HOW TO GET THERE
Typical pathway
A typical path for a Canadian secondary-school student is to focus on math, physics, and computers, then go on to a university engineering program in civil engineering or a related field. After that, graduates usually gain early work experience through co-op, internships, or entry-level roles with consulting firms, construction companies, municipalities, or government. Many engineers learn on the job by helping with design, survey review, site visits, reports, and project coordination. Requirements can vary by employer, province, and specialization, and some roles involve working toward further professional registration.
THE WORK
What you may do
Legacy duties
- Confer with clients and other members of the engineering team and conduct research to determine project requirements
- Plan and design major civil projects such as buildings, roads, bridges, dams, water and waste management systems and structural steel fabrications
- Develop construction specifications and procedures
- Evaluate and recommend appropriate building and construction materials
- Interpret, review and approve survey and civil design work
- Conduct field services for civil works
- Ensure construction plans meet guidelines and specifications of building codes and other regulations
- Establish and monitor construction work schedules
- Conduct feasibility studies, economic analyses, municipal and regional traffic studies, environmental impact studies or other investigations
- Monitor air, water and soil quality and develop procedures to clean up contaminated sites
- Conduct technical analyses of survey and field data for development of topographic, soil, hydrological or other information and prepare reports
- Act as project or site supervisor for land survey or construction work
- Prepare contract documents and review and evaluate tenders for construction projects
- Supervise technicians, technologists and other engineers and review and approve designs, calculations and cost estimates.
SKILLS TO BUILD
Skills used in this Career
Financial ManagementMaking presentationsProject ManagementProposal writingTeam project workCommittee work on industry ethics