Civil Engineer Resume:Templates, Examples & Essential Skills

get started today

ResumeGiants » Examples » Civil Engineer

Whether you want to build bridges, design highways, or plan entire cities, the “road” to becoming a super star civil engineer starts with a well-crafted resume. And really, if you can build a bridge, you can build a winning resume!

In this guide, we’ll walk through the steps of how to create a civil engineer resume that’ll get you behind the drafting table in no time, including:

• Designing the best possible resume for a civil engineer position.
• How to write a civil engineer resume summary or objective.
• Filling in your experience and education resume sections.
• Adding relevant civil engineer work experience.
• Tips, tricks, and advice to help you start your career as a civil engineer.

Since any good engineering project starts with a draft, we’ll include plenty of civil engineer resume examples to show you what your final creation should look like.

Writing a resume is nothing compared to designing an efficient highway, so if you feel like you’re ready to jump right in to the wonderful world of resume building, head over to the ResumeGiants online resume builder.

What’s more, you’ll find plenty of professional resume templates on our site to help you get started.

However, if you like to do your research first, keep on reading! There are plenty of helpful resume-writing tips and tricks to help you showcase your skills and land your dream job as a civil engineer. Let’s get started!

Before we break it down for you, let’s take a look at what a good civil engineer resume example might look like. Think of it like your blueprint to building your own resume. It’ll give you an idea of the sections and information you should include.

Resume Example

Copy to clipboard

Copied!

[Bridget Builder]

[Civil Engineer]

[129 W. Mathematics Ln., Westminster, MD 21158 | 410-555-7623 | bridge.bulider@email.com]

Summary

Detail-oriented civil engineer with 6+ years of experience working for large engineering firms. Proven ability to improve efficiency and reduce cost by up to 10% by redesigning motorways using complex problem-solving skills, along with advanced AutoCAD and design experience.

Experience 

Best Engineering Company, LLC | Baltimore, MD

Civil Engineer

2016 – 2022 

• Completed 9 projects with average budgets over $2.5 million.
• Rendered projects in AutoCAD and cut material costs by 10%.
• Identified five major design flaws, preventing project failure.
• Finished all projects within the timeframe and 7% under budget.

Build ‘Em Higher Construction Co. | Frederick, MD

Surveyor Technician

2013 – 2016 

• Inspected shimming, column plumbing, and steel elevations.
• Performed job hazard inspections and reduced job-site injuries by 10% with zero OSHA-recordable incidents.
• Prepared weekly reports detailing work completed and safety procedures.

Education 

University of Maryland | College Park, MD

Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering

2009 – 2013

Skills

• Problem solving
• Communication
• Leadership
• Organization
• Critical thinking
• Creativity 
• Detail oriented

• AutoCAD
• Project management
• Mathematics
• Geotechnical engineering
• Water resources engineering
• Structural design
• STAAD Pro

Certifications

• Project Management Professional (PMP), PMI
• LEED AP, U.S. Green Building Council

Awards

• Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement (OCEA) Award, ASCE (2020)
• ASTM International Award of Merit (2021)

Languages

• English (native)
• Spanish (fluent)

When you have to build a bridge over a gap, there’s no standard design to use. It all depends on the span, bank materials, height, and about ten thousand other variables. Well, writing your resume is very similar.

There’s no “best” Civil Engineer resume format. The resume format you choose should be one that showcases your unique skills and qualifications — and your favorite style, of course! While there’s no standard resume format you should use, there are a few time-tested formatting guidelines you should follow:

• Add your work and education experience in reverse-chronological order.
• Leave plenty of open space between paragraphs and sections to maintain a clean layout.
• Keep your resume to one page (two pages if you absolutely can’t help it).
• Use bold headings to make it easy for hiring managers to scan for information.
• Choose a clean and easy-to-read font like Arial, Calibri, or Cambria
• Select a readable font size between 13-15 for headings and 11-12 for body text.
• Save your resume as a PDF to prevent formatting issues.

As far as order is concerned, the main idea is to put the most important information first. For example, if you have a PhD from a prestigious university, that might look better to potential employers than your skills with Microsoft Office. Put your education section first to keep the readers (hiring managers) interested. Your resume is no place for suspense! 

