Civil & Environmental Engineering

Wherever your career leads you, employers will want to see evidence of the skills you have developed in your studies. These may include technical skills and academic knowledge if you’re seeking a job related to Civil and Environmental Engineering, and ‘transferable skills’ like problem solving, resilience and intellectual curiosity that fit a broad range of roles within and outside of engineering-related roles.

The typical skills developed by Imperial Civil and Environmental Engineering students during their degree are highly valued by employers and include:

• Creative approach to problem-solving
• Critical thinking skills
• Ability to interpret data
• Numeracy, IT and communication skills
• Analytical and decision-making abilities
• An awareness of ethical issues

It’s good to reflect on your abilities and consider what skills you can evidence and which skills you may need to enhance. Use our Self reflection webpage to help you understand and document your abilities.

During your degree you will have many opportunities to develop and learn new skills. Employers will want to see what you have been doing to develop your skills and knowledge outside your course while you have been a student. Experiences such as student societies, part-time work, volunteering and sports can develop your skills and will be valuable additions to your CV. Work experience can also help develop skills and help you decide what career direction you want to go in and become more competitive in future job or further study applications.

As an Imperial student you can participate, or take a leadership role, in a wide variety of Students’ Union activities where you’ll develop many skills. You also have free access to LinkedIn Learning and can use this to develop or improve your knowledge and abilities with software tools and skills through instructional videos taught by industry experts.

You can learn and develop the skills required to be successful in the job or internship market. For example, you will need to know how to create a strong CV, write a good cover letter and perform well in interviews. We can help you to learn these skills. Start with the Applications and interviews section of our website, and by attending our skills training and workshops.

When you understand your skills through self-reflection it’s a good idea to then learn about the range of career areas that might be of interest. You could work in areas such as infrastructure, the energy sectors and water.

Our What do Imperial graduates do? pages contain our Graduate Outcomes data which gives examples of employers and further study options of previous graduates. You can search the data to find what Civil and Environmental Engineering graduates went on to do immediately after graduation and you may also find it useful to explore Imperial College LinkedIn 'Civil and Environmental Engineering' where you can explore the career paths of our Civil and Environmental Engineering alumni as their careers develop over time. Check out our student profiles for Civil and Environmental Engineering to view some recent examples.

However, don't feel limited by what others have done, but instead, follow your own interests.

For Civil and Environmental Engineering students it is helpful to consider whether you want to use your Civil and Environmental Engineering knowledge in a job. If so, would you like to work in the consultancy side of the industry or work for the contracting side? To help you begin we have listed some of the career areas that Imperial Civil and Environmental Engineering students often go into which is taken from our What do Imperial graduates do? Graduate Outcomes data. Our How to research job sectors and occupations resources can help you to learn more about these sectors including desirable skills, responsibilities, professional development and salary expectations across different roles and industries. You can also meet employers from many of these areas through Careers Service events and fairs which are advertised on JobsLive and in our weekly newsletter. 

If you are interested in continuing to use your Civil and Environmental Engineering knowledge you could consider related graduate roles in some of these areas:

• General Civil and Environmental Engineering graduate schemes
• Environmental Consultancy
• Structural/Offshore Structural Engineering
• Geotechnical Engineering
• Transport Planning
• Site Engineering
• Water Management
• Design Engineering
• Academic research

If you are interested in continuing to use your engineering knowledge but not in industry, you might like to explore career areas:

• Patent attorney
• Teaching

Here are some of the typical careers outside engineering that civil engineers often go into:

• Graduate management roles
• Management/Strategy consulting
• Investment Banking
• Business/Technical analyst roles
• Actuary
• Accountancy
• IT
• Logistics

Through your research you’ll see that there’s a very wide range of options open to Civil and Environmental Engineering graduates. Some of these are directly accessible from a first degree while others may require additional further study. This can create many questions that you’ll want to answer and speaking to a Careers Consultant through one of our one to one appointments may help after your initial research.

In addition to our resources you may also find both Targetjobs - Civil and Environmental Engineering and the national resource Prospects - Civil and Environmental Engineering to have a similar but alternative commentary to the resources we’ve listed here for you.

A professional body, association or society seeks to further a particular profession and the interests of individuals engaged in that profession. The body maintains an oversight of the knowledge, skills, conduct and practice of that profession and can offer accreditation or chartership. You can often use professional bodies to access training or networking events and explore related career options.

Below are some links to professional bodies that deal with various areas related to Civil and Environmental Engineering. Many offer student membership which can give you access to job listings and careers information while offering great networking opportunities. Some memberships may even allow you to register your CV to vacancy matching services or to be viewed by other members of the community.

• Chartered Institute of Civil Engineer Surveyors 
• Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation 
  
• Institute of Civil Engineers
• Institution of Structural Engineers 
  
• International Water Management Institute 
  
• Institute of Water
• International Society for Rock Mechanics
• The British Geotechnical Association 
• Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management 
  
• International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering
• Transport Planning Society 
• Chartered Institute of Waste Management 
  
  

There are many well-known Multinational Civil Engineering Companies (MNCs) offering graduate level jobs but Small or Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), defined as organisations with fewer than 250 employees, also offer a wide range of interesting and unique graduate level roles. Due to a smaller marketing budget SMEs can be harder to find and they often rely on you approaching them speculatively to show motivation and interest. They will sometimes engage with universities through incubation hubs to help them grow skills and expertise. The Imperial Enterprise Lab often run events to help students understand and network with SME and start-up communities.

• The Association of Consulting & Engineering ‘find a consultant’ page allows you to search for engineering consultants by specialism
• The New Civil Engineer NCE 100 list of companies.
• Work in startups is a jobs board, however, it can be used as a research tool to find names of SMEs which can then be used on other websites like LinkedIn to explore further
• Green Jobs covers environmental and renewable energy jobs across all industry sectors
• Green Careers Hub has a range of roles including hydrology, waste management, transport and environmental roles
• The Environment Agency (EA) is ideal for those looking more at sustainability or environmental consultancy type roles
• Earthworks jobs is a massive online jobs board covering a wide range of industries and is a good place to find different SMEs
• Gradcracker is a well-known online internship and graduate role jobs board. Their ‘Career Hub’ section has webinars and company profiles of many well-known Civil Engineering companies which will help with your application
• Careers in Construction is relevant for those who are looking for career progression rather than their first job role
• Another useful job board for those with more experience is Just Engineers
• For transport-related roles, TPS is a good place to start
• CIWM has jobs in environmental resource management, including waste management
• Local Government Jobs includes engineering and building-related roles in local councils and boroughs
• WasteJobs shows waste and recycling roles
• Join the path to success with National Highways, England's motorways and roads jobs board

To find further agencies operating in the area you may want to explore The Recruitment & Employment Confederation (UK) Membership Directory.

Career planning often takes time and can sometimes feel overwhelming. It’s a good idea to set aside a small amount of time on a regular basis to maintain momentum. Below are some things to get you started:

• Sign up to the Imperial Careers Newsletter by checking the relevant box on your personal profile on JobsLive.
• Learn about the application timelines for applying for further study, work experience and graduate employment.
• See our What's on pages to find out about the different types of events that we run, including workshops, careers fairs, career talks, and hear from alumni and employers about different types of work.
• Learn the skills that will help you succeed on the job market in the Applications and interviews section of our website, and by attending our skills training and workshops.

If you feel stuck with your career planning, you could book a one-to-one appointment to talk it through with a careers consultant. Victoria Sood  is the careers consultant for Civil and Environmental Engineering but you can see any of our careers consultants for your first appointment.