Resume guide · Job Zone 4

Civil Engineersresume guide.

Perform engineering duties in planning, designing, and overseeing construction and maintenance of building structures and facilities, such as roads A strong Civil Engineers resume shows active listening, complex problem solving and critical thinking, and names the tools you have worked with, such as Autodesk AutoCAD, Dassault Systemes SolidWorks and Bentley MicroStation.

See a sample Civil Engineers resumeAnnotated against this guide · 3 templates↓
Sample resume

This guide, on a real page.

A Civil Engineers resume built in ResumeXRays, annotated against the data below. Flip the pages, try a template, then make it yours.

  1. 1Use the job titles postings use.Civil engineer, project engineer and licensed engineer are titles this guide lists. Saying you are licensed tells a hiring manager you can sign plans.
  2. 2Name the funding behind the project.Federal infrastructure money is still behind much of the hiring for bridges, roads and water work. Naming the program and a clean closeout shows you can follow its rules, which is the guide's top task: keeping work in line with government regulations.
  3. 3Show a call you made, not just a design.The guide lists computing load requirements and giving technical advice on structural repairs as core tasks. A recommendation that saved $2.1M shows the Critical Thinking and Complex Problem Solving it ranks highly.
  4. 4Name each tool the way postings do.Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D, Bentley MicroStation, Procore software and The MathWorks MATLAB are hot tools in this guide. Spelling them the same way helps your resume match a search.
  5. 5Write out your license in full.Give the license name, the discipline, the state board that issued it and that it is active. Firms need a licensed engineer to sign and seal plans, so they look for the exact credential.
  6. 6Keep education to one line.Most civil engineers hold a bachelor's degree, so the degree, school and year are enough.

Sample resume. The candidate is fictional; the layout and templates are real.

Abel Sundqvist

Civil Engineer, PE

[email protected] / (814) 555-0118 / Erie, PA

Summary

Licensed civil engineer with nine years designing bridges, roads and stormwater systems for county and township clients. Carry projects from survey and design through construction inspection in Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D and Bentley MicroStation, and keep federally funded work inside its grant rules. Most recently delivered $38M in bridge and culvert replacements with no change order above 3% of contract value.

Experience

Project Engineer
Strattonmoor Civil Associates / Erie, PA
Apr 2021 - Present
Led design of six bridge and culvert replacements paid for with Bridge Investment Program and IIJA formula funds, $38M in total, all let on schedule and closed out with no federal funding findings.
Computed load ratings and scour risk for a 1950s two-span bridge and recommended rehabilitation over full replacement, saving the county $2.1M and reopening the route five months sooner.
Modeled a 640-acre watershed in HEC-HMS and resized the storm sewer in Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D, cutting modeled peak flow at the outfall 28% and ending repeat flooding on two residential streets.
Inspected active sites weekly and tracked RFIs and submittals in Procore software; average RFI turnaround fell from 9 days to 4 across 11 projects.
Presented design options and environmental impacts at 14 public meetings and wrote the plain-language summaries behind first-vote council approval on four projects.
Design Engineer
Vexbury Consulting Engineers / Meadville, PA
Jun 2017 - Apr 2021
Designed 22 miles of highway resurfacing and ADA curb-ramp upgrades in Bentley MicroStation, with 95% of plan sets accepted by the state reviewer at first submittal.
Estimated quantities and costs for 30+ bid packages; low bids came in within 6% of the engineer's estimate on average.
Analyzed survey data and aerial imagery in ESRI ArcGIS software with field crews and caught a 1.2 ft benchmark error before paving began.
Engineer in Training
Tullwater Township Engineering Office / Erie, PA
Jun 2016 - Jun 2017
Reviewed 40 land development site plans for grading and stormwater compliance and built the township's first GIS map of 1,100 storm inlets.

Skills

Practice areas:Bridge load rating, stormwater and hydraulic design, highway design, construction inspection, cost estimating, federal grant compliance, public presentations
Project delivery:Procore software, Microsoft Project, Oracle Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management, Microsoft Excel, Adobe Acrobat
Design and analysis:Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D, Autodesk AutoCAD, Bentley MicroStation, HEC-HMS, The MathWorks MATLAB, ESRI ArcGIS software

Licenses & Certifications

Professional Engineer (PE), Civil, Pennsylvania State Registration Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors and Geologists, active
Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP), Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure
OSHA 30-Hour Construction Safety, OSHA Training Institute

Education

Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering
Yarrowgate University
2016

01Also called

O*NET
City EngineerCivil EngineerCounty EngineerDesign EngineerEngineerGeotechnical EngineerLicensed EngineerProject EngineerRailroad Design ConsultantStructural Engineer

02Skills employers expect

O*NET

Importance is how much the skill matters to the job; level is how much of it the job demands. Both are worth naming on the resume, in this order.

