Find out the top 10 core skills you need to master as a civil transportation designer and what hard skills you need to know to succeed in this job.

A civil transportation designer designs and constructs different transportation systems. Besides, he/she participates in route planning by providing technical advice on the best routes to take at a certain period as well as determining the cost of construction.

Other duties include carrying out a cost-benefit analysis to determine if the proposed road or highway is sustainable economically. In addition, they are responsible for checking if the roads are designed and built in line with government regulations and whether is susceptible to hazards. Using design software, they make designs for new routes taking into account the cost and the effectiveness of the routes in solving traffic problems.

Core Skills Required to be a Civil Transportation Designer

Core skills describe a set of non-technical abilities, knowledge, and understanding that form the basis for successful participation in the workplace. Core skills enable employees to efficiently and professionally navigate the world of work and interact with others, as well as adapt and think critically to solve problems.

Core skills are often tagged onto job descriptions to find or attract employees with specific essential core values that enable the company to remain competitive, build relationships, and improve productivity.

A civil transportation designer should master the following 10 core skills to fulfill her job properly.

Interpersonal Skills:

Interpersonal Skills are a set of abilities that enable a person to positively interact and work with others effectively while avoiding office disputes and personal issues with each other.

A Civil Transportation Designer must learn the importance of these skills in the workplace and emphasis on every employee possessing them to build a more cohabit able and productive workplace with the help of each.

Facilitation:

Facilitation is making tasks or life easy for others while ensuring the daily running of successful meetings or workshops or business at large.

A Civil Transportation Designer must use facilitation to process and structure a system that meets the needs of either an individual or a team to help them achieve their goals as well as add value to their lives by making sure each participates.

Networking:

Networking is the process that encourages an exchange of information and ideas among individuals or groups that share the same interests.

A Civil Transportation Designer is required to establish policies and procedures that govern networking to form professional relationships that will boost the future of business and employment prospects while maintaining regular contact with each other to gain each other's trust thus developing few quality relationships.

Developing Others:

Developing others is an unremitting process that focuses on the broader, longer-term growth of individuals to nurture them to their potential and promote future development.

A Civil Transportation Designer needs to support, coach, positively impacts and effectively aid in developing talents of their staff by motivating them to become outstanding in their behavioral change and performance improvement that opens up development opportunities in the organization.

Creativity:

Creativity is the skill of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality through the ability to perceive the world in new ways, find hidden patterns, make connections between unrelated phenomena and generate solutions.

A Civil Transportation Designer should be able to think, then reproduce ideas and act on them to bring awareness of what was currently hidden and point to a new life that will progress the business to new heights.

Equal Opportunity and Diversity:

Equal Opportunity and Diversity means having employees from a wide range of background that includes different ages, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious belief, educational background, physical ability and treating them equally.

A Civil Transportation Designer is required by the law to create a workplace free from discrimination and harassment to its employees as well as understand and adhere to the rights and responsibilities under the human rights and antidiscrimination law.

Flexibility:

Flexibility is an important skill that allows employers and employees to make an arrangement about working on maintaining a work/life balance to help organizations improve the productivity and efficiency of their balance.

A Civil Transportation Designer needs creative ideas on how to plan flexible schedules for all his employees by incorporating flexible working arrangements and individual flexibility agreements that allow negotiation to change how certain agreements apply to them and how they can be adjusted.

Potential for Advancement:

The potential for Advancement is the ability to make something better by being more skillful, more efficient, and more useful to produce high-quality results.

A Civil Transportation Designer needs to invest in his employees by creating room for individual advancement that encourages stronger job performance because it positions the employees to demonstrate just how well they can perform their jobs through motivation and feedback that are critical to the employee performance.

Project and Goal Focus:

Project and Goal Focus is setting your mind and heart on things that matter and add value to your life against those things that add no value at all or of little value.

A Civil Transportation Designer ought to learn of early hiccups that may cause distraction and get to motivate the employees early enough to see the projects completed promptly and in good condition.

Technology Trend Awareness:

Technology Trend Awareness is staying updated with the useful upcoming trends that can serve your business better and easier.

A Civil Transportation Designer must be able to look back at the setbacks and success of the company and consider new possibilities for the future by the use of technology looking for a better, faster, more practical approach that can make business more productive.

Hard Skills Required to be a Civil Transportation Designer

Hard skills are job-specific skill sets, or expertise, that are teachable and whose presence can be tested through exams. While core skills are more difficult to quantify and less tangible, hard skills are quantifiable and more defined.

Hard skills are usually listed on an applicant's resume to help recruiters know the applicant's qualifications for the applied position. A recruiter, therefore, needs to review the applicant's resume and education to find out if he/she has the knowledge necessary to get the job done.

A civil transportation designer should have a good command of the following hard skills to succeed in her job.

Civil Transportation Designer: Hard skills list

Analyze Survey Reports, Maps, and Data to Plan Projects
Assess Environmental Impact and Risks
Assemble Project Deliverables
Assist With Staging, Testing, and Shipping of Equipment Prior to Deployment
AutoCAD
Communication
Compile and Submit Permit Applications to Local, State, and Federal Agencies
Create Blueprints Using CAD (Computer Aided Design)
Critical Thinking
Decision Making
Design Public Work Projects
Develop Designs, Layouts, and Design Calculations
Develop Project Scope and Timeline
Ensure Job Sites Meet Legal Guidelines, and Health and Safety Requirements
Experience with Civil 3D
Experience with Microstation
Experience with Reinforced Concrete and Steel Design
Experience with On-Site Construction Observation and Management
Highly Detail Oriented
High Level of Analytical Thinking
Identify Possible Design Improvements
Leadership
Listening
Manage and Monitor Each Stage of Project
Manage the Repair and Maintenance of Public and Private Infrastructures
Map Reading
Mathematics
Organizational Skills
Perform or Oversee Soil Testing
Perform or Oversee Surveying Operations
Physics
Prepare Designs and Estimates
Prepare Conclusion and Analysis Reports
Present Environmental Impact Statements to the Public
Proactive and Willing to Take on New Challenges
Project Management
Provide Cost Estimates for Materials, Equipment, and/or Labor
Recommend Modifications for Design Improvements and Simplification
Sound Knowledge of Engineering Fundamentals
Technical Skills
Technical Writing
Test Building Materials
Understand and Design Within AASHTO Guidelines
Understand Diagrams, Drafts, Flow-Charts, and Other Information and Documentation
Use Software to Design Within Industry and Government Standards
Work Effectively Under Pressure

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