Explore Civil Engineering

• AutoCAD
• ChemDraw
• Excel, Visual Basic
• GIS
• LoggerPro
• Mathematica
• MATLAB
• Stochastic Analysis

• Civil engineer: Plans, designs, and oversees construction and maintenance of building structures and facilities, such as airports, bridges, channels, dams, harbors, irrigation projects, pipelines, power plants, railroads, roads,  and water and wastewater systems.
• Environmental engineer: Designs and oversees systems that prevent and control pollution including identifying, abating, or eliminating sources of pollutants or hazards that affect the environment or the health of the population.
• Field engineer: Conducts site investigations and oversees construction.
• Geotechnical engineer: Analyzes properties of soil and rock that support and affect the behavior of structures, pavements, and underground facilities.
• Hydrologist: Studies distribution, movement, and quality of underground and surface water including irrigation systems, waste treatment plants, hydroelectric power plants, flood warning systems, storm water systems, and stream restoration.
• Municipal engineer: Deals with operations and issues associated with urban life including laying out parks and developments, and constructing and maintaining sewer systems, waterworks, and pavements.
• Project engineer/manager: Oversees projects including organizing and directing workers and materials.
• Structural engineer:  Analyzes and designs structures such as buildings, bridges, stadiums, and arenas to ensure they safely and satisfactorily perform their purpose.
• Transportation engineer: Designs and maintains all types of transportation components and systems including airports, harbors and ports, highways, mass transit systems, pavements, and railroads.
• Wastewater engineer: Improves both the environment and economy by helping communities and businesses dispose of waste without polluting natural water sources.
• Water resource engineer: Determines areas prone to flooding, restores ecological function to streams and rivers, develops methods to handle and treat urban runoff, and redirects water by constructing hydraulic structures.

**Some of these positions may require an advanced degree.

• American Public Works Association
• American Society of Civil Engineers
• Chi Epsilon
• CEGE Student Ambassadors
• Concrete Canoe Team
• CSE K-12 Outreach
• CSE Ambassadors
• CSE International Ambassadors
• Earthquake Engrg. Research Inst.
• Engineers Without Borders
• Interdisciplinary Transportation Student Organization
• MN Environmental Engrs., Scientists, and Enthusiasts
• National Society of Black Engineers
• Plumb Bob Honorary Leadership Soc.
• Science and Engrg. Student Board
• Soc. For Mining, Metal., & Explortn.
• Soc. of Asian Scientists and Engrs.
• Society of Hispanic Prof. Engrs.
• Society of Women Engineers
• Solar Vehicle Project
• Steel Bridge Team
• Tau Beta Pi
• TeslaWorks
• Theta Tau

• American Council of Engineering Companies
• Civil Engineering
• Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo-Engineering
• Environmental Career Opportunities
• Federal Government Jobs
• National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics
• Structural and Bridge Engineers
• The Civil Engineer

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The City of Minneapolis Department of Public Works is responsible for maintaining the city’s physical infrastructure and for providing a variety of services to those who live, work and play in Minneapolis. Those activities are coordinated through three business lines: Transportation, Utilities, and Administration. I oversee transportation and utility.

The department employs over 1,000 full-time personnel and has an annual operating budget of $335 million for the operation of its nine divisions: Business Administration, Solid Water and Recycling, Surface Water and Sewers, Water Treatment and Distribution, Traffic and Parking Services, Transportation Engineering and Design, Transportation Planning and Programming, Transportation Maintenance and Repair and Fleet Services.

What’s a typical work day?

My days generally revolve around maintaining the city’s infrastructure and planning for the future. Daily discussions can range from water treatment plant infrastructure to storm tunnels 100 feet below the surface to bridge design or creating a plan to move the city towards our zero waste goals. In addition to infrastructure, we invest time in safe work practices, employee development, and new technology. The part I like best is helping the public and making Minneapolis better for today’s generation—and future generations!

What qualities are important for this position?

Technical competency is definitely key to being a city engineer, and then there are several others I would highlight in no particular order: communication skills, integrity, work ethic, creativity, ability to work with others, and problem solving. If you aren’t able to communicate your technical plans to elected officials or the community in a manner they can understand, you will find it very difficult to engage them or even be able to address their concerns. 

