Civil Engineer: Job Profile & Salary

Overview

Take a look around your community, and you'll see the work of civil engineers everywhere—from buildings and bridges to roads and reservoirs. These professionals perform essential roles that keep our society humming, including designing and overseeing the construction and maintenance of buildings and infrastructure such as highways, tunnels, rail systems, airports, and water supply and sewage systems. There are dozens of career paths in this field, so depending on your training, skills, and interests, you may end up designing and building skyscrapers or studying traffic patterns to find optimal ways of controlling the flow of cars. This field's specialties include architectural, structural, transportation, traffic, water resources, and geotechnical engineering. You may choose to work for a state or local government, or perhaps in the private sector at a consulting or construction firm. Some civil engineers go into supervisory or administrative positions, while others pursue careers in design, construction, or teaching.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 19.4 percent employment growth for civil engineers between 2010 and 2020. During that time period, about 51,100 jobs will need to be filled. The promising outlook for civil engineering led this profession to claim the No. 26 spot on the 2012 list of Best Jobs.

Salary

According to the Labor Department, civil engineers made a median salary of $77,560 in 2010. The highest-paid 10 percent in the profession earned $119,320, while the lowest-paid earned $50,560 that year. The most highly compensated positions are within the commercial and industrial machinery/equipment repair and maintenance industry, and the highest-paid positions can be found in Lafayette, La., Salinas, Calif., and the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif., area.

Training

Entry-level jobs require a bachelor's degree in civil engineering, and all 50 states and the District of Columbia mandate licensure for engineers who offer their services directly to the public. Technical projects and management responsibility often require a master's degree, and teaching requires a Ph.D.

Reviews and Advice

Before deciding which civil engineering discipline to pursue—environmental, structural, or geotechnical engineering, for example— take different courses to see what interests you, suggests Andrew Herrmann, president of the American Society of Civil Engineers. If possible, he says, complete an internship while you're in school to get some practical experience. "If you're fortunate to get an internship, you can watch people working in a particular discipline and try it out. See how much you enjoy it, because you really should be enjoying what you're doing," he says. Developing solid communications skills—both written and oral—is also important, Herrmann adds: "You could design the best bridge in the world, but if you can't communicate the details to other engineers, the public, or officials, what good is it?"

» Real Advice From Real Civil Engineers