Are you thinking about how a civil engineer online and probably considering a career in that field? Well, sit down and relax because we have got you covered.
In today’s world, thousands of entrepreneurs have made their first million working online, You can make money online as a civil engineer anywhere you are in the world even while climbing the mountains of Kilimanjaro.
- How can a Civil Engineer make money Online?
- Where do Civil Engineers make the most Money?
- What Things do Civil Engineers make?
- Can a Civil Engineer Be A Millionaire?
- Are Civil Engineers Rich?
- What are the Types of Civil Engineer?
- What are the Highest Paying Civil Engineer Jobs?
- Extra Income For Civil Engineers
- How to Make Money Online as a Civil Engineer in India
- Online Civil Engineering Jobs Work From From Home
- How to Earn Money as a Civil Engineering Student
- Best Civil Engineering Field For Money
- What Are The Smart Ways to Earn Money as a Civil Engineer?
- Can Civil Engineers start their own Business?
- Side Hustle For Civil Engineer
- Can You Work From Home as a Civil Engineer?
- Can Civil Engineer Make 200k?
- Are Civil Engineers in Demand?
- Solve Civil Engineering Questions And Earn Money
- Online Civil Engineering Consultancy
- Online Civil Engineering Projects
- How to Make a Lot of Money in Civil Engineering
- How to Make Money as an Engineer
- Civil Engineer Income
- Civil Engineering And Building Construction Salary
- Civil Engineering Career Salary
- Do Civil Engineers Make Good Money?
- Civil Side Work
- How Much Civil Engineers Earn Per Month?
- Income From Civil Engineering Blog
- Do Civil Engineers Make Good Money UK?
- Civil Engineering PhD Salary
- Structural Engineer Blogs
- Extra Income For Civil Engineers
- What Type of Civil Engineer Gets Paid Most?
How can a Civil Engineer make money Online?
Even a civil engineer can make extra money online with these ways.
1. Start a blog straight away
Starting a blog will help create an audience in the long run and make you money online as an engineer.
Read Also: How to Make Money Boating
Like an engineer, you might have a passion that you would love to share with the entire world, maybe you are a good cook, maybe a singer or a designer.
You might also start a blog about engineering, one can always make money in every niche they choose as long as they monetize the right way. Starting a blog can be your side hustle as a civil engineer and can make you an extra income.
2. Sell house plans
In the world today where we can buy everything we want online, people are also buying house plans online. Thousands of houses are being built every day and all those people need plans but getting an architect offline can be expensive.
People will buy online house plans because they are cheap and affordable.
So, if you start a website selling house plans, You can make money as an online architect. Look at a site like Direct from designers’ house plans.
With the availability of software like Autocad, You can start designing house plans.
3. Create videos on youtube
Youtube is the number one video platform on the internet with millions of video creators. Many videos are published every single day by creators. The good thing about youtube is, you don’t need a lot of skills and equipment.
All you need is a video camera and a video editing software, the best video editing software is adobe premiere. Youtube allows people of all age types, one of the most paid YouTubers is a kid showcasing how to use toys to other kids.
You can create a channel talking about anything that interests you, it doesn’t matter if you teaching people how to construct or how to cook a pizza.
As a civil engineer who wants to make money online, you need to follow these steps.
Select your topic, what do you want to talk about?
Do some research on youtube to understand what type of content gets views. You can also do keyword research on youtube to understand what people are asking for.
By typing in the word “how to design a house”, youtube has suggestions for me on the popular searches, that’s how you find out what people are searching for in your niche.
Buy a video recording camera.
Get a video editing software, i highly recommend adobe.
Go to you-tube and create your channel
Start uploading your videos.
How to earn money fro your youtube channel
You can earn money from youtube through monetizing your videos with Google AdSense, some YouTuber earn up to 20000$ monthly.
You can decide to sell your own products or sell other people’s products through affiliate marketing. You can also create a course and online, send your subscribers to your online course.
4. Start Dropshipping
By doing dropshipping, as a civil engineer, you will be able to make an extra income. Dropshipping is the cheapest way to start selling products online because you don’t need inventory to start. Forget about the traditional way of starting a business.
With drop-shipping, you can start selling products with only 100$.
Dropshipping works this way.
- You go and create a store with Shopify.
- You list all the products you would want to sell at a higher price.
- When someone comes to your online store and pays, you go on Aliexpress, pay the supplier at a lower price and keep the profit.
- The supplier will finish the order by sending the product straight to the customer.
- In other words, you won’t even touch the product.
As a drop shipper, Shopify is the e-commerce software with a lot of applications that will help you as a drop shipper, Shopify has millions of drop shippers that is why the software has thousands of applications that will make your dropshipping journey a little smoother.
As a beginner, we advise you to start with one product, do not fill your store with morethan 4 products as a beginner.
5. Start an online civil engineer consultancy
As an engineer, you can be an online consultant, People have millions of questions that need answers. The best way to earn a good income from this opportunity is to start a blog, write a lot of articles related to engineering.
It best to use google keyword planner to find out what people are searching for. Start collecting their emails and convert them into clients.
You can also do B2B consultancy by working with other civil engineers on the ground.
6. Start an online course
Creating an online course and selling it on sites like udemy will make you an extra income as a civil engineer. The online course industry is growing higher each year since many people are resorting to studying on a computer than going to class.
People will buy your course so long as you providing valuable information. On udemy, there are already online course for civil engineers.
Some of these courses are having over 200 students, yet each course costs 13.99$, which means with 200 sales, they made over 2700$..
You can treat this as a side hustle.
Thinkific is the best online platform to help you create an online course, it is equipped with various tools that would help you start a successful online course.
7. Do affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing involves selling other people’s products for a commission. the commission can be small or big for example you can sell a product and get up to 500$.
One of the biggest affiliate websites is Clickbank, an online platform that will allow you to sell products and make a commission.
Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to make money online as a civil engineer, you literally don’t need a product. All you need is a laptop and internet access to start making money online as an affiliate.
How to sell affiliate products
By using Facebook, you can sell affiliate products, this is through using Facebook Ads, Facebook groups or even creating Facebook pages.
Creating Youtube videos is another way to sell affiliate products, You can create a youtube video about a particular product or you can recommend a product in the video.
Google Ads is another way to sell affiliate products.
Start a blog and recommend affiliate products.
You can start an Amazon niche blog to recommend the various products in a particular niche. You can leverage all social media platforms to sell products online.
8. Sell products online
In the world today where the world’s number one billionaire is an e-commerce entrepreneur, you don’t need any more proof about whether starting an e-commerce platform is beneficial or not.
Every single day, people are transitioning to buying things online because of the price and the convenience. Someone can buy groceries online because everything will be delivered to their doors allowing them to concentrate on other things.
Am not telling you to only start a grocery store, but there are a number of products you can sell online. The number one trick to having more sales is to make sure the product you selling adds value to the buyers.
When starting up an online store, we recommend using Wix because of the functionalities that work great both on mobiles and computers.
With wix, you will create an online store for free. Wix has plans starting from zero and they increase with more functionalities.
Wix also comes with various design templates to help you make a beautiful looking website.
9. Start doing remote jobs
Freelancing is one of the best ways to make money as a civil engineer, there are many jobs for engineers on sites like flexjobs. All you have to do is sign up now and still have jobs.
The freelancing economy is increasing day by day because employers find it cheaper to hire a parttime worker than having a monthly permanent worker. As a civil engineer,, there are various opportunities you can get on flex jobs.
You can also sign up on freelancer and up-work for opportunities.
Where do Civil Engineers make the most Money?
Civil Engineers made a median salary of $86,640 in 2018. The best-paid 25 percent made $112,850 that year, while the lowest-paid 25 percent made $67,430.
The metropolitan areas that pay the highest salary in the civil engineer profession are Anchorage, San Jose, San Francisco, Santa Maria, and Riverside.
Anchorage, Alaska $132,680
San Jose, California $117,050
San Francisco, California $116,950
Santa Maria, California $116,920
Riverside, California $116,830
The states and districts that pay Civil Engineers the highest mean salary are Alaska ($125,470), California ($109,680), New Jersey ($103,760), Texas ($102,990), and New York ($102,250).
