Civil Engineers: where your skills can take you
Perform engineering duties in planning, designing, and overseeing construction and maintenance of building structures and facilities, such as roads, railroads, airports, bridges, harbors, channels, dams, irrigation projects, pipelines, power plants, and water and sewage systems.
Usual study level (from US data): Bachelor degree (uni — or check Cert/Diploma + experience pathways first) · State registration to practise without supervision in Qld (RPEQ), Vic and the ACT
Job names and descriptions on this page come from the US government's job list (O*NET). Some use American words, for example "elementary school" for primary school.
Three moves that use what a civil engineer already knows
Ranked by how much of the job's skills and knowledge carries over. Each one says what the move usually costs in study.
Transportation Engineers
In national shortage — employers actively looking (Jobs and Skills Australia, 2025)
🧰 Your current job already uses solving difficult problems, managing your own time, seeing how the parts of a system affect each other and sound judgement.
🎓 A certificate or diploma. About the same level of study as your job, but in a different field: it leans on Transportation, which your job does not use much. The most common level in the US is a bachelor's degree (86%).
🪪 State registration to practise without supervision in Qld (RPEQ), Vic and the ACT
🔎 Find degrees on Course Seeker ↗ (type the job's name there)
Develop plans for surface transportation projects, according to established engineering standards and state or federal construction policy. Prepare designs, specifications, or estimates for transportation facilities. Plan modifications of existing streets, highways, or freeways to improve traffic flow.
Energy Engineers
🧰 Your current job already uses solving difficult problems, seeing how the parts of a system affect each other, working out what a system needs to do and sound judgement.
🎓 No more study. Your current level of study is usually enough. The most common level in the US is a bachelor's degree (64%).
🔎 Find degrees on Course Seeker ↗ (type the job's name there)
Design, develop, or evaluate energy-related projects or programs to reduce energy costs or improve energy efficiency during the designing, building, or remodeling stages of construction. May specialize in electrical systems; heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems; green buildings; lighting; air quality; or energy procurement.
Architects
🧰 Your current job already uses solving difficult problems, working out what a system needs to do, seeing how the parts of a system affect each other and sound judgement.
🎓 A degree. More study than your current job. The most common level in the US is a master's degree or higher (48%).
🔎 Find degrees on Course Seeker ↗ (type the job's name there)
Plan and design structures, such as private residences, office buildings, theaters, factories, and other structural property.
These are the three closest moves. The full list holds 24. Answer four quick questions — how much more study, which field, what you want more of, where you live — and the list fits you. Subscribers can plan any move.
See all 24 moves →Take the free testData sources and licences
O*NET 30.3 — This service incorporates information from the O*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. JobMatcha has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.
ABS ANZSCO 2022 Australian Update — Australian occupation tags are derived from the Australian Bureau of Statistics ANZSCO 2022 Australian Update correspondence tables (ABS, © Commonwealth of Australia, licensed under CC BY 4.0), bridged to U.S. occupations via U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics SOC crosswalks (public domain). Only high-confidence (>= 0.8) one-to-one chains are shown; other mappings are withheld as 'Australian data unavailable'.
Australian pay and shortage lines: Jobs and Skills Australia.