Civil Engineer 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.
Civil Engineer is Also Know as
In different settings, Civil Engineer is titled as
- City Engineer
- Civil Engineer
- County Engineer
- Design Engineer
- Engineer
- Geotechnical Engineer
- Licensed Engineer
- Project Engineer
- Railroad Design Consultant
- Structural Engineer
Education and Training of Civil Engineer
Civil Engineer is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Civil Engineer
A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Education Required for Civil Engineer
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
Degrees Related to Civil Engineer
- Bachelor in Civil Engineering, General
- Associate Degree Courses in Civil Engineering, General
- Masters Degree Courses in Civil Engineering, General
- Bachelor in Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
- Associate Degree Courses in Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
- Masters Degree Courses in Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
- Bachelor in Structural Engineering
- Associate Degree Courses in Structural Engineering
- Masters Degree Courses in Structural Engineering
- Bachelor in Transportation and Highway Engineering
- Associate Degree Courses in Transportation and Highway Engineering
- Masters Degree Courses in Transportation and Highway Engineering
- Bachelor in Water Resources Engineering
- Associate Degree Courses in Water Resources Engineering
- Masters Degree Courses in Water Resources Engineering
- Bachelor in Civil Engineering, Other
- Associate Degree Courses in Civil Engineering, Other
- Masters Degree Courses in Civil Engineering, Other
Training Required for Civil Engineer
Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Civil Engineer in different industries are
- Transportation Engineers
- Civil Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Construction Managers
- Water/Wastewater Engineers
- Construction and Building Inspectors
- Environmental Engineers
- Architectural and Engineering Managers
- Architectural and Civil Drafters
- Mining and Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers
- Architects, Except Landscape and Naval
- Industrial Engineers
- Solar Energy Installation Managers
- Wind Energy Engineers
- Electrical Engineers
- Marine Engineers and Naval Architects
- Brownfield Redevelopment Specialists and Site Managers
- Facilities Managers
- First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers
- Mechanical Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Maintenance and Repair Workers, General
What Do Civil Engineer do?
- Compute load and grade requirements, water flow rates, or material stress factors to determine design specifications.
- Inspect project sites to monitor progress and ensure conformance to design specifications and safety or sanitation standards.
- Direct or participate in surveying to lay out installations or establish reference points, grades, or elevations to guide construction.
- Estimate quantities and cost of materials, equipment, or labor to determine project feasibility.
- Prepare or present public reports on topics such as bid proposals, deeds, environmental impact statements, or property and right-of-way descriptions.
- Test soils or materials to determine the adequacy and strength of foundations, concrete, asphalt, or steel.
- Conduct studies of traffic patterns or environmental conditions to identify engineering problems and assess potential project impact.
- Analyze manufacturing processes or byproducts to identify engineering solutions to minimize the output of carbon or other pollutants.
- Design energy-efficient or environmentally sound civil structures.
- Design or engineer systems to efficiently dispose of chemical, biological, or other toxic wastes.
- Develop or implement engineering solutions to clean up industrial accidents or other contaminated sites.
- Direct engineering activities, ensuring compliance with environmental, safety, or other governmental regulations.
- Identify environmental risks and develop risk management strategies for civil engineering projects.
- Provide technical advice to industrial or managerial personnel regarding design, construction, program modifications, or structural repairs.
- Manage and direct the construction, operations, or maintenance activities at project site.
- Plan and design transportation or hydraulic systems or structures, using computer-assisted design or drawing tools.
- Analyze survey reports, maps, drawings, blueprints, aerial photography, or other topographical or geologic data.
Qualities of Good Civil Engineer
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
Tools Used by Civil Engineer
- Anemometers
- Blueprint copiers
- Compasses
- Desktop computers
- Digital cameras
- Dividers
- Drafting scales
- Drafting triangles
- Electronic distance measuring devices
- Global positioning system GPS receivers
- Laptop computers
- Laser levels
- Measuring tapes
- Microfilm readers
- Planimeters
- Precision levels
- Protractors
- Radar guns
- Rhodes arcs
- Rolling scales
- Steel rules
- Surveying rods
- Surveying wheels
- Theodolites
- Thickness gauges
- Total stations
- Traffic counters
- Transit levels
- Two way radios
Technology Skills required for Civil Engineer
- Adobe Acrobat
- Apache Subversion SVN
- Autodesk AutoCAD
- Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D
- Autodesk Land Desktop
- Autodesk Revit
- Bentley GeoPak Bridge
- Bentley Haestad Methods CivilStorm
- Bentley InRoads Suite
- Bentley MicroStation
- Bentley STAAD
- Bridge design software
- C
- Cartography software
- Computer aided design and drafting software CADD
- Corel WordPerfect Office Suite
- Cost estimating software
- Dassault Systemes Abaqus
- Dassault Systemes CATIA
- Dassault Systemes SolidWorks
- Eagle Point Site Design
- Email software
- ESRI ArcGIS software
- ESRI ArcInfo
- ESRI ArcView
- Extensible markup language XML
- Finite element analysis FEA software
- Formula translation/translator FORTRAN
- Geographic information system GIS software
- Graphics software
- GT STRUDL
- HEC-1
- HEC-HMS
- Hydraulic analysis software
- Hydraulic modeling software
- HydroCAD Software Solutions HydroCAD Stormwater Modeling System
- Intergraph MGE
- Mathsoft Mathcad
- MAYA Nastran
- Microsoft Access
- Microsoft ActiveX
- Microsoft Dynamics
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Exchange
- Microsoft Internet Explorer
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Project
- Microsoft Visual Basic
- Microsoft Word
- Minitab
- National Instruments LabVIEW
- Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
- Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne
- Oracle Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management
- PTC Creo Parametric
- Road design software
- SAP software
- Scheduling software
- Shell script
- SmugMug Flickr
- Spreadsheet software
- Stormwater hydrology software
- Supervisory control and data acquisition SCADA software
- The Gordian Group PROGEN Online
- The MathWorks MATLAB
- Trimble Geomatics Office
- Trimble SketchUp Pro
- Trimble Terramodel
- Verilog
- Web browser software
- WinTR-55