Graduate Civil Engineer

Bridge Builder documentaries and engineering catastrophes made civil engineers look like the people who decide where the bridge goes. The reality is closer to a 23-year-old graduate at an engineering consultancy, drafting the road drainage layout in Civil 3D for a senior engineer to check before it goes to the contractor. The path runs through a four-year bachelor of engineering honours in civil engineering from an engineer's Australia accredited university. After graduation, most join a graduate programme for two years, rotating through three or four disciplines, structural, geotechnical, transport, water, design, site. Until they make chartered professional engineer, every drawing they produce must be checked and signed by a chartered engineer.