Civil Engineering
Cover Letter Example

As public works professionals, civil engineers must design and improve infrastructure. With so much at stake, companies and cities hiring civil engineers are careful that each candidate they hire is perfectly qualified.

So if you’re applying to civil engineering jobs, it’s critical that you clearly communicate you have the right mix of technical knowledge and soft skills required to excel.

One of the best ways to show employers that you’re the ideal candidate is by writing a strong civil engineer cover letter.

1. Highlight civil engineering skills

Possessing a wealth of industry-specific knowledge is critical for civil engineers. Hiring managers won’t give your application a second glance unless they immediately see you have the right skills for the job.

Here are some common civil engineering technical skills you should include in your cover letter:

• Knowledge of government regulations and standards
• The MathWorks MATLAB
• HEC-HMS
• Geographic information system GIS software
• Intergraph MGE
• Knowledge of building materials and methods
• Developing blueprints, technical plans, and models
• Microsoft Office (Excel, Outlook)
• ArcGIS
• Civil 3D
• MicroStation
• SAP
• Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne
• Microsoft Dynamics
• AutoCAD
• Microsoft Project
• Oracle Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management

But your technical knowledge isn’t the only thing you need to be a successful engineer. The right soft skills give you a big advantage when it comes to managing projects, and communicating with team members and other stakeholders.

To show employers that you’re a well-rounded candidate, highlight some of these soft skills on your civil engineering cover letter as well:

• Time management
• Organizational skills
• Project planning
• Communication
• Problem-solving
• Critical thinking
• Decision-making
• Leadership skills
• Creativity
• Collaboration

2. Provide examples of your achievements

Success in the field of civil engineering is measured with hard numbers. To make it clear that you’re the right person for the job, provide examples of your accomplishments in your cover letter so employers can visualize what you’ll contribute to their organization.

Here are some ways to quantify your skills for a civil engineering cover letter:

• Supported a $75M project, with key responsibilities: handling bid distribution, site logistics execution, and safety assurance
• Ensured on-schedule and on-budget completion of infrastructure projects with budget ranging from $300K to $5.7M
• Completed 7 $2 million+ projects at 10% under budget

Be sure to highlight different achievements on your resume and cover letter so your application doesn’t sound redundant.

3. Emphasize your project management skills

Cities and companies rely on civil engineers to complete projects within the scope of the forecasted schedule and budget, all while meeting specifications for quality assurance.

So in addition to being qualified to work on engineering tasks, it’s equally important for civil engineers to demonstrate that they have the project management skills needed to ensure projects run smoothly.

Highlight your project management skills by providing examples in your cover letter that’ll emphasize your ability to deliver results on-time and on-budget.

Here’s an example of how to demonstrate your project management skills on your civil engineering cover letter:

While employed at Seymour & Phillips, I oversaw the renovation of a local public housing project. Under my supervision, construction was completed 2 months early and 8% under our initially projected budget.