With that being said, you’re welcome to order your resume sections however you think it best showcases your skills. However, this is typically the standard order of sections on a Civil Engineer’s resume:

1. Header with personal information and contact details
2. Resume summary or objective
3. Work experience
4. Education
5. Hard and soft skills
6. Other sections (as needed)

Now with the rough draft of the plans in order, let’s take a closer look at each section in detail. As an engineer, you know how important all those little details really are!

Since you should already know your contact information, let’s jump to part two of your resume: the resume summary or objective.

So, first things first: what’s the difference between a resume summary and a resume objective:

• Resume summary – A brief rundown of your professional experience and skills.
• Resume objective – An overview of your career goals and skills.

Since this is the first real section of your resume, think of it like your first impression for hiring managers. It has to be good, so they want to read on! The resume summary or objective is an incredibly important part to any resume.

Civil Engineer Resume Summary Example

As the name might suggest, a resume summary is simply a summarization of your resume! Just give hiring managers a rundown of your professional experience as a civil engineer, throw in a few essential (and impressive) skills, and keep it all to about two or three sentences. It’s as simple as that!

Just so you know what to aim for, here’s an example of a good civil engineer resume summary to inspire you:

Are you wondering what makes this summary as strong as a Howe truss? It’s all about the details! 

The best civil engineer resume summaries are specific and full of details. This applicant includes specifics about their ability solve problems, to use AutoCAD and backs up their experience with real numbers. That’s what makes a resume summary stand out to potential employers.  

Civil Engineer Resume Objective Example

Resume summaries are great and all, but what if you don’t have a resume to summarize? For entry-level civil engineers, you can’t beat a good old resume objective.

A resume objective is a brief description of your overall career goals and a few of the skills you posses that would make you a good civil engineer. Tell potential employers what you hope to achieve and why you want to be a civil engineer in the first place.

Get a few of your goals and skills in mind and condense them into about two or three sentences. It should look a little something like this:

Although this applicant might not have professional experience, they still show they “have the stuff” to be a civil engineer. 

Their goal to improve safety and efficiency shows employers that they want to be a civil engineer for the right reasons, and the specificity of the skills (AutoCAD, detail-oriented, bridge building, etc.) shows they do have some skills related to being an engineer.

They might not have mentioned the bridge was built during volunteer experience on a mission trip for their local church and not for a professional company, but they have been involved in this relevant project, nonetheless. 

You don’t need ten years to gain experience. Even shadowing hours count as legitimate resume experience!

When it comes to the sections on your resume, your experience section is arguably the most important. It tells potential employers that you not only have the relevant experience and skills necessary to secure a job, but you can also put those skills to use in a practical setting. 

In your civil engineer resume experience section, there are three key pieces of information you should cover:

• Work history
• Key accomplishments
• Responsibilities

Just like with your resume objective or summary, the key to a great experience section is providing enough specifics and details. But you also don’t want to go on and on forever. It’s a fine line between including enough detail and not boring the reader, but if anyone can do it, a civil engineer can!

If you really want your experience section to stand out (and you really do), follow these tips:

• Include specific, concrete numbers and statistics.
• Customize your civil engineer experience section to fit the job description.
• Keep it short and concise. 
• Use keywords from the job description in your resume.

For example, if the job description mentions the need to provide cost estimates, make sure you include any past experience you have calculating estimates and how accurate you were. (I you have specific numbers and percentages, even better!) The closer you fit the job description, the more appealing you look to hiring managers!

Civil Engineer Resume Examples: Experience

A suspension bridge isn’t just an arch. There are many pieces working together to add support — just like your resume’s experience section!

Since it’s always more fun to learn from other peoples’ mistakes, here’s a quick example of a Civil Engineer resume experience section that looks more like a bridge made from popsicle sticks:

There’s absolutely nothing specific or unique about this experience section that would make this person stand out from the other applicants. Applying for a job is a competition. It’s you versus everyone else who applied, so make sure you look good in comparison!