Alaska $125,470
California $109,680
New Jersey $103,760
Texas $102,990
New York $102,250
What Things do Civil Engineers make?
Civil engineers conceive, design, build, supervise, operate, construct and maintain infrastructure projects and systems in the public and private sector, including roads, buildings, airports, tunnels, dams, bridges, and systems for water supply and sewage treatment. Many civil engineers work in planning, design, construction, research, and education.
Duties
Civil engineers typically do the following:
- Analyze long range plans, survey reports, maps, and other data to plan and design projects
- Consider construction costs, government regulations, potential environmental hazards, and other factors during the planning and risk-analysis stages of a project
- Compile and submit permit applications to local, state, and federal agencies, verifying that projects comply with various regulations
- Oversee and analyze the results of soil testing to determine the adequacy and strength of foundations
- Analyze the results of tests on building materials, such as concrete, wood, asphalt, or steel, for use in particular projects
- Prepare cost estimates for materials, equipment, or labor to determine a project’s economic feasibility
- Use design software to plan and design transportation systems, hydraulic systems, and structures in line with industry and government standards
- Perform or oversee surveying operations to establish building locations, site layouts, reference points, grades, and elevations to guide construction
- Manage the repair, maintenance, and replacement of public and private infrastructure
Civil engineers also must present their findings to the public on topics such as bid proposals, environmental impact statements, or property descriptions.
Many civil engineers hold supervisory or administrative positions ranging from supervisor of a construction site to city engineer, public works director, and city manager. As supervisors, they are tasked with ensuring that safe work practices are followed at construction sites.
Other civil engineers work in design, construction, research, and teaching. Civil engineers work with others on projects and may be assisted by civil engineering technicians.
Civil engineers prepare permit documents for work on projects in renewable energy. They verify that the projects will comply with federal, state, and local requirements. These engineers conduct structural analyses for large-scale photovoltaic, or solar energy, projects.
They also evaluate the ability of solar array support structures and buildings to tolerate stresses from wind, seismic activity, and other sources. For large-scale wind projects, civil engineers often prepare roadbeds to handle large trucks that haul in the turbines.
Civil engineers work on complex projects, and they can achieve job satisfaction in seeing the project reach completion. They usually specialize in one of several areas.
Construction engineers manage construction projects, ensuring that they are scheduled and built in accordance with plans and specifications. These engineers typically are responsible for the design and safety of temporary structures used during construction. They may also oversee budgetary, time-management, and communications aspects of a project.
Geotechnical engineers work to make sure that foundations for built objects ranging from streets and buildings to runways and dams, are solid. They focus on how structures built by civil engineers, such as buildings and tunnels, interact with the earth (including soil and rock). In addition, they design and plan for slopes, retaining walls, and tunnels.
Structural engineers design and assess major projects, such as buildings, bridges, or dams, to ensure their strength and durability.
Transportation engineers plan, design, operate, and maintain everyday systems, such as streets and highways, but they also plan larger projects, such as airports, ship ports, mass transit systems, and harbors.
The work of civil engineers is closely related to the work of environmental engineers.
Can a Civil Engineer Be A Millionaire?
Yes. But not likely directly from your salary as a civil engineer. If you become employed you can make a decent salary, perhaps the upper scale is beyond $100,000. That will make you very comfortable, but in the US that would not be considered rich.
We don’t know of any definition of how much money a person must amass to be rich, but a person would want several million dollars to considered rich. If you invested most of your salary wisely then you can eventually have that much. For example if you put away $5000 per month in an investment plan that returned 6% you would reach your goal in 20 years.
The other path would be to start your own civil engineering business and be very successful. There are civil engineers that made millions doing this, but they all ended up selling their business to make the big money.
Are Civil Engineers Rich?
Civil Engineer Salary can go as high as $196k per year, and here’s how you can get close to making that salary in your engineering career.
Civil engineering is the second oldest engineering field after military engineering and also one of the most popular types of engineering programs in universities.
To earn a high-level civil engineer starting salary you must largely contribute to the infrastructure, environment, road, bridges, and all standing and under-ground buildings and tunnels around us. Such structures also include highways, rivers, canals, dams, and transportation systems.
Civil engineer jobs basically deal with designing, developing, building, maintaining, and transforming everything around us. Due to its strict requirements, civil engineering is one of the highest-paid careers you can find. It is also a real challenge!
According to ZipRecruiter, a civil engineer’s average starting salary ranges from $19.67 in North Carolina to $26.82 in New York, but keep in mind this varies on many different factors, such as company and location as we have discussed.
What are the Types of Civil Engineer?
New civil engineers can choose from several fields, and these include Material Science Engineering, which studies fundamental characteristics of materials such as ceramics, concrete, asphalt concrete, heavy metals including aluminum, steel, thermosetting polymers, polymethylmethacrylate and carbon fibers. It involves protection, prevention, and combining two types of metals to produce another metal with a desirable property.
Another type of civil engineering job is called Coastal Engineering. This deals with managing the coastal areas which involve the protection and defense against flooding and erosion respectively.
Then there is Construction Engineering, which involves planning, execution, transportation of materials, development of sites based on hydraulic, environmental, structural, and geotechnical engineering.
Earthquake Engineering is another branch of Civil Engineering jobs. This covers designing structures so they can withstand hazardous earthquake incidents.
It is the aim of this field to understand the components of structures built on unstable grounds and predict the possible consequences or effects of earthquakes. This area is responsible for the design, construction, and maintenance of structures.
The Environmental Engineering branch of Civil Engineering, on the other hand, deals with the sanitation of the environment. It is also called Sanitary Engineering.
This field manages how chemical, biological, or thermal waste are treated. It is responsible for the purification of water and air and remediation of contaminated sites after waste disposal or contamination.
Another field is Geotechnical Engineering, which involves the rock and soil supporting engineering systems. This field uses the knowledge in soil science, material science, mechanics, and hydraulics to safely and economically design retaining walls, foundations, and other structures.
Then there is Marine and Water Resources Engineering, which deals with the natural resources and is mainly concerned with the collection and management of water. It involves hydrology, environmental science, meteorology, conservation, and resource management.
It aims to design pipelines, water supply networks, drainage facilities including dams, bridges, levees, storm sewers, channels, and canals. The central concept is fluid pressure, hydraulics, fluid dynamics, and fluid statics.
Structural Engineering is mainly focused on the structural design and analysis of buildings, towers, bridges, tunnels, flyovers, highways, and offshore like oil and gas fields in the ocean.
Transportation Engineering deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of transportation infrastructures, which involves the streets, canals, highways, rail systems, airports, ports, and mass transit. It caters to transportation design, transportation planning, and traffic engineering.
Municipal and Urban Engineering caters to the municipal infrastructure which involves the specifying, designing, constructing; as well as maintaining the streets, sidewalks, water supply networks, sewers, street lighting, public works, public parks, cycling infrastructure and municipal solid waste management including the disposal, storage, and maintenance.
What are the Highest Paying Civil Engineer Jobs?
To earn a top-level Civil Engineer salary, you must hold a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, it requires a solid background in mathematics and related hard sciences.
Most countries also have a licensure examination to become a full-fledged Civil Engineer. Masters and Ph.D. Programs are available in a plethora of other subfields or branches.
Major employers provide excellent benefits for top professionals as well as a hefty salary based on experience and education. Many of them are government agencies so you are likely to work within the public sector.
1. Engineering Project Managers
An Engineering Project Manager is responsible for planning, directing, and organizing projects, preparing proposals, maintaining financial records, creating a product strategy, and ensuring the projects strictly follow the safety regulations.
The role of an Engineering Project Manager is to survey a project and provide engineering support services for all divisions and be a backup for all members of the engineering department as needed.
Another responsibility for this position is to process practical experience in various fields of engineering including civil, mechanical, electrical, and environmental.
