Civil Engineer Career Information

Video Transcript

"Hello, my name is Jerry Elliot. I'm a managing partner of an engineering firm in Eugene, Oregon called Weber Elliot Engineers. I've been asked to address the question on some tips on becoming a civil engineer. I'm going to first start answering this question by looking at someone who's maybe at a junior high or senior high school level, because that's really where you start laying the groundwork for becoming a civil engineer. At that level you want to make sure you're getting a good background in mathematics and the sciences. You'll be using those throughout your career. Don't neglect writing, because an engineer is always writing reports and summarizing material, and communicating with clients, and communicating with agencies, so keep abreast of your writing skills as well. Once you get through junior high and high school and go onto a college, all accredited college programs will have an engineering path and you can sit and talk to a professor and go to that department, and they'll outline the academic path that you need there. The other tip that I would give in terms of looking at path toward civil engineering, is to observe the world around you, especially in terms of the way it relates spatially. And by this I mean learn to get a grasp of how buildings are put together, how roads are put together, how things fit and interact in the environment. And as you watch and observe these things you'll come into the engineering profession with the right background and the right graphics qualities to see how things fit together, and to be a great civil engineer. So that's just a couple of tips for being a civil engineer."