Careers in civil engineering
Where do civil engineers work?
Qualified civil engineers find challenging and rewarding opportunities both locally and internationally, in a range of areas:
- government infrastructure projects
- private industry
- construction and mining
- roads and traffic industries
- marine and resort developments
- property and land development
- consulting firms.
What do civil engineers do?
- Design water supply systems for new cities.
- Provide alternatives to relieve traffic congestion and solve transport problems.
- Develop ways of treating and reusing stormwater and waste water to preserve precious resources.
- Manage the maintenance of the large bridges that link most cities’ major arterials.
- Develop new ways of tackling climate change through geological sequestration of carbon dioxide.
- Prevent contamination of soil and ground water from industrial activities.
- Design systems to control erosion in rivers and protect people from the devastation of floods.
- Investigate, design and manage the construction of multi-storey buildings.
- Design a road, freeway or tunnels and manage their construction.
- Develop mathematical or physical models of river and tidal currents to investigate the availability of new ports.
- Develop the concept of ‘green buildings’ that produce more electricity than they consume and have self-sufficient supplies.
- Interpret and organise drawings, plans, construction methods and procedures for innovative foundation systems for unstable soils.
- Work with consortiums to design eco-tourism resorts.
- Run training courses for other engineers to keep them abreast of specialist skills.
- Work in mining extraction and processing of ores from the earth.