You must have excellent communication skills, the ability to manage time efficiently, and the capacity to work with little supervision. A bachelor’s degree in the civil engineering discipline is a must in this field.
An Engineering Project Manager can expect a compensation ranging from $55k to $106k a year (depending on states) and has been seen to go as high as $196k per year, making it the highest Civil Engineer Salary on our list.
2. Senior Civil Engineer
A Senior Civil Engineer is responsible for planning, designing, developing, and managing projects to concerning construction and repairs of buildings, bridges, highways, and other structures.
The primary responsibilities of a Senior Civil Engineer are to review the engineering division and approve residential and commercial projects and construction drawings.
It is also the duty of the Senior Civil Engineer to review permits, ensure compliance with the codes and standards, screen traffic and parking issues, handle water drainage and right-of-way issues, and to secure requirements of planning.
Part of the job description of a senior civil engineer is to act as the City Engineer in the absence of such. They help manage the development and implementation of a stormwater management program to ensure permit requirements are met. They also conduct examinations to support compliance with state and local codes and support project design projections.
They also determine the selection criteria and work with engineering and purchasing staff to select the contractors and engineering consultants.
They specify parameters and scope of work for the contractors and consultants, review and approve work done by the consultants, including pay requests from them, and supervise staff engineers and public services.
They are responsible for providing technical assistance and consulting with other departments regarding engineering functions including site development, drainage, and transportation; providing training related to the use and development of the geographic information system and its database as well as software applications, answering technical questions and providing information to the public.
Those who search for employment within the field are required to hold a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and at least 6 years of experience in surveying, engineering design, inspection, and drafting.
Based on the official data report, Senior Civil Engineer salary ranges from $79k to $132k annually, and sometimes they can go as high as $163k per year, which makes a professional working in this field the 2nd highest paid Civil Engineer on our list.
3. Engineering Managers
An Engineering Manager coordinates and directs design projects, making detailed plans to accomplish goals and directs the integration of technical activities. They also analyze technology, resource needs, and market demands to plan and assess the feasibility of designs.
An Engineering Manager is accountable for the planning and directing of the installation, testing, operation, maintenance, and repair of facilities and equipment.
They are responsible for directing, reviewing, and approving product designs and changes. They prepare budgets, bids, and contracts while addressing the negotiation of research contracts.
They also develop and implement policies, standards, and procedures for the engineering and technical work performed in the department and perform administrative functions such as reviewing and writing reports, approving expenditures, enforcing rules and making decisions about the materials to purchase or services needed.
A bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and managerial experience is needed for this position.
According to statistics, the median salary for a Civil Engineering Manager ranges from $81k to $97k per year, making it the 3rd highest Civil Engineer Salary on our list. Although entry-level salaries will be higher for this group, the range is rather small, making it less viable in terms of getting a higher salary later on.
For a high-level civil engineering job description, job outlook, and more information, refer to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Extra Income For Civil Engineers
With any STEM master’s degree, you could be a math (precalculus, etc.) or science (physics I, etc) instructor at a community college. That has its own element of drudgery, however. You will also have to coordinate that with your firm.
If you have topographic surveying skills, find a firm that lets you do weekends.
There is also real estate, but your day job already has one of your hands tied behind your back, and your feet bound together. Nonetheless, that did not stop some of my colleagues.
It really depends on what other passions you have in life and how well organized you are. If you are good at any other particular thing and happen to have some knack for video editing, for example, then you could post tutorial videos and hope for enough ad money to finance that trip to the Republic of San Marino. But with online videos, stupid sells.*
Talk to people, feel them out. Keep an eye out for where your interests may align, and take it from there.
How to Make Money Online as a Civil Engineer in India
1. Start a blog
Starting a blog is one of the best ways to make money online from your home as a civil engineer. You will be able to express your views to the world in a creative way. There are many cases where people make a living from their blogs and if you play the cards right, you can make millions of dollars from your Blog.
Starting a blog will help create an audience in the long run and you need to have a long vision because you might not make money right away, Your blog will grow as your skills grow.
2. Sell house plans
In the world today where we can buy everything we want online, people are also buying house plans online. Thousands of houses are being built every day and all those people need plans but getting an architect offline can be expensive.
People will buy online house plans because they are cheap and affordable. So, if you start a website selling house plans, You can make money as an online architect. Look at a site like Direct from designers’ house plans.
3. Create videos on youtube
Youtube is the number one video platform on the internet with millions of video creators. Many videos are published every single day by creators. The good thing about youtube is, you don’t need a lot of skills and equipment.
All you need is a video camera and a video editing software, the best video editing software is adobe premiere. Youtube allows people of all age types, one of the most paid YouTubers is a kid showcasing how to use toys to other kids.
You can create a channel talking about anything that interests you, it doesn’t matter if you teaching people how to construct or how to cook a pizza.
4. Start Dropshipping
By doing dropshipping, as a civil engineer, you will be able to make an extra income.
Dropshipping is the cheapest way to start selling products online because you don’t need inventory to start. Forget about the traditional way of starting a business.
With drop-shipping, you can start selling products with only 100$.
THIS IS HOW THE DROPSHIPPING MODEL WORKS.
- You go and create a store with Shopify.
- You list all the products you would want to sell at a higher price.
- When someone comes to your online store and pays, you go on Aliexpress, pay the supplier at a lower price and keep the profit.
- The supplier will finish the order by sending the product straight to the customer.
- In other words, you won’t even touch the product.
5. Start an online civil engineer consultancy
As an engineer, you can be an online consultant, People have millions of questions that need answers. The best way to earn a good income from this opportunity is to start a blog, write a lot of fo articles related to engineering.
It best to use google keyword planner to find out what people are searching for. Start collecting their emails and convert them into clients. You can also do B2B consultancy by working with other civil engineers on the ground.
6. Start an online course
Creating an online course and selling it on sites like udemy will make you an extra income as a civil engineer. The online course industry is growing higher each year since many people are resorting to studying on a computer than going to class.
People will buy your course so long as you providing valuable information. On udemy, there are already online courses for civil engineers.
7. Do affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing involves selling other people’s products for a commission. the commission can be small or big for example you can sell a product and get up to 500$.
One of the biggest affiliate websites is Clickbank, an online platform that will allow you to sell products and make a commission.
Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to make money online as a civil engineer, you literally don’t need a product. All you need is a laptop and internet access to start making money online as an affiliate.
8. Sell products online
In the world today where the world’s number one billionaire is an e-commerce entrepreneur, you don’t need any more proof about whether starting an e-commerce platform is beneficial or not. Every single day, people are transitioning to buying things online because of the price and the convenience.
Someone can buy groceries online because everything will be delivered to their doors allowing them to concentrate on other things. Am not telling you to only start a grocery store, but there are a number of products you can sell online.
The number one trick to having more sales is to make sure the product you selling adds value to the buyers. When starting up an online store, we recommend using Wix because of the functionalities that work great both on mobiles and computers.
With Wix, you will create an online store for free. Wix has plans starting from zero and they increase with more functionalities. Wix also comes with various design templates to help you make a beautiful-looking website.
9. Start doing remote jobs
Freelancing is one of the best ways to make money as a civil engineer, there are many jobs for engineers on sites like flexjobs. All you have to do is sign up now and still have jobs.
The freelancing economy is increasing day by day because employers find it cheaper to hire a parttime worker than having a monthly permanent worker.
As a civil engineer,, there are various opportunities you can get on flex jobs. You can also sign up on freelancer and up-work for opportunities.
Online Civil Engineering Jobs Work From From Home
As a civil engineer that works from home, your duties are much the same as any other engineer. However, you work at a home-based office rather than in an office building every day.
This means that your responsibilities still include visiting potential sites for buildings, preparing bid and plan paperwork for contractors, working with leave contractors and project managers to oversee the construction and build-out, ensuring that structures are built to specification, and working with other remote infrastructure specialists to determine how best to fit your construction into the built landscape.
How to Earn Money as a Civil Engineering Student
It is an established fact that engineering is a hard nut to crack, usually leaving students in a situation where they have to choose between leisure activities and academics. Another roadblock is the lack of money which makes it tough to do fun activities and afford things that a student wants.
