Civil Engineering Competency Map: A Text-Mining Analysis of Job Advertisements for the Turkish Construction Industry

In response to the evolving demands of the globalized construction industry and the recognized gap between academic training and real-world requirements, this study investigates the contemporary competency landscape for modern civil engineers. Utilizing the Turkish construction industry, which is a prominent global player in international contracting, as a representative case study, the research employs a quantitative text-mining approach. The study analyzed 154 job advertisements from a major professional job portal using term frequency–inverse document frequency for skill importance, latent Dirichlet allocation for thematic modeling, and k-means clustering for role segmentation. The results revealed that the modern civil engineer requires a multifaceted profile combining core technical skills such as project management and the high-impact financial competencies of quantity takeoff and progress payment, with essential soft skills and vital cognitive abilities. Furthermore, distinct skill clusters emerged for different roles, showing an increasing emphasis on leadership as career paths progress. The findings provide a scalable methodological framework and an empirical baseline for international stakeholders. This research offers guidance for educational institutions worldwide to restructure program content to address the dual requirement for foundational breadth and specialized depth, thereby aligning graduate competencies with the evolving demands of global professional practice.