You always want to include specific details about your past jobs. Don’t just say you “used engineering software.” Mention the types of software you used and any numbers or statistics that can prove how well you used them. Details are what make applicants stand out on a resume. Just remember to keep the information on your resume truthful.

Forget that popsicle-stick bridge; here’s what a good, steel-cable, Joseph Strauss-level civil engineer experience section example looks like:

Specific, detailed, and concise. That’s the key to a great civil engineer resume experience section. With all those numbers and statistics, there’s no way this applicant will blend in with the crowd.

Writing a civil engineer resume education section isn’t nearly as complicated as redesigning a roadway or perfecting drainage angles. All employers really want to know are three key pieces of information:

• Where you went to school
• The dates of attendance
• Degree earned

It might not sound like much, but that’s all it takes to make a great education section. Hiring managers want to know you have the proper qualifications and certifications, but at the end of the day, they’re really more interested in how you use those qualifications in the experience and skills sections. 

Civil Engineer Resume Education Section

Not sure where to start with your civil engineer resume education section? That’s okay! Let’s take a look at an example:

University of Maryland | College Park, MD

Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering

2009 – 2013

It might be short, but that’s all potential employers really need to know about your education. You’re also welcome to add your GPA or any academic achievements, but only if they’re impressive and relevant to the job you’re applying to.

Did you get involved in any college projects or complete any coursework that is relevant to the position you are applying for? Add it in another bullet point!

Your education and experience sections say a lot about your background, but they don’t say everything. It never hurts to add a section on your resume specifically dedicated to showing off your relevant skills!

Resume skills can be broken down into two basic types:

• Hard skills – Concrete, measurable skills.
• Soft skills – Universal, harder-to-define skills.

Hard skills are things you can usually get training, certifications, or degrees in, like specific software or engineering techniques. Soft skills are almost like personality traits, like leadership or analytical skills. 

Since you want to look well-rounded, it’s a good idea to include a mix of both hard and soft skills in your resume. Here are just a few of the skills that look great in a civil engineer skills section:

While you can probably go on and on about all your skills, it’s important to include only skills that are relevant to the position. You might have a high score on Pac Man, but that’s not entirely applicable here…

There’s always more you can say about yourself, but it doesn’t always fit into the standard sections on your resume. Cue “other” sections!

Other sections, also called extra sections, are exactly as they sound. They’re additional sections dedicated to showcasing information that doesn’t fit anywhere else — but would still look good on your resume. This can include relevant hobbies and interests, volunteering, industry-relevant publications in journals or magazines, or professional memberships, for example.

You’re welcome to add whatever other sections you want, as long as they’re relevant to the job you’re applying to and look impressive to hiring managers.

Civil Engineer Resume Sample Extra Sections

Not sure what other sections to put on your resume? Here are just a few civil engineer resume extra sections that look great to hiring managers:

Certifications

• Project Management Professional (PMP), PMI
• LEED AP, U.S. Green Building Council

Awards

• Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement (OCEA) Award, ASCE (2020)
• ASTM International Award of Merit (2021)

Languages

• English (native)
• Spanish (fluent)

You know you can design just about anything, but it’s your resume’s job to prove that to potential employers if you want to design things professionally as a civil engineer.

If you want to “design” the perfect resume, be sure to follow these proven tips:

• Customize your resume to fit the job position.
• Include specific details about your experience and skills.
• Make sure all experience and skills are relevant to the job you’re applying to.
• Use specific, concrete numbers and statistics to back up your experience.
• Keep the page clean and easy to read.
• Choose a professional layout and format.
• Save your resume as a PDF so that it can be easily read by ATS.

Think of these tips like mathematic and scientific formulas in an engineering project. Use them to piece together your resume, and you know the final project will be able to achieve its end goal: getting you hired!

To make resume building easy, the team at ResumeGiants has compiled dozens of modern resume templates, examples, and advice to help you get started on your job search.

All you need to do is browse through our examples and templates, pick the one that best suits your style, fill in your information, and you’re ready to send to potential employers.

With the right resume by your side, you’ll be designing bridges and roadways in no time!