The only solution is working on a part-time basis which not only provides them with money but also much-needed exposure which helps them in figuring out what they actually want to do with the engineering degree. Here are some ways in which engineering students can earn money with ease.
1. Website making
Making a website can be a great working option for engineering students, especially those who are pursuing computer engineering. Making a website with landing pages is not that tough a task if you know the basics of coding.
What you can do is go around in your area and convince people with small businesses that having their own website would be a good idea to expand their business and that you can make it for them for less than what a professional website maker would charge.
2. Start writing technical reports
If you are from a civil or mechanical background, you can take up freelance projects for technical report writing. A technical report is a document that describes the process, progress, or results of technical or scientific research or the state of a technical or scientific research problem.
It might also include recommendations and conclusions of the research and hence requires someone who has knowledge about technical things.
3. Start giving tuitions
If you are good enough at your subject, you can consider giving tuitions to students in campus or other children in the neighborhood areas. With the increasing burden of scoring well these days, everyone wants their children to get some kind of help with academics. You cash in on this opportunity and charge money for giving lessons.
There are opportunities to give tuition to students of specific streams and owing to the excellent quality of education in India, people from foreign nations also want to learn things from students here. You can log in to online sites for job hunting and get your hands on one of those opportunities.
4. Start your own blog/video channel
So many of us look at Dhinchak Pooja and think that if she can be famous, so can we. However, we do nothing about it and the time passes by before it’s too late to do anything. So, taking inspiration from this latest social media sensation, you should also muster courage and confidence and start a blog or Youtube channel based on your talent.
As mentioned earlier, you have the luxury of having hundreds of people of the same age group around you. Making things viral as a college student is comparatively easier because of the kind of networking involved.
If you are a civil engineer, you can give a serious thought and take up one of the above mentioned jobs/activities to earn money while getting education so that academics become less monotonous for you and valuable experience add to your resume.
Best Civil Engineering Field For Money
Interested in a civil engineering career? Find out about the Top 10 Highest Paying Civil Engineering Careers, what they do and what education you need.
1. Engineering Project Managers
Average Salary: $80,212 – $166,848
Annual Provincial Median Salary (BC): $122,622
Education: A civil engineering diploma or degree is required.
Job Description: An engineering project manager plans, directs, organizes projects, including preparing proposals, maintaining financial records, product strategy and ensures the project conforms with safety regulations.
2. Senior Civil Engineer
Average Salary: $81,000 – $139,000
Annual Provincial Median Salary (BC): $93,650
Education: A bachelor’s degree or civil engineering diploma with related experience is required.
Job Description: A civil engineer plans, designs, develops and manages projects to construct or repair buildings, bridges, highways, and other structures.
3. Engineering Managers
Average Salary: $80,212 – $166,848
Annual Provincial Median Salary (BC): $122,622
Education: A civil engineering diploma or degree is required.
Job Description: An engineering manager plans, directs, organizes, controls and evaluates the activities of the engineering department, project or firm.
4. Civil Engineer
Average Salary: $66,000 – $95,000
Annual Provincial Median Salary (BC): $92,246
Education: A bachelor’s degree or civil engineering diploma with related experience is required.
Job Description: A civil engineer plans, designs, develops and manages projects to construct or repair buildings, bridges, highways, and other structures.
5. Architect
Average Salary: $58,000 – $93,852
Annual Provincial Median Salary (BC): $65,175
Education: Post-secondary education required. A bachelor’s degree or a diploma from a vocational school is preferred, as well as an internship.
Job Description: An architect conceptualizes plans and creates designs to construct and renovate commercial, institutional and residential buildings.
6. Engineering Inspectors and Regulatory Officers
Average Salary: $58,042 – $123,530
Annual Provincial Median Salary (BC): $88,325
Education: A civil engineering diploma or degree is required.
Job Description: Engineering inspectors inspect transportation vehicles, weighing meters, industrial instruments, processes and equipment to ensure they comply with government and industry regulations.
7. Civil Engineering Drafter
Average Salary: $46,000 – $71,000
Annual Provincial Median Salary (BC): $50,054
Education: A civil engineering diploma or degree is required.
Job Description: Civil drafting technologists and technicians prepare engineering designs and related technical information.
8. Civil Engineering Technologist
Average Salary: $43,797 – $155,085
Annual Provincial Median Salary (BC): $79,253
Education: A civil engineering diploma or degree is required.
Job Description: A civil engineering technologist develops engineering drawings and designs from concepts and sketches which have already been laid out. They also prepare construction specifications, estimates for the cost of materials and labour, conduct field surveys and inspections, of all types of construction buildings and structures.
9. Civil Engineering Technician
Average Salary: $43,797 – $155,085
Annual Provincial Median Salary (BC): $79,253
Education: A civil engineering diploma or degree is required.
Job Description: A civil engineering technician assists in developing engineering drawings and specifications and performs other technical duties pertaining to civil engineering.
10. Land Surveyor
Average Salary: $28,885 – $80,295
Annual Provincial Median Salary (BC): $58,397
Education: A civil engineering diploma or degree is required.
Job Description: Land surveyors plan, direct and conduct legal surveys in order to create and/or determine property boundaries, contours and prepare for drawings, plans, records and official documents.
What Are The Smart Ways to Earn Money as a Civil Engineer?
There is a large scale demand in the construction industry for skilled engineers and at this time, there is a wide gap between academics and industry. You can play a key role in bridging this gap.
- starting your own design company ( drawing house plans, elevations, structural drawings, electrical and plumbing drawings).
- Starting your own construction company ( construction residential and commercial buildings, renovations).
- Conduct workshops related to “execution of building projects on-site “ and “ design tips”.
- If you have contacts and references get the government contracts like road contract, tower contract etc.
- If you are good at technical skills then sell your project ideas to college students.
- If you become a licensed structural engineer start your own consultancy company.
Depending on your skills set and practical experience, start offering practical training to fresh engineering candidates. As a Chartered Civil Engineer and through your professional Academy, offer Short term Career Oriented Courses to engineering graduates in the following:
- QS
- Cost Engineer
- Planning Engineer
Can Civil Engineers start their own Business?
As most of people like to work on their own and don’t want to confine to just a job throughout their life, more people are questioning, what will happen if they quit a job in civil engineering.
Obviously, this depends on where your passion lies but in the case you still want to figure out what you will be doing if you won’t find a job, here are the top five business options that you can explore if you are a civil engineer.
1. Start a Construction Company
What can possibly go wrong with a Construction Company? Civil engineering and construction business is a match made in heaven. This is the most common business for any civil engineer, you can start with company registration and when you find a project, you can surely run a successful business.
You just need to focus on the quality work along with a good sense of networking skills to build a PR and you will have good enough capacity to be the owner of a successful construction company.
This might look difficult right now, but if you have a good enough experience with construction, this will come naturally to you. If you don’t have much resources then its better to start with construction estimating services and then scale up the business later on.
2. Cement Manufacturing Business
After Construction Company, if most civil engineers ever try to start a business, cement is the first thing that comes to mind. As a basic raw material required for construction, cement is never out of demand.
If you want to start a cement manufacturing company, you must keep this in mind that you will be requiring a lot of money for the capital however selling cement will not be such a hassle if you have a good sales team and you offer good prices.
If you have well enough networking skills in the industry, you might be in for at least, as most of the civil engineers in the industry know each other and they have pretty good recommendation skills. Apart from that, the profit margin is high and you will soon be up and running.
3. Scaffolding Rental
Unless you have enough information about construction, you might not know how vital scaffolds are for completing any project. They are used while plastering, roofing, and painting in high rise buildings.
With a good amount of capital, a way of producing scaffolding, and keeping them safe, you will be generating good enough profit from just renting them out.
Since you are not required to buy or produce them consistently, the overall cost of running a business is low and profit is good and if you have good networking skills, you might not have to find clients on your own.
4. Property Development
This is another high profit-generating business that will bring a lot of opportunities. When we talk about property development we talk about land purchasing, renting, leasing, selling and even renting out furnished properties too.
