The True Meaning of a Civil Engineer

What is a civil engineer? How does a civil engineer contribute to society? What are the responsibilities of a civil engineer?

These are all good questions, especially if you have never really thought about what a civil engineer does.

With more than 20 years of experience, I have to admit that I wasn’t always able to answer those questions with certainty. I had a general idea. I thought of civil engineers as the people who design roadways so vehicles can safely get from Point A to Point B, design drainage systems so water doesn’t pond, design bridges that span rivers and lakes, and help create the places where people live and work.

Photo of myself at a STEM event representing Civil Engineering

That is the basic understanding many people have of civil engineering.

There is also the stereotype that civil engineers are smart because we’re good at math and science.

For me, math and science did come naturally. Maybe it was the way I think or the way I see numbers. But other subjects didn’t come as easily. English and technical writing, for example, required much more effort. I had to work at communicating my ideas clearly. Writing a good technical document didn’t always come naturally to me. It took practice, patience, and a lot more brainpower than solving a math problem.

Looking back, that was an important lesson.

Being an engineer isn’t just about being good at math and science. As your career progresses, you realize that communicating an idea, working with people, understanding a problem from different perspectives, and explaining why something matters can be just as important as knowing how to calculate it. But I still hadn’t answered the bigger question:

So, what is a civil engineer? I didn’t figure that out overnight.

It took years of searching for what I wanted from a career. I looked at professions like medicine and law. I talked with people in different careers. I spoke with other engineers and tried to understand why they chose civil engineering and, more importantly, why they stayed.

I eventually noticed a difference between people who viewed civil engineering as a job and those who viewed it as a career. Someone who sees civil engineering as a job may tell you that it provides a paycheck and that you move from one project to the next. 

Someone who sees it as a career may tell you something different.

They might tell you that they help people get to work. They help communities grow. They create safer roads. They improve airports. They provide places for people to live and work. They help build the infrastructure that allows society to function.

That distinction became important to me.

At one point in my career, I even considered medicine. What attracted me to medicine wasn’t necessarily the science. It was the opportunity to help someone. A doctor can sit with a patient who needs guidance. They can listen, provide advice, and help that person live a healthier or better life.

That was what I was searching for.

I wanted a career where I could help people in a way that made their lives better.

What I eventually realized was that what I was looking for had been in front of me the entire time. Civil engineering may not involve sitting across from a patient, but the impact is still there.

We help people get where they’re going. We create safer and more efficient transportation systems. We provide the infrastructure that supports communities. We design and manage projects that become the places where people live, work, travel, and gather.

And sometimes, we don’t even realize how much people depend on the things we design.

That’s what makes civil engineering different.

Civil engineers don’t just design roads, bridges, airports, and buildings. We create and improve the infrastructure that allows society to function.

For me, that’s what I was searching for all those years.

I recently read a story in the book Concrete Planet by Robert Courland that stuck with me. 

A man once overheard several young boys debating which historical figure they would choose to be.

One boy said Julius Caesar.

Another chose Alexander the Great.

The third said he would choose John Smeaton.

When asked why, he explained that Smeaton had used his knowledge and skills to improve people’s lives, while the others had pursued glory at the cost of countless lives.

It’s a great example of what makes engineering so important.

Engineers may not always have the fame or recognition of historical leaders, but the work we do can have a lasting impact on millions of people. We design the roads people travel on, the bridges they cross, the buildings they live and work in, the airports they travel through, and the infrastructure that keeps our communities moving.

Engineering is about more than designing and building things. It’s about improving the world around us.

I wasn’t really searching for a profession.

I was searching for a way to make an impact.

And I eventually realized I had found it in civil engineering.