Entry-level jobs in civil engineering are a great way to get your foot in the door and start building your career. They are also ideal for people who are just starting out in their professional lives and don’t have a lot of experience.
Most entry-level positions require at least a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, but they can also be filled by recent graduates who have majored in other fields but have some relevant experience (such as internships or work with local government). In addition, many companies will hire individuals with an associate’s degree from a technical college.
The most common entry-level jobs for civil engineers include drafting assistant; surveyor; laboratory technician; land surveyor; construction inspector; engineer technician; construction materials specialist; and drafting supervisor.
Entry Level Jobs Civil Engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage systems, pipelines, structural components of buildings, and railways.[1][2]
Civil engineering is traditionally broken into a number of sub-disciplines. It is considered the second-oldest engineering discipline after military engineering,[3] and it is defined to distinguish non-military engineering from military engineering.[4] Civil engineering can take place in the public sector from municipal public works departments through to federal government agencies, and in the private sector from locally based firms to global Fortune 500 companies.[5]
Contents
1 History
1.1 Civil engineering as a discipline
1.2 Civil engineering profession
1.3 Civil engineering education
2 Education
3 Practicing engineers
4 Sub-disciplines
4.1 Coastal engineering
4.2 Construction engineering
4.3 Earthquake engineering
4.4 Environmental engineering
4.5 Forensic engineering
4.6 Geotechnical engineering
4.7 Materials science and engineering
4.8 Site development and planning
4.9 Structural engineering
4.10 Surveying
4.11 Transportation engineering
4.12 Municipal or urban engineering
4.13 Water resources engineering
4.14 Civil engineering systems
5 See also
5.1 Associations
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
History
Civil engineering as a discipline
Civil engineering is the application of physical and scientific principles for solving the problems of society, and its history is intricately linked to advances in the understanding of physics and mathematics throughout history. Because civil engineering is a broad profession, including several specialized sub-disciplines, its history is linked to knowledge of structures, materials science, geography, geology, soils, hydrology, environmental science, mechanics, project management, and other fields.[6]
Throughout ancient and medieval history most architectural design and construction was carried out by artisans, such as stonemasons and carpenters, rising to the role of master builder. Knowledge was retained in guilds and seldom supplanted by advances. Structures, roads, and infrastructure that existed were repetitive, and increases in scale were incremental.[7]
One of the earliest examples of a scientific approach to physical and mathematical problems applicable to civil engineering is the work of Archimedes in the 3rd century BC, including Archimedes Principle, which underpins our understanding of buoyancy, and practical solutions such as Archimedes’ screw. Brahmagupta, an Indian mathematician, used arithmetic in the 7th century AD, based on Hindu-Arabic numerals, for excavation (volume) computations.[8]
Civil engineering profession
See also: History of structural engineering
Engineering has been an aspect of life since the beginnings of human existence. The earliest practice of civil engineering may have commenced between 4000 and 2000 BC in ancient Egypt, the Indus Valley Civilization, and Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) when humans started to abandon a nomadic existence, creating a need for the construction of shelter. During this time, transportation became increasingly important leading to the development of the wheel and sailing.
Leonhard Euler developed the theory explaining the buckling of columns.
Until modern times there was no clear distinction between civil engineering and architecture, and the term engineer and architect were mainly geographical variations referring to the same occupation, and often used interchangeably.[9] The construction of pyramids in Egypt (circa 2700–2500 BC) were some of the first instances of large structure constructions. Other ancient historic civil engineering constructions include the Qanat water management system (the oldest is older than 3000 years and longer than 71 km,[10]) the Parthenon by Iktinos in Ancient Greece (447–438 BC), the Appian Way by Roman engineers (c. 312 BC), the Great Wall of China by General Meng T’ien under orders from Ch’in Emperor Shih Huang Ti (c. 220 BC)[11] and the stupas constructed in ancient Sri Lanka like the Jetavanaramaya and the extensive irrigation works in Anuradhapura. The Romans developed civil structures throughout their empire, including especially aqueducts, insulae, harbors, bridges, dams and roads.
A Roman aqueduct [built circa 19 BC], Pont du Gard, France
Chichen Itza was a large pre-Columbian city in Mexico built by the Maya people of the Post Classic. The northeast column temple also covers a channel that funnels all the rainwater from the complex some 40 metres (130 ft) away to a rejollada, a former cenote.
In the 18th century, the term civil engineering was coined to incorporate all things civilian as opposed to military engineering.[4] In 1747, the first institution for the teaching of civil engineering, the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées was established in France; and more examples followed in other European countries, like Spain.[12] The first self-proclaimed civil engineer was John Smeaton, who constructed the Eddystone Lighthouse.[3][11] In 1771 Smeaton and some of his colleagues formed the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers, a group of leaders of the profession who met informally over dinner. Though there was evidence of some technical meetings, it was little more than a social society.
John Smeaton, the “father of civil engineering”
In 1818 the Institution of Civil Engineers was founded in London,[13] and in 1820 the eminent engineer Thomas Telford became its first president. The institution received a Royal Charter in 1828, formally recognising civil engineering as a profession. Its charter defined civil engineering as:
the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man, as the means of production and of traffic in states, both for external and internal trade, as applied in the construction of roads, bridges, aqueducts, canals, river navigation and docks for internal intercourse and exchange, and in the construction of ports, harbours, moles, breakwaters and lighthouses, and in the art of navigation by artificial power for the purposes of commerce, and in the construction and application of machinery, and in the drainage of cities and towns.
