Civil Engineer Resume Example

Civil engineering is a broad category with many sub-disciplines, including:

• Materials science and engineering
• Coastal engineering
• Construction engineering
• Earthquake engineering
• Environmental engineering
• Geotechnical engineering
• Water resources engineering
• Structural engineering
• Surveying
• Transportation engineering
• Municipal or urban engineering
• Forensic engineering
• Control engineering

The median salary range for civil engineers tends to fall between $66,479 and $80,115. However, with the field’s projected growth being average for 2021-2031, competition for civil engineering positions will remain intense.

Here are seven tips to help you design a civil engineering resume that maximizes your chances of landing the civil engineering position you want:

1. Pick an appropriate resume introduction

In a competitive field like civil engineering, hiring managers sometimes review hundreds of applications for a single position. Writing a resume that stands out is difficult, and you’ll need to choose the correct introduction for your resume.

Summarizing your most marketable skills at the top of your resume increases your chances of catching the hiring manager’s attention as they skim through your resume. But how you start your resume depends on your experience level:

Entry-level civil engineers: If you’re a recent graduate or engineer-in-training, begin your resume with a resume objective, which is a 2–3 sentence paragraph about your job-relevant skills and career goals.

Experienced civil engineers: If you’re already a professional engineer, use a resume summary or a summary of qualifications. A resume summary is a 1–5 sentence paragraph while a summary of qualifications is a bulleted list, but both introduction types give you enough space to highlight your best achievements.

2. List your most relevant civil engineering skills

Hard skills like the software, tools, and technical knowledge you use to design and construct infrastructure are essential additions to your civil engineer resume.

But don’t forget to also include soft skills like teamwork skills and communication skills, which are necessary to coordinate with architects, construction crews, and government organizations.

Here are more key hard and soft skills that look great on civil engineering resumes:

Hard skills

• Engineering programs: AutoCAD, MATLAB, GIS software, Bentley infrastructure software
• Industry credentials: Professional Engineer (PE) license, Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) membership
• Analytical skills
• Computer skills
• Math skills
• Microsoft Project
• Microsoft Access
• Contract Management
• Project Management
• Structural Engineering

Soft skills

• Management skills
• Organizational skills
• Research skills
• Active listening
• Written communication
• Problem-solving
• Constructive feedback
• Negotiating
• Delegating
• Creativity
• Adaptability

3. Quantify your experience

Don’t simply fill your resume with lists of your civil engineering job responsibilities. To impress the hiring manager, put your experience in context with specific examples and hard numbers that prove you’re an accomplished engineer.

For instance, list how much money you stayed under budget through strong negotiation skills, intelligent use of resources, finding cheaper materials, or eliminating unnecessary labor.

Here are three examples of how to quantify your resume when writing about your experience as a civil engineer:

Management/supervision:

• Supervise 18 project employees, including in-house, external contractors, and sub-contractors

Training:

• Trained 3 new employees to take over similar projects and aid company expansion

Budgeting:

• Inspect inventories and prepare orders for civil projects and refractory materials in line with budgeted figures averaging $2 million

Work experience section for an entry-level civil engineer

Just because you don’t have much experience yet doesn’t mean you can’t quantify the achievements on your resume.

Here’s an example of how to add hard numbers to your resume when you’re an entry-level civil engineer:

Work experience section for an experienced civil engineer

If you have more than a few years of experience as an engineer, you should have plenty of opportunities to quantify your accomplishments, like in this example:

4. Highlight the most job-relevant skills on your resume

To find the most job-relevant civil engineering skills for your resume, pay attention to any skills or experience that are mentioned in the job description.

Once you identify which skills are vital for the role you’re interested in, clearly mention these job-relevant civil engineer skills in both your skills section and in your work experience section. In your experience section, make sure you elaborate on:

1. the context in which the specific skill was used
2. the positive result, preferably backed by hard numbers

5. Target the civil engineering job you want

Write the best resume possible by carefully reading the job ad and including skills-based keywords from the position requirements. For example, if the job posting emphasizes attention to safety, then the following bullet point would be highly effective:

• Received 9 safety awards for attention and adherence to all safety procedures, resulting in an ongoing record of 0 OSHA recordable accidents

Also, many hiring managers use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to filter applications based on resume keywords they write in their job ads. The more civil engineering–related keywords you can use, the higher the chances your resume gets past the ATS and onto the hiring manager’s shortlist of applications.

6. Select engineering-related action words

Think carefully about what verbs you’re using to begin the bullet points in your resume’s work experience section. The first words that come to mind when you write your resume will likely be generic verbs the hiring manager sees far too often, such as “help” and “handle.” Overused words like these make your qualifications appear mediocre.

Here are some weak verbs used too often on civil engineering resumes followed by strong action verbs you can use instead:

Weak Verbs

• Help
• Handle
• Manage
• Change
• Communicate
• Save

Strong Action Verbs

• Collaborate
• Facilitate
• Guide
• Adapt
• Explain
• Minimize

And if you need a little inspiration, here’s a list of 12 more action verbs you can use to bolster your application for a civil engineering job:

• Cultivate
• Inspire
• Coach
• Upgrade
• Diminish
• Augment
• Illustrate
• Brainstorm
• Design
• Anticipate
• Mitigate
• Assess

7. Stand out with additional civil engineer resume sections

While optional, having additional resume sections allows you to include information that doesn’t neatly fit into other sections but is still job-relevant.

Whether it’s to highlight your certifications or your personality through additional activities, this is your chance to show what kind of person and employee you are.

Differentiate yourself with personal projects

Differentiating yourself in the job market by listing projects on your resume is a great way to stand out, especially as an entry-level civil engineer.

While you may not have much professional experience, with this strategy, you can showcase skills and experiences that you’ve proactively developed outside of the typical workplace or academic setting.

For example, if you’re an entry-level civil engineer, you could demonstrate your skills in architectural design and drafting by showcasing school projects like bridge model designs using the latest 3D modeling software.

Inspire trust with your licenses and certifications

For an experienced civil engineer, it’s all the more important to include your licenses and certifications on your resume to prove you have the knowledge and qualifications for the job.

If you have more than one qualification, use an additional section to make your resume more readable to a hiring manager.

When writing about your licenses and certifications on a resume, be sure to include:

1. the name of each license or certification
2. the date it was obtained (or projected date of completion)
3. the issuing organization

To sum up, additional civil engineer resume sections are great for showing the following job-relevant information:

• certificates
• publications
• conferences you participated in or led
• other activities that can help with fitting into the work culture