Here are the keywords and skills that appear most frequently on recent Civil Engineering Professional job postings. In other words, these are the most sought after skills by recruiters and hiring managers. Go to Sample Templates ↓ below to see how to include them on your resume.
Remember that every job is different. Instead of including all keywords on your resume, identify those that are most relevant to the job you're applying to. Use the free Targeted Resume tool to help with this.
Does your resume contain all the right skills? Paste in your resume in the AI Resume Scan ↓ section below and get an instant score.
Paste your resume below and our AI will identify which keywords are missing from your resume from the list above (and what you need to include). Including the right keywords will help you get past Applicant Tracking Systems (i.e. resume screeners) which may scan your resume for keywords to see if you're a match for the job.
Go through the Civil Engineering Professional posting you're applying to, and identify hard skills the company is looking for. For example, skills like Microsoft Project, Engineering and Revit are possible skills. These are skills you should try to include on your resume.
The following word cloud highlights the most popular keywords that appear on Civil Engineering Professional job descriptions. The bigger the word, the more frequently it shows up on employer's job postings. If you have experience with these keywords, include them on your resume.
Here are common soft skills that appear on Civil Engineering Professional job postings. Unlike hard skills, which refer to tools, software or techniques, soft skills focus on character traits and interpersonal skills. Instead of listing these phrases on your resume, try to show them through your bullet points like in the examples below.
Tip: Do not list these words or phrases on your resume, and instead focus on the hard skills we described above.
Here are examples of proven resumes in related jobs and industries, approved by experienced hiring managers. Use them as inspiration when you're writing your own resume. You can even download and edit the resume template in Google Docs.
If you’re applying for entry level civil engineer positions, chances are you’re a recent graduate or career changer without a lot of paid experience. But that doesn’t mean the experience you have isn’t relevant! By emphasizing your experience with educational, volunteer, and personal engineering projects, as well as transferable skills, your resume can explain exactly what makes you a strong candidate for the position.
Volunteer experience can be just as relevant as paid work experience, especially if you’re short on the latter. When including volunteer work, list it the same way you would any other experience, starting with an action verb and focusing on your accomplishments, not job duties. You can put this in a separate volunteer section or alongside your paid work experience.
As a recent graduate, you can make up for a lack of paid experience by including university projects and activities. This can go in a separate projects section or in your education section (which can go at the top of your resume if that’s your most recent and relevant experience). Remember to focus on your accomplishments, using metrics if possible.
An entry-level civil engineer acts as somewhat of an assistant to more experienced engineers. Your main goal in this position is to learn as much as you can from your superiors and slowly prove yourself. Tasks you can expect include doing research, surveying sites, drafting blueprints, creating budgets, etc. You may complete some of these tasks in the office and some may require you to be out in the field. Civil engineers will need an engineering degree but may also need certifications and/or licenses before they can work. Find out the requirements in your state or country and make sure you are eligible to work before you begin your job search. Here is a strong resume sample.
You are bound to need some kind of license or certification to practice as a civil engineer so make sure your qualifications are clearly listed. Your resume may not be considered if the recruiter cannot tell if you are licensed or not.
You may not have a lot of professional experience so include school projects, activities, and internships to populate your experience section. Concentrate on any projects that included civil engineering.
If you're a software engineer with a few years of experience under your belt, use a template like this one. It's simple, effective at highlighting our work experience, and minimizes the emphasis on the education section (the dates are omitted which is good to prevent ageism, especially if you graduated more than 10 years ago).
The first rule about including a resume summary is that it does not repeat accomplishments mentioned elsewhere on the resume. This resume stresses new software engineering and leadership skills right at the top of the resume, and includes an award too. If you include a summary, try to include a mix of both technical accomplishments (e.g. projects you developed or led), as well as career-related accomplishments (e.g. being promoted).
Each bullet point starts with an action verb that stresses the skills relevant to the role. For example, action verbs like "Led", "Spearheaded", or "Launched" emphasize leadership.
A software engineering manager supervises, builds, and maintains engineering teams. They draft the vision and objective for their department and monitor projects from A to Z. They maintain software engineering applications, recruit and train new colleagues, evaluate team performance, write product requirement documents, and develop business solutions. This person will liaise with other departments to ensure the software is promptly delivered within budget. And they also have to provide a conducive workplace where their subordinates are happy and productive. A well-written resume will ensure you’re spotted fast by recruitment managers. The software engineering manager's resume below will point you in the right direction.
You should endeavor to tell hiring managers in your resume summary about key achievements at the companies you’ve worked. One way to do this effectively is by attaching metrics e.g. “Reduced X by 40%”, “Surpassed sales target by $1M…” etc. to your accomplishments.
You should start your resume’s bullet points with strong action verbs which tell hiring managers what you did. On a software engineering manager resume, you should use engineering or management-focused action verbs like “Coded”, “Developed”, “Implemented” or “Managed”. This applicant uses action verbs very well and the impact they made at the end of each bullet point.
The main task of a data engineering manager is to supervise large data engineering teams. It also includes setting the direction for your department by defining the goals, and objectives, planning projects, and delegating assignments. They manage the data engineering lifecycle, data collection, and storage to analysis and reporting. In this role, you will collaborate with other teams company-wide to pinpoint opportunities for data-driven decision-making and then create relevant solutions. Additionally, they ensure that their teams are equipped with the necessary tools to succeed. They identify new talents within the company by collaborating with managers from other departments.
Managing any kind of data is not an easy feat, much less large data sets. So, it’s important to let recruiters know that you are comfortable with handling large data sets and generating insights from them. The sample resume in this context is spot-on on this fact by empahisizing how they managed large data sets.
You should tell hiring managers what tools and software you’re comfortable using. You can do this in a skills section of your resume, like in this example here. Try to tailor your skills section to the specific job posting. Your ability to use specific tools and software is a skill that can set you apart from other applicants.
As a senior engineering manager, you're managing a team of engineers to ensure they deliver great products the public will enjoy. You give them feedback and direction for projects and set the company's long-term vision. Hiring new talented employees and fostering relationships with other departments also stop at your table. Senior engineering managers are skilled at converting business needs into technical solutions and are well-versed in mentoring their teams to achieve their goals. Their resume should reflect leadership and supervisory duties, including creating solutions, facilitating related engineering services, consenting financial approvals, conducting employee training, and providing updates at management meetings regarding projects.
A senior engineering manager is an executive within a company's engineering department, and about 22% hold a master's degree (Zippia). It’s useful to emphasize your certifications that shows you have a mastery of the task at hand.
You want to let potential employers or recruiters know that you can successfully lead a group of people to achieve desired results at this senior level. So, show how many people you supervised and their impact on the organization in your resume.
On top Civil Engineering Professional resumes, skills like AutoCAD, Civil Engineering, Revit, Construction, Construction Management, Engineering, Microsoft Project and Project Planning appear most often.
Depending on the exact role you're applying to, skills like Structural Analysis, Building Information Modeling (BIM), Windows, Structural Engineering and Project Management can also be effective keywords to include on your resume.
While the keywords above are a good indication of what skills you need on your resume, you should try to find additional keywords that are specific to the job. To do this, use the free Targeted Resume tool. It analyzes the job you are applying to and finds the most important keywords you need on your resume.
It is personalized to your resume, and is the best way to ensure your resume will pass the automated resume filters.
Thank you for the checklist! I realized I was making so many mistakes on my resume that I've now fixed. I'm much more confident in my resume now.
