Job seekers in STEM fields have brighter prospects than most. “Employer demand for so-called STEM graduates—in science, technology, engineering and mathematics—is high,” according to Associated Press economics writer Paul Wiseman.
A crucial and versatile discipline, civil engineering offers a wide range of opportunities. If you’re looking for a new job in civil engineering, resume examples can help you see what other people have been doing in the field—the technologies they’re using, the types of projects they’re working on, and more.
One great source for resume examples is Indeed.com. On their home page, click “Find Resumes” at the top. Then search for resumes using keywords and locations. This research can help you stay aware of the skills and experiences you should highlight on your own resume.
This word cloud was generated from the text of a dozen civil engineering job listings. The bigger the word, the more often it appeared throughout the job listings.
Civil engineering resume keywords
- AutoCAD
- Civil
- Client
- Construction
- Degree
- Design
- Detail
- Energy
- Engineering
- Environment
- Groundwater
- Infrastructure
- PE
- Project
- Site
- Stormwater
- Team
- Technical
Notes for civil engineers
While a civil engineering job may see you spending plenty of active time on site, the “PE” here does not stand for “physical education.” It stands for “Professional Engineer.” Unfortunately, many applicant tracking systems (software applications companies use to receive, analyze, and rank candidate resumes) still require exact matches for keywords, so pay attention to whether a job posting you’re interested in uses “PE” or “professional engineer.”
“Environment” in this case is not referring to the job environment as most job postings do (that is, “fast-paced,” “deadline-driven,” etc.). Many civil engineering jobs and projects focus on the environment—the natural world—and incorporate elements of sustainability, resource management, resource conservation, and more.
Resume tailoring
The better your resume matches up with a specific job, the better your chances of landing that job. A job posting is going to be your source material for the resume keywords you should use.
Jobscan offers an instant resume analysis that simplifies the process of tailoring your resume. Paste the text of your resume plus the text of a job listing into the tool and get a match rating, plus tips on what you can do to boost your match rating. In other words, you’ll get suggestions that will make your resume rank more highly within an ATS. You can learn a lot from resume examples, but there’s no comparison for knowing how well your resume is likely to do.