Mainly their duty is to turn basic ideas into reality with the help of planning and they do everything on behalf of the client.
5. Safety Gadget Business
Safety protocols for laborers and for the overall safety of buildings are very important. While construction, ministries, and the government have a set plan of safety protocols that must be followed by the company at all points.
While working civil engineers as well as construction workers have to wear safety gadgets including safety boots, helmets, glasses, protectors, etc. supplying this equipment is another very profit-generating business, so this might be another good choice for you.
Side Hustle For Civil Engineer
1. Sell products online
In the world today where the world’s number one billionaire is an e-commerce entrepreneur, you don’t need any more proof about whether starting an e-commerce platform is beneficial or not.
Every single day, people are transitioning to buying things online because of the price and the convenience. Someone can buy groceries online because everything will be delivered to their doors allowing them to concentrate on other things.
Am not telling you to only start a grocery store, but there are a number of products you can sell online. The number one trick to having more sales is to make sure the product you selling adds value to the buyers.
When starting up an online store, we recommend using Wix because of the functionalities that work great both on mobiles and computers. With Wix, you will create an online store for free. Wix has plans starting from zero and they increase with more functionalities.
Wix also comes with various design templates to help you make a beautiful looking website.
2. Start an online civil engineer consultancy
As an engineer, you can be an online consultant, People have millions of questions that need answers.
The best way to earn a good income from this opportunity is to start a blog, write a lot of fo articles related to engineering. It best to use google keyword planner to find out what people are searching for.
Start collecting their emails and convert them into clients. You can also do B2B consultancy by working with other civil engineers on the ground.
3. Start Dropshipping
By doing dropshipping, as a civil engineer, you will be able to make an extra income. Dropshipping is the cheapest way to start selling products online because you don’t need inventory to start. Forget about the traditional way of starting a business.
With drop-shipping, you can start selling products with only 100$.
THIS IS HOW THE DROPSHIPPING MODEL WORKS.
- You go and create a store with Shopify.
- You list all the products you would want to sell at a higher price.
- When someone comes to your online store and pays, you go on Aliexpress, pay the supplier at a lower price and keep the profit.
- The supplier will finish the order by sending the product straight to the customer.
- In other words, you won’t even touch the product.
As a drop shipper, Shopify is the e-commerce software with a lot of applications that will help you as a drop shipper, Shopify has millions of drop shippers that is why the software has thousands of applications that will make your dropshipping journey a little smoother.
As a beginner, we advise you to start with one product, do not fill your store with morethan 4 products as a beginner.
4. Create videos on youtube
Youtube is the number one video platform on the internet with millions of video creators. Many videos are published every single day by creators. The good thing about youtube is, you don’t need a lot of skills and equipment.
All you need is a video camera and video editing software, the best video editing software is adobe premiere. Youtube allows people of all age types, one of the most paid YouTubers is a kid showcasing how to use toys to other kids.
You can create a channel talking about anything that interests you, it doesn’t matter if you teaching people how to construct or how to cook a pizza.
5. Start doing remote jobs
Freelancing is one of the best ways to make money as a civil engineer, there are many jobs for engineers on sites like flexjobs. All you have to do is sign up now and still have jobs.
The freelancing economy is increasing day by day because employers find it cheaper to hire a parttime worker than having a monthly permanent worker.
As a civil engineer,, there are various opportunities you can get on flex jobs. You can also sign up on freelancer and up-work for opportunities.
Can You Work From Home as a Civil Engineer?
Civil engineering employers general still have a culture of face time, especially in construction where clients expect you to be onsite and attend meetings. Civil engineers have meetings with government officials and meetings with design teams.
While it can be possible to work from home occasionally, with rare exception most firms don’t offer 100% (or even 1 day a week) work from home as an option. It is slowly but surely getting better (as this is surely an outdated way to operate), but there’s a long way to go.
The general consensus was that, unless you’ve worked somewhere for a long time and negotiate that arrangement because you are already trusted to get your work done, it’s hard to come by and very rarely an advertised position. And if it is advertised, it’s generally on a temporary basis with no ability to advance.
If you really must work from home, your best bet is going to be to start your own firm, taking on discrete projects like CAD, steel detailing, or setting up analysis models for larger firms. That path is risky and not for everyone, but can be lucrative if you do it right. It can also be exhausting and financially disastrous if it is done wrong.
Can Civil Engineer Make 200k?
There are a number of ways to make over 200k as a civil engineer. You have to keep in mind civil engineering relies on experience & in many aspects relationships. To have a high income as a civil engineer, you need to have a good reputation & enough experience in your field. Keep in mind none of these ways are a guaranty to make 200k but you will get close with hard work:
Work for yourself in water/ wastewater: while the margins in municipal world are not as high as other industries for civil engineers, with a good network, its easier to get projects & finish them with 1–3 people as long as you have enough knowledge. You’d need a solid relationship with municipalities & hard work to get the small projects they give you as a test run very well.
Land development: this is one of the areas that you can make a lot of money, but you can also lose a lot. Many people start their own land development business after some experience & they do very well when the economy is good.
Having said that there are developers who ended up losing a lot of money back in 2009. You’re essentially gambling with loans; if you pay enough attention to the market, you’ll do very well in this field. Having said that, land development doesn’t have as much civil engineering involved in success of it as it needs business acumen.
Work in lucritive industries like oil & gas & be irreplaceable: Many people in oil industry get very close to 150k with a lot of experience. You can even do better if you know ins and outs of the industry & different disciplines.
Many civil engineers transition into more managerial rules in oil & gas & do very well. In many cases 200k is achievable. Rex Tillerson, former CEO of Exxon & US Secretary of State is a civil engineer & he made well above 200k. In general, operators/ upstream/ downstream companies pay better.
Get your PE license and start a side hustle: after about 10 years of experience, if you play your cards right, you can make around 140–160k as a civil engineer with a PE license. You can do consulting on the side and make the rest if you have a strong network. I know people working for fabrication shops, and places that need small work but don’t want to hire an engineer & have a good income.
Work in construction & use your connections to do side projects: one of my friends is making well above 200k doing this. He gets paid around 140k being on the construction site & by knowing a lot of contractors on the job & having a decent relationship with them, gets small projects on the side & uses the contractors he knows to get the job done. It can be something as small as fixing a pavement or bigger jobs.
Start your own consulting firm: this is the main way for anyone to have a higher income; however, it requires tremendous sacrifice. For fields like structural & geotechnical engineering, there’s a always a demand, but remember they are also high liability areas. for example, if you’re a structural engineering firm, a lot of times you are the subcontractor for a project & aren’t paid as much.
If you’re savvy enough, you can bid on projects yourself & act as a prime to subcontract none structural part of the project, this way you get close to 200k easier. Remember even if you have a firm & it’s making a lot of money, doesn’t mean you’re ready to pay yourself 200k. Specially early on, cash means a lot more to be used in the business.
This is an easy one: move to an expensive city! If you work in NYC for example, you can have a high income after working 5–7 years in fields like construction. If you’re a great engineer/ manager, you’ll get close to 170–180k or more. But what goes in your pocket after all the expenses & tax you’re paying is not going to be as much.
Remember no matter what path you choose, you won’t make what you want to make if your goal is only to make money. In any of the above areas, the only people I’ve seen that end up being successful are the ones that have the passion for what they do. You have to find what you love, focus on your great work & network, income will happen.
There are two main ways to have a financially successful career: first, be irreplaceable in what you do, to your clients, employer, colleagues & anyone you work with. Show that you’re the best engineer they’ve seen & you’ll do great.
Second, have more than one source of income, it can be any of the side hustles we mentioned or do anything else that generates income for you. A 200k salary will put you close to be a millionaire in couple of years; an average millionaire in America has 6–7 source of income. Work hard & diversify & you’ll get there.
Are Civil Engineers in Demand?
