skills

  • listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions
  • reading work related information

Problem Solving

  • noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it

People and Technology Systems

  • figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it
  • thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one

Abilities

Verbal

  • communicate by speaking
  • communicate by writing

Ideas and Logic

  • make general rules or come up with answers from lots of detailed information
  • notice when problems happen

Math

  • choose the right type of math to solve a problem
  • add, subtract, multiply, or divide

Visual Understanding

  • quickly compare groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things

Personality

People interested in this work like activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions.

They do well at jobs that need:

  • Integrity
  • Dependability
  • Analytical Thinking
  • Attention to Detail
  • Initiative
  • Self Control

Technology

You might use software like this on the job:

Computer aided design CAD software

  • Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D Hot Technology In Demand
  • Autodesk Revit Hot Technology In Demand

Presentation software

  • Microsoft PowerPoint Hot Technology In Demand

Analytical or scientific software

  • Minitab
  • The MathWorks MATLAB Hot Technology

Education

Education: (rated 4 of 5)
bachelor's degree
usually needed

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Job Outlook

Bright
New job opportunities are very likely in the future.
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See more details at O*NET OnLine about civil engineers.