What Qualifications and Skills are Important for Civil Engineers? A Job Advertisement Analysis

Abstract

The Turkish construction sector has been developing day by day. According to the sources it has moved into second place in the world after China. Turkish companies have been constructing many buildings all over the world. In light of these developments, Turkish construction companies now require civil engineers to have different and higher level skills than in the past. This paper examines the knowledge, skills and competencies demanded of early career civil engineer graduates through a content analysis of job advertisements. The study focuses particularly on jobs which are appropriate for civil engineers with three or fewer years of working experience. The job advertisement data was gathered from January 2011 to March 2011. Our analysis shows that a wide variety of job titles require a high level of technical knowledge and competency as well as strong communication skills. This paper briefly situates this study in the literature, describes the research method - essentially the collection and content analysis of job ads - and then presents the results. It concludes with a consideration of the issues arising, particularly the role of entry level positions in preparing their incumbents for more senior positions in the future.