"If I want to be a civil engineer what summer jobs do I need to get to enhance my experience and skills"

Answer 1

No matter what type of work you would eventually like to do, I would recommend getting some construction experience. There is a lot to learn when you first start out, and one of the quickest ways to learn is to see how things are built first hand.

Answer 2

Balance.

Get some experience and skills for use in the office:
- Cad
- Civil design analytics software (I'm mechanical, so I don't know your tool-set. Think Finite Element Analysis, or similar)
- Negotiation Theory in a Male-"dominated" environment (solid gold)
Wherever you are know how to use the tools so that you can design it from the fuzzy initial concept, to built-up model, to high quality validated code-adhering constructable blue-print.


Get some experience and skills for use in the field:
- get a summer temp job in construction for the kinds of things you want to work on. Learn carpentry or drywall if you are into domestic civil. Learn concrete, rebar, or heavier machinery if you are into bridges. Wherever you want to work, know how to use the tools to be able to make it yourself from the ground up.

Get at least two distinct, and complementary skill-sets.I learned this from [1] The cuckoo's egg. Pick skills that are kind of opposite so that when the market falls out of one, you have the other. Pick skills that are also complementary, so that when an employer sees both, they know you are a very valuable employee. The example in the book is astrophysics and computer programming, but such nicely connected but separate kinds of skill-sets exist in every discipline.

Keys:
- Be able to go from start (idea) to deliverable (blueprints, certification, etc) in a managerial universe. (Top-down)
- Be able to go from start (prints) to deliverable (final structure) in a operational universe.
- Get skill-sets that will pay the bills - when one market is in a recession have an alternative that won't be.

I have friends who are very successful civil engineers, and are women. If you want I can ask if they would like to talk with you.

Answer 3

Look for internships (paid or nonpaid) in the area of civil engineering you are interested in. If you cant find one in your area but a related area that is just as valuable as experience. If you cant get any of those try and get a contruction job. It doesnt matter what type of construction it is seeing that it all deals with civil engineering. This will be seen as similar exposure to the internships one may have.

Answer 4

Dig ditches.

My first "engineering" job was shoveling dirt off railroad tracks. Later I graduated to digging holes for drainage ditch collection boxes. Then I was promoted to tying the rebar in the concrete forms. Then I was invited to help spread the concrete with a rake. Then I could finish the surface of the concrete. Then I learned to "shoot grades" with a level to layout concrete forms.

Then I decided I really wanted to be a Process Control Engineer so I quite the ditch digging job and became an Instrument Technician for an oil refinery. That was at age 19. By the time I was 32 I was Chief Instrument Engineer for a major Louisiana refinery. By 35 I had my own Controls Consulting and Integration company. At 48 I sold my company and semi-retired to Florida. I continue to consult on control projects around the world.

Answer 5

Well look around and see what civil engineers do. Then try to get internships at one of those places. It might not pay as much (or at all) but the experience is priceless.

Answer 6

construction worker because CE's are so dumb that they are basically just glorified construction workers