What about technical skills?

Time management, problem solving and using data to determine solutions are very helpful!

What training were you offered for your position?

I started with a civil engineering degree and then had the opportunity to work in several different areas of municipal engineering to help provide me with a broad background.

I am very proud of my team and the work we do every day to make Minneapolis better every day.

Most challenging? 

You can’t solve every problem immediately. Solving many of our infrastructure challenges require significant financial investments, technical design time, and time to build or rebuild—this is often difficult for people to understand and, therefore, they get frustrated.

You can be anything you want to be and right now, I am very happy with my position and love the people I work with. The way that I have approached my career is that every day is an interview and that is the best way to keep every option available.

Having a civil engineering degree gives you the opportunity to have a career that can be very fulfilling and rewarding in so many different ways—from helping provide basic service like drinking water to designing and building the next big iconic piece of infrastructure. Keep your options open and find something you enjoy!

Any other advice you’d like to share?

I would encourage you to take some time while you are in school to meet with different engineers in different types of jobs to best understand what might interest you most. Plus, knowing people in the field can definitely help make connections to jobs!

During the winter months, I assist with design and creating plans for a variety of projects—including municipal street reconstruction, private site development, and water quality improvement. During construction season, I am responsible for construction oversight on one or multiple projects—including taking progress photos, coordinating questions/changes from the plans, and compliance with all project/city/state specifications.

What’s a typical work day? 

Again, this varies depending on the time of year. My days may be spent in the office working in Civil3D drafting or in other programs compiling project documents, estimates, etc. Or, I may be on a job site or multiple sites. On a normal day during construction season, I arrive on site in the morning when contractors are beginning to work and I leave when they are substantially done for the day. Throughout the day, I am coordinating communication between the contractor, Wenck project engineers, and our client (city or developer usually) as questions or changes arise.

What qualities are important for this position?

A willingness to learn and ask questions. Nearly every day, something comes up on a job that I haven’t seen before and I need to ask a superior or co-worker for their insight or advice on how to handle a certain situation. Over time, you become better equipped to handle the next situation—but you should never stop asking questions.

What about technical skills? 

1. An ability to work practically with numbers/estimating. In other words, being able figure out something within 10% of the right answer within 10-30 seconds.
2. General computer capability. The rest will come based on your work ethic and interest in learning. 
3. Being thorough, complete, and concise in documentation. 

What training were you offered for your position? 

My superiors and co-workers have been my primary trainers with regards to construction procedures, drafting, and project management. My employer has also sponsored a variety of training including MNDOT technical certifications, Civil3D Webinars, storm water management training, and HAZWOPER 40-hour training.

That I am going to improve something or create something for public use—whether it be fixing a road to make it safer, restoring a stream to enhance ecosystems, or cleaning up a contaminated site.

Most challenging? 

There is always a best possible way to do things, and then there is the best way that your client, city, or agency can afford. On every project, we need to try and find that balance of quality and cost, because often times we are dealing with taxpayer dollars that should be used in the most efficient way possible.

I could go from being the designer or inspector on site, to a project manager who oversees those responsibilities. Some people in this position go on to work for a city, county, or state agency often as a result of working alongside them in a project. 

There are so many internship opportunities in civil, geotechnical, and environmental engineering. Apply for them, even as a sophomore. It will help you understand what you are learning in the classroom—and also help you discover what you like and dislike as potential career. 

Any other advice you'd like to share?

Networking is an underrated investment of time that could be the difference in you getting an internship, or not. Student groups—including the U of M student chapters of the American Public Works Association, American Society of Civil Engineers, and Minnesota Environmental Engineers, Scientists, and Enthusiasts—all host opportunities to meet professionals. Do not miss these! Remember, many job opportunities never make it online for a posting.

As president of a small business, my responsibilities are two-fold including managing the company and managing projects.

President: Manages the company including board meetings, year end calculations, monthly workload meetings, and brownbag education meetings. Oversees all company activities, including production, marketing, accounting and cash flow, legal, human resources and company morale, hiring, contracts, and insurance. Key strategy is bringing on new junior partners and project management and education.