SkillImportanceLevel
Active ListeningVery highAdvanced
Complex Problem SolvingHighAdvanced
Critical ThinkingHighAdvanced
MathematicsHighAdvanced
Reading ComprehensionHighAdvanced
SpeakingHighIntermediate
ScienceHighAdvanced
Systems AnalysisHighAdvanced
Time ManagementHighAdvanced
Operations AnalysisHighAdvanced

03Knowledge areas

O*NET
  • Design
  • Engineering and Technology
  • Building and Construction
  • Mathematics
  • English Language
  • Physics
  • Administration and Management
  • Customer and Personal Service
  • Law and Government
  • Public Safety and Security

04Common responsibilities

O*NET

Ordered by importance. Each one is a bullet waiting for a result and a number.

  1. Direct engineering activities, ensuring compliance with environmental, safety, or other governmental regulations.
  2. Inspect project sites to monitor progress and ensure conformance to design specifications and safety or sanitation standards.
  3. Manage and direct the construction, operations, or maintenance activities at project site.
  4. Compute load and grade requirements, water flow rates, or material stress factors to determine design specifications.
  5. Plan and design transportation or hydraulic systems or structures, using computer-assisted design or drawing tools.
  6. Provide technical advice to industrial or managerial personnel regarding design, construction, program modifications, or structural repairs.
  7. Analyze survey reports, maps, drawings, blueprints, aerial photography, or other topographical or geologic data.
  8. Direct or participate in surveying to lay out installations or establish reference points, grades, or elevations to guide construction.
  9. Estimate quantities and cost of materials, equipment, or labor to determine project feasibility.
  10. Prepare or present public reports on topics such as bid proposals, deeds, environmental impact statements, or property and right-of-way descriptions.

05Software and tools

O*NET

73 tools across 24 categories. The six largest categories are below; Hot marks a hot technology, In demand a tool employers ask for most often.

Computer aided design CAD software19
  • Autodesk AutoCADHotIn demand
  • Dassault Systemes SolidWorksHotIn demand
  • Bentley MicroStationHotIn demand
  • Autodesk RevitHotIn demand
  • Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3DHotIn demand
  • Dassault Systemes CATIAIn demand
  • PTC Creo ParametricIn demand
  • Computer aided design and drafting software CADD
  • Autodesk Land Desktop
  • Trimble Terramodel
  • Bentley InRoads Suite
  • Bentley STAAD
  • HydroCAD Software Solutions HydroCAD Stormwater Modeling System
  • Bentley Haestad Methods CivilStorm
  • Bridge design software
  • Eagle Point Site Design
  • GT STRUDL
  • Road design software
  • Stormwater hydrology software
+ 14 more
Analytical or scientific software13
  • The MathWorks MATLABHotIn demand
  • Procore softwareHotIn demand
  • HEC-HMSIn demand
  • Minitab
  • Mathsoft Mathcad
  • Dassault Systemes Abaqus
  • Finite element analysis FEA software
  • MAYA Nastran
  • HEC-1
  • Trimble Geomatics Office
  • Hydraulic modeling software
  • Hydraulic analysis software
  • WinTR-55
+ 8 more
Development environment software5
  • CHotIn demand
  • Microsoft Visual BasicHot
  • National Instruments LabVIEWIn demand
  • VerilogIn demand
  • Formula translation/translator FORTRAN
Geographic information system4
Graphics or photo imaging software4
  • Trimble SketchUp ProHotIn demand
  • Graphics software
  • SmugMug Flickr
  • Bentley GeoPak Bridge
Electronic mail software3
Enterprise resource planning ERP software3
Project management software3
  • Microsoft ProjectHotIn demand
  • Oracle Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio ManagementHot
  • The Gordian Group PROGEN Online
Internet browser software2
Map creation software2
  • Cartography software
  • Intergraph MGE
Office suite software2
Business intelligence and data analysis software1
  • Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
Calendar and scheduling software1
  • Scheduling software
Data base user interface and query software1
Document management software1
Enterprise application integration software1
File versioning software1
  • Apache Subversion SVNHot
Financial analysis software1
  • Cost estimating software
Industrial control software1
  • Supervisory control and data acquisition SCADA software
Object or component oriented development software1
  • Microsoft ActiveX
Operating system software1
  • Shell scriptHotIn demand
Presentation software1
Spreadsheet software1
Word processing software1

06Education and preparation

O*NET
Typical education
Bachelor's Degree
86% of surveyed workers. Others report Master's Degree (10%) and Post-Baccalaureate Certificate (5%).
Preparation level
Job Zone 4 · Considerable preparation
Usually a four-year degree and several years of related experience.

07Putting it on your resume

ResumeXRays guidance
BEE · How to show it

Lead with what you built. For a Job Zone 4 role, hiring managers and parsers both look for outcomes before credentials. Put two or three results at the top of each job entry, with the scale or effect stated plainly.

Name the tools exactly. This occupation is heavy on named software. A skills section that says "Autodesk AutoCAD, Dassault Systemes SolidWorks, Bentley MicroStation, Autodesk Revit" matches more job descriptions than a general phrase. Use the spelling employers use.

Show complex problem solving and critical thinking, not just active listening. Complex problem solving and critical thinking rank close to active listening for this occupation. One bullet per role that shows a decision, a tradeoff or a result covers them.

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