Civil eng

The Civil Engineering

From the pyramids of Egypt to the international space station, civil engineers have always faced the challenges of the future – advancing civilization and building our quality of life. Today, the world is undergoing vast changes -- the technological revolution, population growth, environmental concerns, and more. All create unique challenges for civil engineers of everyspecialty.

The next decades will be the most creative, demanding, and rewarding of times for civil engineers, and now is the best time to find the right career for you. Civil engineers are in the forefront of technology. They are the leading users of sophisticated high-tech products - applying the very latest concepts in computer-aided design (CAD) during design, construction, projectscheduling, and cost control.

Civil engineering is about community service, development, and improvement -- the planning, design, construction, and operation of facilities essential to modern life, ranging from transit systems to offshore structures to space satellites. Civil engineers are problem solvers, meeting the challenges of pollution, traffic congestion, drinking water and energy needs, urbanredevelopment, and community planning.

Our future as a nation will be closely tied to space, energy, the environment, and our ability to interact with and compete in the global economy. You, as a civil engineer, will perform a vital role in linking these themes and improving quality of life for the 21st century.

As the technological revolution expands, as the world's population increases, andas environmental concerns mount, your skills will be needed. There is no limit to the personal satisfaction you will feel from helping to make our world a better place to live. Whatever area you choose, be it design, construction, research, teaching, or management, civil engineering offers you a wide range of career choices for your future.

Civil engineering is grouped into seven majordivisions of engineering: structural; environmental; geotechnical; water resources; transportation; construction; and urban planning. In practice, these are not always hard and fixed categories, but they offer a helpful way to review a very diverse and dynamic field

Sloan Career Cornerstone Cente
Day in the Life

The only constant in the professional lives of civil engineers is that they never havetypical days. Every day is different, bringing new challenges and unique demands, and the nature of these demands varies according to the specialization and seniority of the engineer. On the other hand, most report they work in teams, the spend time on things not necessarily well described in their titles, they concern themselves with continuing education and their networking part of the time,and women and minorities report a better environment than may once have been the norm in engineering. Virtually all engineers spend some part of everyday doing some routine administrative tasks, and newly-graduated engineers may be surprised to find they will most likely file, type, send e-mail, make phone calls, take notes in meetings, and many other ordinary chores.

Entrusted by society tocreate a sustainable world and enhance the global quality of life, civil engineers serve competently, collaboratively, and ethically as master:

• Planners, designers, constructors, and operators of society’s economic and social engine—the built environment.

• Stewards of the natural environment and its resources.

• Innovators and integrators of ideas and technology
across the public,private, and academic sectors.

• Managers of risk and uncertainty caused by natural
events, accidents, and other threats.

• Leaders in discussions and decisions shaping public
environmental and infrastructure policy.


The civil engineer is knowledgeable. He or she understands the theories, principles, and/or fundamentals of:

• Mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, mechanics, and...