Employment of civil engineers is projected to grow 2 percent from 2019 to 2029, slower than the average for all occupations. As current U.S. infrastructure experiences growing obsolescence, civil engineers will be needed to manage projects to rebuild, repair, and upgrade bridges, roads, levees, dams, airports, buildings, and other structures.
A growing population likely means that new water systems will be required while, at the same time, aging, existing water systems must be maintained to reduce or eliminate leaks. In addition, more waste treatment plants will be needed to help clean the nation’s waterways. Civil engineers will continue to play a key part in all of this work.
The work of civil engineers will be needed for renewable-energy projects. Thus, as these new projects gain approval, civil engineers will be further involved in overseeing the construction of structures such as wind farms and solar arrays.
Although state and local governments continue to face financial challenges and may have difficulty funding all projects, some delayed projects will have to be completed to build and maintain critical infrastructure, as well as to protect the public and the environment.
Applicants who gain experience by participating in a co-op program while in college will have the best opportunities.
In addition, new standards known collectively as the Body of Knowledge are growing in importance within civil engineering, and this development is likely to result in a heightened need for a graduate education. Therefore, those who enter the occupation with a graduate degree will likely have better prospects.
Solve Civil Engineering Questions And Earn Money
Looking for online freelance work can be tough, but if you have expertise in areas like chemistry, math, physics, economics, finance, accounting, mechanical engineering, business management, or statistics. Study.com could have the perfect solution for you.
Study.com Expert Q&A gives you access to thousands of user-submitted homework questions at the high school and college level in the area of your choice. Their goal is to provide clear answers and step-by-step explanations that students can learn from and apply to future homework and exams.
Payment is reliable. Unlike other freelance work, you won’t have to worry about sporadic or delayed payment.
Study.com contractors work from home, so you never have to get out of your pajamas to answer questions for us. You can work as much or as little as you choose, so your schedule is completely flexible.
Engaging and satisfying work. As part of Study.com’s homework Q&A project, you can hand-pick the questions you want solve in a field you’re passionate about. And at the same time, you’ll be helping real students understand challenging concepts.
Online Civil Engineering Consultancy
The average annual pay for a Civil Engineer Consultant in the United States is $94,854 a year. Just in case you need a simple salary calculator, that works out to be approximately $45.60 an hour. This is the equivalent of $1,824/week or $7,904/month.
While ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $174,000 and as low as $25,500, the majority of Civil Engineer Consultant salaries currently range between $67,000 (25th percentile) to $114,500 (75th percentile) with top earners (90th percentile) making $148,500 annually across the United States.
The average pay range for a Civil Engineer Consultant varies greatly (by as much as $47,500), which suggests there may be many opportunities for advancement and increased pay based on skill level, location and years of experience.
Online Civil Engineering Projects
There are various areas to pick from, like structural engineering, transportation engineering, environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, etc. Choose the area which interests you the most and find a suitable topic in that domain.
1. Geographic Information System using Q-GIS
If you are fascinated by the technology behind Google Maps and wish to learn more about it, this is the perfect project for you. This project will give you the exciting opportunity to create your own Geographic Information System using Q-GIS software.
Starting from a simple map, you will move to map an entire park while learning about the methods used for data collection, processing, and manipulation for the same. It will also help you get hands-on experience with important concepts like shortest distance finder, affine transformation, contour creation, and geo-processing.
2. Structural and Foundation Analysis
If you wish to pursue a future in the construction line, structural engineering should be your strong point. This project will help in strengthening your knowledge about the structural and foundation designs of tall buildings, and seismic designs using SAP2000, ETABS, and SAFE software.
It will further help you learn about frame analysis, application of wind and seismic loads, analysis and design of shallow foundations, project report regeneration, reinforcement detailing and scheduling.
3. Construction Project Management & Building Information Modeling
As we’re entering the era of smart cities and skyscrapers, the demand for quality BIM engineers has just been increasing. This project will prepare you to be one such engineer before you start working.
It will help you learn about project concepts and BIM using Primavera and Graphisoft Archicad software. You will also get to explore concepts like CPM & PERT, 3D Mass modeling, earned value management, resource management, and budget and rendering techniques.
4. Tall Building Design
With the increasing number of skyscrapers around the world, the demand for skilled civil engineers is also increasing. This project will allow you to understand and work on the considerations taken during the design of tall buildings, and about the varied loads acting on them using SAP2000 and ETABS software.
It will let you design your building and further learn about frame analysis, project report generation, application of loads, and reinforcement detailing and scheduling.
5. Seismic Design using SAP2000 & ETABS
Whenever a place is affected by an earthquake, many buildings collapsed and thousands of people lose their lives. With the advancement in technology, engineers now construct seismic-resistant buildings.
This project will help you design one such building using SAP2000 & ETABS software based on IS codes. It will also help you gain information about ideas like time history method, response spectrum method, frame analysis, application of seismic loads, linear and non-linear dynamic analysis.
How to Make Money as an Engineer
Here are a few of the best ways to start boosting your engineering salary.
1. Earn a Master’s Degree
A master’s degree is increasingly required to advance into higher-paying supervisory and management roles. It sharpens your technical skills and can establish you as an expert in a hot field, such as additive manufacturing and 3D printing.
“Becoming a technical expert in a particular industry or product will command a higher salary than being a generalist engineer,” says Tom Goettl, vice president and principal recruiter for Konik PrimeStaff, a leading engineering recruiting company based in Edina, MN.
2. Earn an MBA
If you are interested in management opportunities, a Master of Business Administration degree might be the best approach. An MBA is ideal for mechanical engineers with an aptitude for business management. “The skills that come with an MBA enable engineers to be promoted into business oversight roles,” Goettl says.“They will learn, for example, how to tie profit and loss statements from the entire company into an engineering department and how every department’s performance affects the company bottom line.”
He does caution that management is not always a good fit for engineers.
“Many great engineers move into management roles only to learn afterwards that they dislike holding others accountable, or coaching and leading teams,” he says.“You don’t want to spend the rest of your career in a role you’re not passionate about simply because the pay is a bit higher.”
3. Become a PE
Professional engineers (PE) tend to move into higher-paying supervisory and management jobs than non-PEs because only PEs can sign and seal engineering drawings or serve as a fully qualified expert witnesses.
Obtaining a PE license shows you are serious about your profession and are part of an elite group of engineers. Also, an increasing number of government agencies, educational institutions, and private-sector clients prefer to only work with licensed professional engineers.
4. Internal Development Opportunities
Does your company have upcoming special projects such as a system conversion, or need someone to travel for a customer visit? Volunteering for these projects will be remembered in your next merit review.
“Employees who are viewed as helping out wherever needed will be looked at for future promotions and salary increases,” Goettl says. “These projects will also stretch your technical abilities such as coding, Excel, and project management. In the event of a company layoff, you’ll either be irreplaceable at your current company, or much more attractive to another.Your proven ability to help out wherever needed will be taken into consideration in your next salary discussion.”
5. Change Your Engineering Industry
According to the BLS, the median annual wages in 2017 for mechanical engineers in the top industries were:
Scientific research and development services | $98,530 |
Computer and electronic product manufacturing | 91,440 |
Architectural, engineering, and related services | 89,180 |
Transportation equipment manufacturing | 86,670 |
Machinery manufacturing | 77,400 |
A simple shift from machinery manufacturing to scientific R&D (such as robotics, medical devices, pharmaceutical), for example, can earn an ME an extra $21,000 per year.
6. Change Your State
Pay levels from MEs vary widely from state to state. States that have reputations for high-tech fields like aerospace, defense, biotechnology, robotics, IT, and biomedicine have average salaries close to $100,000 (Massachusetts $96,010; Maryland $104,250; Virginia $100,850; California $104,030). An engineer can get a big salary bump just by moving one state over.
An ME in Iowa, for example, earned an average of $74,120 in 2017, one of the lowest salaries in the country. But next door in Illinois the average salary for an ME was $92,040. Earning that extra $18,000 a year over a 30-year time period equates to about $540,000.