Project Manager: Manages a wide variety of environmental assessment, investigation, response action plan, design, and cleanup projects for a variety of clients. Projects include brownfield redevelopment and civil construction projects with contaminated soil, groundwater, and soil vapor. Manages asbestos and hazardous building material surveys and design of demolitions of old commercial and industrial buildings. Projects include environmental cleanups under Superfund, RCRA, and state voluntary cleanup programs.

What is a typical day like?

It's very exciting and busy and often includes on site construction meetings, virtual meetings, and working with clients and project teams to move 10 to 15 projects forward or working on a couple of proposals for new projects. I review and respond to dozens of emails, write or review reports, review drawings, prepare investigation or remediation cost estimates. I have a master to do list with everything I need to get done over time, and a shorter weekly to do list of things I have to get done for the week.

Often, days go by without finishing any tasks because of the need to answer phone, emails, and coordinating work. Then, there are administrative tasks such as preparing invoices, reviewing insurance or contracts, planning the company party, human resource issues, interviews, workload, company meetings, etc. There are also meetings, emails for being on a professional association board. 

The technical side of projects include review laboratory data and comparison to cleanup goals, reviewing plan sheets and figures, review of assessment, investigation, or designs and determining a strategy for investigation or cleanup based on the redevelopment plan, preparing contaminated soil volume calculations or designing a vapor mitigation system, discussing construction work with field staff, etc.

What personal qualities or abilities are important to being successful in this position?

Good communication verbally and written, able to prioritize and reprioritize tasks as conditions change, able to jump from one project to the next, able to see the big picture and delve into the details, work well with clients, staff, subcontractors, contractors, and networking with associations or other groups. 

What technical skills are important to being successful in your job?

Reading technical plans and specifications, reading volumes of previous investigations and cleanups and boiling it down and creating a strategy for the redevelopment, investigation and remediation cost estimating, contaminated soil design, vapor mitigation design, permitting, ACAD and/or GIS, understanding GIS/survey information, stormwater issues related to contaminated soil and groundwater, groundwater modeling, review of lab reports and comparison to cleanup goals, understand state and federal regulatory investigation and cleanup guidance, etc

Working with people to solve complicated problems. By working with a team, you can solve tough problems with better solutions.

What part of your job do you find most challenging?

Technical areas that I'm not an expert in, but then I tap into others to understand those issues. Every project has a really tough part to work through and you don't know when it will hit or what the problem will be. Then you buckle down and talk to people to help solve it, brainstorm, talk to more people, etc.

What type of training was offered for your position?

Continuous education including: OSHA HAZWOPER Health and Safety Training and Annual Refreshers, Minnesota Brownfields offers many brownfield related educational forums throughout the year (vapor intrusion, PFASs, regulatory updates, etc.), MPCA offers consultant or education training, Department of Employment and Economic Development has brownfield education, ACAD training, Professional Associations (MN Brownfields, Society of American Military Engineers, ASCE, etc.), brownbag lunches by laboratories, site work contractors, technical remediation contractors, etc., business related training such as human resources, accounting, business development, insurance, legal, etc. 

What are possible career paths/promotional opportunities from your current position?

I could work at a wide variety of places including government (state, federal, local), other consultants, industry, nonprofits, etc. I could go up in responsibility, lateral to a different company, or consider something new. I also could join and be active in many professional associations — good way to connect with different companies and disciplines.

Do it! I have been challenged and excited every day of my career. It has been rewarding, all the interesting people and projects that I've had the opportunity to work on. My major gave me a purpose in life, to help with assessment, investigation and remediation of contaminated properties.

Is there any other advice you'd like to share?

Work really hard in the beginning of your career. Take on a wide variety of projects. There is something to learn on all projects. If someone asks you to do something, say yes as much as you can. Join associations and be active, joining committees or being on the board. Give back to the University of Minnesota by speaking in classes, answering surveys, donating money — these are great networking opportunities.

The University of Minnesota gave me my start on a very successful career, and I can't thank them enough. And the UMN is even better today than they were when I graduated, always continuous improvement. While you’re still in school, it is important to do internships during your junior and senior year.

Multiple internships help you learn about different areas of engineering, makes you more competitive to getting your first job, or being offered a job at your internship company. In addition, I would recommend that you take your Fundamentals in Engineering exam during your senior year.