There’s good and bad news for all those who want to pursue a career in construction management. The good news is that job security, a fat paycheck, lots of responsibility and respect, and a little more time spent in a climate-controlled office than, say, a mason, await you. The bad news is that construction managers have to be all things to all people. As a manager, you might be placed in charge of hiring all the crews for a project, supervising every last one of them, and then reporting to the owner… even when things don’t go as planned. Think you can handle it? If so, place your right hand on the closest power drill and repeat after us:
Construction managers WILL NOT... play hooky. Veterans of the industry might have never cracked open a book, but times change. More and more, employers are placing their bets on managers with college degrees, especially ones who haven’t already spent years in some kind of construction leadership role: subcontractor, crew leader, etc. Still, don’t expect to show up on your first day of work wearing your graduation mortarboard and start barking orders at the foremen if you’ve never picked up a drill. Construction managers usually have a lot of experience in the industry doing at least kind of specialized job: carpentry, welding, tiling, and so on. In fact, even college graduates with work experience should still count on serving as assistants to seasoned managers before somebody throws them the reins.
Construction managers WILL… earn the big bucks. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the per-year median income of construction managers at somewhere between $74,000 (for a manager who works on houses) and $81,000 (equipment contractors). The top earners, those with experience and a reputation, easily make a six-figure salary. The other good news that, lousy economy and housing market aside, you’ve got a great chance at actually having a job by the time you graduate. Starting in 2008, the BLS says that the number of jobs for construction managers will go up 17 percent by 2018, from a little over half a million today to 645,000. That trend could change, of course, but for the time being, you won’t be cleaning windshields.
Construction managers WILL NOT… pass the buck. As a construction manager, it’s your job to keep everybody coordinated and aware of each other’s stake in the project. Electricians and plumbers need to know what carpenters are doing, and estimators and suppliers have to be aware of the needs of crew leaders. Finally, owners will want to be updated on everything. In order to get projects done on time and within budget, you have to hire crews whose leaders see eye-to-eye with you and other managers, and make sure they stay on track. This doesn’t mean grabbing your bullwhip every time you head out. Instead, think of yourself as a diplomat. To the crews, you represent the owner. To the owner, you represent the crew. Be prepared to have a sit-down with the designers and owner and explain why a staircase to nowhere might violate building safety codes, despite their enthusiasm, and be prepared to offer alternatives to show that you want to see the project reach completion as badly as they do. Just remember that they have a luxury you don’t: blaming somebody else for a problem. If a subcontractor isn’t pulling her weight, it’s your responsibility as much as hers.
Construction managers WILL… make hard decisions. With that in mind, keeping as many people happy and productive as possible sometimes means making one or two contractors extremely unhappy… by firing them. Occasionally, the biggest obstacle to a project’s completion isn’t bad weather, a lack of concrete, or broken down equipment: it’s a few bad apples who are dragging everyone else down. Cutting out individuals who can’t make ends meet and are slowing down, or demoralizing, their coworkers is never fun, but the alternative is worse: gaining a reputation as a pushover who can be easily exploited by contractors and, through being sheepish about authority, ends up costing the owner money.
Construction managers WILL NOT… hammer nails, fit I-beams, and chase rats out of the plumbing. When you become a real construction manager, your role will be supervisory, and only part of that time will be spent in a hard helmet. As this video from J. H. Findorff & Son explains, many managers’ days begin in the office where they coordinate with the owners, designers, and crews through phone calls and e-mail: not exactly macho stuff. But after a bit of desk work, managers set off for the construction site where they check in on the progress of crews and site managers so they can put out fires (sometimes literally), offer direction for crews who might not be aware of the bigger picture, and get progress reports from crew leaders on site. That’s what construction managers do.
Construction managers WILL… do their job, and only their job. Since we’re on the subject, one critical blunder of construction managers is to forget the scope of their responsibilities and fail to delegate. Construction management is all about keeping an eye on the big picture. If you got into the construction business by laying foundations and wiring electrical outlets, and could probably do either of those tasks as well as the people you hired, don’t. Let professionals do what they were trained to do. In a large project, like an office building, managers need to quickly circulate from one crew to the next so they can stay abreast of the overall progress and make sure the crews are working in concert. Of course, being too far removed from the sound of the jackhammers and the smell of plywood is just as bad. Another blunder is to sit around in the air conditioning and wait on crews to report on their progress remotely. Good construction managers are pro-active. They go to sites and look for trouble, catching problems while they’re still small and easy to fix. Every little snag that managers hide from owners, or that crews hide from the manager because she’s not around, can snowball into a disaster. Don’t be the one who has to explain to the owner why all the doors are upside down.
Construction managers WILL NOT… run screaming from technology. Contractors these days use BIM, or Building Information Modeling, which is completely computerized. While modeling construction with software might seem like a job for architects, construction managers make use of BIM — or at least, stand over the shoulder of somebody using BIM — to visualize the finished project, figure out the most cost-effective approach to throwing up a structure, predict snags, and calculate the need for materials. BIM can take into account building codes, structural integrity, energy efficiency, and other small variables that can add up to haunt the construction managers if not considered during the prototype stage.
Construction managers WILL… expect the unexpected. Construction managers are on call 24 hours a day. Spectacular accidents due to shoddy design, last minute changes by designers or higher-ups, and the wrath of Mother Nature all mean that you need to be ready to jump out of bed or throw down your Xbox controller at a moment’s notice. Rain can wash away chalk lines, mud can hamper equipment, and ice forming on metal can make construction sites treacherous for workers. Furthermore, architects and designers can sometimes have a funny habit of changing their minds in the middle of a project. Either be ready to revise or scrap your whole plan of action with little to no warning, or be prepared to explain to starry-eyed designers and owners — with as much tact as you can muster — why their decision to whimsically make the top floor of your office building a glass arboretum will end up costing a lot more than the budget allows and delay construction by a matter of months.
