How to Become a Civil Engineer

Civil engineering is an exciting career with opportunities in many different areas. Some civil engineers work in the field, some work in offices doing design, and others work in a combination of the two. Here are some helpful steps to starting your career as a civil engineer.

Understand what a civil engineer does

Basically, this is the side of engineering concerned with designing, building, and maintaining public works. Civil engineers focus on structures and facilities such as transportation routes, features (tunnels, bridges, flyovers), and hubs (such as airports and bus interchanges), water treatment (sewage, dams, pipelines, etc.) government buildings (police and fire stations, major office buildings, etc.), and other structures required on a large public scale. In some countries, such as the United States, civil engineering also involves military engineering. Another way of looking at what a civil engineer does is to see it as a role of reducing complex ideas initiated by policymakers, chief executives, and other such people into concrete reality.

• It's a job that pays a reasonably high income due to the level of skills and expertise required, and the ongoing responsibilities to ensure safe, accurate, and enduring engineering outcomes.
• Civil engineers can work in a variety of work environments, including in the public sector, as contractors, consultants, or even as part of a firm that undertakes work outsourced from municipalities and government. Civil engineers also work with architect firms and construction firms.^[3] Throughout the lifetime of a civil engineer career, you might vary your employment circumstances considerably to work around different needs and interests; the good thing is that your qualifications will allow you much flexibility.
• Within civil engineering there are different roles open to you. For example, in the United Kingdom, you can become an engineering technician, an incorporated engineer, or a chartered engineer. Your personal interest in where to specialize will be something to consider as you pursue your studies and the different options offered through the course, so be sure to ask what's available in your country or region.