7. Ask for a Raise
Getting more money could be as easy as asking for a raise, especially if you know you are underpaid or have performed especially well. But this, as you can guess, can be a stressful process. According to Huffington Post article How to Ask for a Raise in 2018, key factors are doing salary research for your market, being prepared, and keeping expectations realistic. Most annual raises are between 1 and 5 percent. Also consider asking for a bonus when asking for a raise.
How Much $$$?
Exactly how much of an increase will these extra efforts have on your base salary? In most cases, mechanical engineers who obtain a Master’s, MBA, or PE can expect a 10 percent to 15 percent increase in their salaries. An engineer with an MBA may also be a strong future candidate for the role of engineering director or vice president of engineering.
“Once you’ve volunteered for special projects and proven you’re a strong asset to the company, merit increases will be higher as well,” Goettl says.“Typical merit increases are 2 to 5 percent and those with stronger reviews will be rewarded on the higher end of that range.
Also, keep in mind that next year’s merit increase will be based off your higher salary, so after a few years, the extra initiatives you’ve taken on can really pay off in the long run.” Mark Crawford is an independent writer.
Civil Engineer Income
Civil Engineers made a median salary of $87,060 in 2019. The best-paid 25 percent made $113,580 that year, while the lowest-paid 25 percent made $68,130.
The metropolitan areas that pay the highest salary in the civil engineer profession are San Francisco, Midland, Naples, Sacramento, and Riverside.
Best-Paying States for Civil Engineers
The states and districts that pay Civil Engineers the highest mean salary are California ($110,480), Louisiana ($104,990), New Jersey ($102,950), New York ($102,820), and District of Columbia ($101,750).
Civil Engineering And Building Construction Salary
Those interested in a career in the field will want to consider the anticipated construction engineering salary.
Here, it may be important to draw a distinction between two job titles: Construction engineer and construction engineering manager. While these roles are similar in many ways, construction engineers may have greater responsibilities in the design phase, while construction engineering managers are more involved in on-site management.
According to data from the compensation website PayScale.com, the median annual salary for a construction engineer was approximately $69,000 as of September 2020.
PayScale reports the median annual salary of construction engineering managers was around $92,000 as of September 2020. Bonuses can add to salaries, and in some work environments, salaries may be augmented with profit-sharing opportunities.
Civil Engineering Career Salary
Civil Engineers earned an average salary of $94,360 in 2019. Comparable jobs earned the following average salary in 2019: Petroleum Engineers made $156,780, Environmental Engineers made $94,220, Mechanical Engineers made $93,540, and Architects made $89,560.
Do Civil Engineers Make Good Money?
Employment numbers have been increasing and, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook, employment of civil engineers is projected to about as fast as the average for all jobs, with approximately 20,500 civil engineer jobs being added from 2018 to 2028, an increase of 6%.
The national average annual wage of an civil engineer is $93,720, according to the BLS, a little under double the average annual salary for all occupations, $51,960. As is common with occupations and salaries, geography has a major influence on the size of incomes. Factors dependent on geography such as taxes, policies and supply and demand all can impact the salaries of civil engineers.
Below is a list of the top-10 highest-paying states for civil engineers.
- Alaska average civil engineer salary: $125,470
- California average civil engineer salary: $109,680
- New Jersey average civil engineer salary: $103,760
- Texas average civil engineer salary: $102,990
- New York average civil engineer salary: $102,250
- Nevada average civil engineer salary: $100,700
- Louisiana average civil engineer salary: $98,700
- Virginia average civil engineer salary: $94,780
- Illinois average civil engineer salary: $94,570
- Massachusetts average civil engineer salary: $94,210
Civil Side Work
Civil engineering is a particular branch of engineering that includes the design, construction, and maintenance of any infrastructure. More than that, they are also to go to people whenever we need some help in the issues of pollution and recycling. So basically, they cover almost all the details that we might need in the aspect of building and maintenance.
1. Building Control Surveyor
In this job, you will be consulted with legal matters. These includes checking if all the documents are complete and if all the legal procedures will follow. Basically, you just have to be knowledgeable about all the tiny details that the construction should go through along with its requirements.
2. Computer-Aided Design (CAD) Technician
A lot of professionals are using this advanced technology. Now, if you have the skills to troubleshoot system-related problems and make it work normally, then it will be an additional way of earning for your side.
3. Consulting Civil Engineer
As a consulting engineer, your role is to assist your client in planning, managing, designing, supervising, and finally, constructing of projects. You have to make sure that the project will be done on the given timeframe, safely and efficiently. This is one of the top tide jobs for civil engineers.
4. Contracting Civil Engineer
Your primary role is to execute the plan of consulting civil engineers. In short, you are the go-to person in the actual construction process. You have to oversee every detail relative to the design, construction, and safety matters.
5. Design Engineer
Being a design engineer, you’ll work closely on the matters concerning materials, design, execution, and all the tiny details. In this work, one has to be knowledgeable of all the other technical concepts relative to civil engineering. Those who are great in CAD will also find this job very interesting.
6. Nuclear Engineer
Nuclear power station will be your main area of work in this case. You’ll perhaps be interested in building, running, or decommissioning a specific site. Your area of focus would be on technical assistance, sustainability, and safety precautionary measures of everyone.
7. Site Engineer
You’ll cover the organizational, supervisory, and technical aspect of construction projects. The overall job here is to keep the construction going according to the plan and at the same time, keep everyone safe at all times.
8. Structural Engineer
Pressures and stresses, those will be the main focus of your job. Identify the strength of each and every part of the construction site. Do some adjustments if needed, and you’re good to work! All in all, you just have to be really good in your craft to do this kind of gig. After all, this is also one of the ideal side jobs for civil engineers in general practice of the degree.
A structural engineer focus mainly on design of any structures.
9. Water Engineer
Making sure that the water is clean in a specific structure as well as other liquids. If I may say, this is somehow in need of advanced scientific knowledge as well as other concepts in the area of science and engineering. It may not sound easy, but I am telling you that this job is very rewarding.
How Much Civil Engineers Earn Per Month?
The average monthly pay for a Civil Engineer in the United States is $6,539 a month.
While ZipRecruiter is seeing monthly salaries as high as $9,292 and as low as $3,333, the majority of Civil Engineer salaries currently range between $5,417 (25th percentile) to $7,458 (75th percentile) across the United States.
The average pay range for a Civil Engineer varies greatly (by as much as $2,042), which suggests there may be many opportunities for advancement and increased pay based on skill level, location and years of experience.
How to Make a Lot of Money in Civil Engineering
As a highly skilled civil engineer , you can either go on job hunt for reputed companies ( L&T , JP Morgan , Mckinsey , etc) building flyovers , metro sites , subways , parks .. etc viz any government project .The domain require competitiveness , intelligence and creative bent in mind. You will be rewarded appropriately for your work.
As a mediocre civil engineer , you can become thekedaar , architect or rajmistri in local construction companies (supertech , amrapali , gaursons etc). Ordinary pay packages with almost copy paste construction ideas in the job. To get the best out of this, gather investors and start your own venture. Build well planned houses at suitable locations and sell them.
Most rewarding stream is : Management . India is flooded with engineers . Supply over exceeds demand. Learn management and control the flood.
Income From Civil Engineering Blog
You can sell your articles to others blog but you must write about the thing you are well known as it will not bore you also and you will be able to write about that thing.
As a civil engineer you can write about the products and guides in your field like how to make a wonderful map,CAD,CAM etc
You can sell your specialized content. Since you would be knowing the industry very closely. Find those bloggers writing on the same niche/topic. You can do partnerships with them and get a fixed amount of profit from their blogs.
Do Civil Engineers Make Good Money UK?
The average (mean) Civil Engineers full time annual salary in the UK is £42,942 and the median £41,041. For men the mean full time salary of £43,070 is 5% higher than the full time mean for women £41,677. This is calculated on the basis of different levels of Civil Engineers jobs in the UK
Usually, the starting salary is around £25,000-£30,000 for an entry level, graduate or junior civil engineering. However, this salary scale can be around £46,000 – £55,000 for a senior civil engineering .
