As our infrastructure ages, engineers are busy helping to build new bridges, highways, water systems and airports—a need that fuels the demand for civil engineers and other construction professionals. While employers favor applicants with graduate degrees and hands-on experience, those who hire also should look for evidence that an engineer knows how to apply his or her knowledge in novel ways.
When I started in this field, aspiring engineers needed a love of logic, a penchant for precision and a delight in differential equations. We solved narrowly defined problems. Over time, some of us began to function more as technicians than engineers.