LO
Civil / structural engineer — skills, knowledge and links
Where this job sits in the official classifications, what those classifications say it demands, and what it connects to. Every block names its source: our own judgements, the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET, or the U.S. Department of Education.
How it connects#
O*NET also lists (no page here yet): Civil Engineering Technologists and Technicians · Transportation Engineers · Construction Managers · Water/Wastewater Engineers · Construction and Building Inspectors · Environmental Engineers · Architectural and Civil Drafters · Architectural and Engineering Managers
In the official classification#
Civil Engineers
Fit with this page: same job
Job Zone 4: considerable preparation
See it on O*NET OnLine ↗What O*NET rates highest#
From O*NET 17-2051.00 (Civil Engineers). Ordered by O*NET's importance rating; the words are O*NET's own scale anchors.
Transferable skills
- Complex Problem SolvingVery important
- Systems AnalysisVery important
- Time ManagementVery important
- Operations AnalysisVery important
- Judgment and Decision MakingImportant
- CoordinationImportant
- Systems EvaluationImportant
- Social PerceptivenessImportant
Knowledge
- DesignExtremely important
- Engineering and TechnologyExtremely important
- Building and ConstructionExtremely important
- MathematicsVery important
- English LanguageVery important
- PhysicsVery important
Work activities
- Getting InformationExtremely important
- Making Decisions and Solving ProblemsVery important
- Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or SubordinatesVery important
- Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with StandardsVery important
- Updating and Using Relevant KnowledgeVery important
- Drafting, Laying Out, and Specifying Technical Devices, Parts, and EquipmentVery important
Abilities
- Oral ComprehensionVery important
- Written ComprehensionVery important
- Oral ExpressionVery important
- Written ExpressionVery important
- Problem SensitivityVery important
- Deductive ReasoningVery important
Essential skills
- Active ListeningVery important
- Reading ComprehensionVery important
- SpeakingVery important
- MathematicsVery important
- Critical ThinkingVery important
Tasks O*NET proposes to add#
O*NET's analysts propose new or reworded task statements for future data collection, drawing on what surveyed workers write in, research into new technologies and professional associations. They are candidates, not yet part of the rated task list, and they say nothing about whether automation is involved. This site does not fold them into its own task judgements.
- Use drone technology for site surveying, inspection, and monitoring of infrastructure projects.New task · 2025-05 · source: AI/SME (O*NET's label) · O*NET 31.0
Our task judgements#
O*NET says what this job demands. It does not say what automation is doing to it — that is what this site's 6 task judgements are for: 4 backed by a verified event, 2 platform inference. VOLO judgement
Sources and rules#
- Four kinds of source, and each block says which: this site's own judgements, O*NET, the U.S. Department of Education's CIP–SOC crosswalk, or something computed mechanically from those. Nothing on this page is a rating we made up.
- O*NET's importance ratings are used only to order and shorten the lists. They are never combined with this site's impact index or evidence counts.
- The fit between our page and an O*NET occupation is our judgement and is stated per code: same job, broader, part of it, or only the closest there is.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026 release, U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, CC BY 4.0. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The translations of O*NET descriptors on this page are ours, not O*NET's.