The salaries can be considerably higher and vary a lot in cities like London, Brighton, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh. It is also a fact that your salary will depend whether you are a junior, trainee, graduate or a senior civil engineer.
Civil Engineering PhD Salary
According to a 100% employer reported salary sources the median salary for a Civil Engineer V with a JD, MD, PhD or Equivalent is $144,584 – $154,708.
Civil Engineer V with the following degree | Will likely fall in this salary range |
---|---|
Bachelor’s Degree | $141,500 – $151,288 |
Master’s Degree or MBA | $142,785 – $152,713 |
JD, MD, PhD or Equivalent | $144,584 – $154,708 |
Structural Engineer Blogs
The following is the 5 Top Structural Engineering Blogs and Websites To Follow
1. Old Structures Engineering
- Location : New York, United States
- About : Recognized as one of the leading consultancies in structural engineering for historic and old buildings, Old Structures Engineering (OSE) provides reports, drawings, and specifications that give detailed guidance to owners, designers, and contractors, enabling the preservation, restoration, and alteration of landmarked and other older structures.
- Frequency : 1 post / day
- Since : May 2007
2. Green Structural Engineering
- Location : Fulham, England, United Kingdom
- About : Green Structural Engineering is an award-winning structural and civil engineering consultancy.
- Frequency : 2 posts / year
- Since : Jul 2015
- Social : Facebook fans 251 ⋅ Twitter followers 310 ⋅ Social Engagement 1 ⋅ Domain Authority 14 ⋅ Alexa Rank 7.8M
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3. HIE Consulting Engineers
- Location : Colorado, United States
- About : HIE Consulting Engineers is a provider of full-scope structural engineering services for property managers, investors, attorneys, insurance carriers, and others involved in property oversight and transactions.
- Frequency : 1 post / month
- Since : May 2015
- Social : Facebook fans 25 ⋅ Twitter followers 2.1K ⋅ Social Engagement 1ⓘ ⋅
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4. CAS Structure » Structural Engineering
- Location : London, England, United Kingdom
- About : CAS Structure is focused on providing structural design and packages for extensions, new builds, loft conversions, alterations. Over 500 projects worldwide.
- Frequency : 2 posts / month
- Since : Nov 2019
5. Dudley Engineering
- Location : College Station, Texas, United States
- About : Dudley Engineering is a Full service consulting and diagnostic structural engineering company. Our core market sectors are commercial, hospitality, religious and multi-family. We have extensive experience in all building systems including structural steel, reinforced concrete, CMU, cold-form steel, heavy timber, and conventional light-frame lumber.
- Frequency : 2 posts / quarter
- Since : Apr 2017
Extra Income For Civil Engineers
Whether you’re a freelance engineer, student or have a full-time job, it’s easy to use your knowledge and skills to work on some lucrative side hustles for engineers.
Working on tasks is the best side hustle for engineers
The gig economy is perfect for engineers. You can use your expertise, know exactly what deliverable is expected, when it needs to be ready and how much you’ll get paid. Plus there’s usually some flexibility in terms of where you do the work, which means you could do it from home if you want.
In addition to making extra money on the side, tasks are also a great way to use your technical skills and knowledge in a different industry. As a result it offers opportunities that you’re not getting in your day job. If you’re thinking of changing jobs at some point, this new experience could help you land that dream job.
Platforms like Tasker help you get engineering tasks with high-tech companies that are looking for your skills.
Start teaching as a side hustle and share your engineering knowledge
Education is one of the fastest-growing industries. So why not consider teaching as a side gig? Now that most of us are unable to work outside our home environment, it could be a great side hustle for engineers looking to work around the pandemic.
With remote tools and platforms like Udemy or Teachable it’s easy to set up and teach classes, whether it’s one-on-one or to a larger audience looking to brush up on their knowledge.
Make small-batch products and sell them online
When you think outside the box, there’s so much more you can do with your engineering skills! It is not uncommon for engineers to create boutique products, which they sell directly to consumers.
That way you take advantage of your background while doing something creative and fun. You could try your hand at 3D-printing products if you have a knack for design. There are platforms that enable you to set up online shops which makes it an ideal side income.
Offer consulting services
Many engineers go the freelance consulting route, working on a project-by-project basis for a nice side hustle. This is a great way to supplement your mainstream income. And you’ll enjoy additional benefits such as widening your professional network.
Create online engineering content for passive income
Are you a good with words and do you enjoy sharing your knowledge with others? Why not start a blog or YouTube channel? It can be about engineering or any other topic you’re passionate about. And who knows, your future employer might ‘discover’ you through your content.
Be aware that making money from content creation doesn’t happen overnight. The trick is to consistently create quality content. Eventually this can generate a nice passive income from ads, affiliate links or sponsored content.
What Type of Civil Engineer Gets Paid Most?
Engineering Project Managers
An Engineering Project Manager is responsible for planning, directing, and organizing projects, preparing proposals, maintaining financial records, creating a product strategy, and ensuring the projects strictly follow the safety regulations.
The role of an Engineering Project Manager is to survey a project and provide engineering support services for all divisions and be a backup for all members of the engineering department as needed. Another responsibility for this position is to process practical experience in various fields of engineering including civil, mechanical, electrical, and environmental.
You must have excellent communication skills, the ability to manage time efficiently, and the capacity to work with little supervision. A bachelor’s degree in the civil engineering discipline is a must in this field.
An Engineering Project Manager can expect a compensation ranging from $55k to $106k a year (depending on states) and has been seen to go as high as $196k per year, making it the highest Civil Engineer Salary on our list.
Senior Civil Engineer
A Senior Civil Engineer is responsible for planning, designing, developing, and managing projects to concerning construction and repairs of buildings, bridges, highways, and other structures.
The primary responsibilities of a Senior Civil Engineer are to review the engineering division and approve residential and commercial projects and construction drawings. It is also the duty of the Senior Civil Engineer to review permits, ensure compliance with the codes and standards, screen traffic and parking issues, handle water drainage and right-of-way issues, and to secure requirements of planning.
Part of the job description of a senior civil engineer is to act as the City Engineer in the absence of such. They help manage the development and implementation of a stormwater management program to ensure permit requirements are met. They also conduct examinations to support compliance with state and local codes and support project design projections.
They also determine the selection criteria and work with engineering and purchasing staff to select the contractors and engineering consultants. They specify parameters and scope of work for the contractors and consultants, review and approve work done by the consultants, including pay requests from them, and supervise staff engineers and public services.
They are responsible for providing technical assistance and consulting with other departments regarding engineering functions including site development, drainage, and transportation; providing training related to the use and development of the geographic information system and its database as well as software applications, answering technical questions and providing information to the public.
Those who search for employment within the field are required to hold a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and at least 6 years of experience in surveying, engineering design, inspection, and drafting.
Based on the official data report, Senior Civil Engineer salary ranges from $79k to $132k annually, and sometimes they can go as high as $163k per year, which makes a professional working in this field the 2nd highest paid Civil Engineer on our list.
Engineering Managers
An Engineering Manager coordinates and directs design projects, making detailed plans to accomplish goals and directs the integration of technical activities. They also analyze technology, resource needs, and market demands to plan and assess the feasibility of designs.
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An Engineering Manager is accountable for the planning and directing of the installation, testing, operation, maintenance, and repair of facilities and equipment. They are responsible for directing, reviewing, and approving product designs and changes. They prepare budgets, bids, and contracts while addressing the negotiation of research contracts.
They also develop and implement policies, standards, and procedures for the engineering and technical work performed in the department and perform administrative functions such as reviewing and writing reports, approving expenditures, enforcing rules and making decisions about the materials to purchase or services needed.
A bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and managerial experience is needed for this position.
According to statistics, the median salary for a Civil Engineering Manager ranges from $81k to $97k per year, making it the 3rd highest Civil Engineer Salary on our list. Although entry-level salaries will be higher for this group, the range is rather small, making it less viable in terms of getting a higher salary later on.
Finally
So there you have. Whether you are already a civil engineer or you are considering a career in this field, the good news is that you can make money. This article contains how much you can make and the different earning potentials for you.