Civil Engineering
By: Annaleise Gray
What is a Civil Engineer?
Civil Engineering works with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment. Civil Engineers can work on a range of things like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings. There are many subdivisions of Civil Engineering making it a very diverse discipline of Engineering. Personally I am interested in Municipal Engineering, which deals with urban and city planning. I love problem solving and planning things out which would be a good asset to have when working as a Municipal Engineer.
What an engineer might do on a typical day
Here are some things a civil engineer might do on a daily basis:
- work on projects that involve designing and constructing
- performed experimental tests
- write reports
- produce drawings
- manage budgets for projects
- write proposals for new projects
- deal with clients
- go to job sites
- always work with people
Starting Salary
Civil Engineers with a BS degree have a starting salary that averages $49,540. Graduates with a MS have and averages starting salary of $59,880, while Civil Engineers with a PhD have a starting salary of about $65,470. Civil engineers in the field however earned a median salary of $80,770 in 2013, according to the BLS. The highest-paid in the profession made $126,190, while the lowest-paid earned $51,810.
*BLS-Bureau of Labor Statistics
Education
Construction Engineering
Structural Engineering
Municipal Engineering
Civil Engineering Sub-disciplines
- Architectural engineering
- environmental engineering
- geotechnical engineering
- control engineering
- structural engineering,
- earthquake engineering,
- transportation engineering,
- forensic engineering,
- municipal or urban engineering,
- water resources engineering,
- materials engineering,
- wastewater engineering,
- offshore engineering,
- facade engineering,
- quantity surveying,
- coastal engineering,
- construction surveying,
- construction engineering.