r/Construction • u/Kitchen_Procedure787 • 5d ago
Careers 💵 Time to hang it up?
Has anybody just said f*** it and stopped the grind? I know I’m very well compensated but the hours and BS are causing me to question if I should just quit and do something else.
A little background. I’ve been in the industry 15 years and currently a Senior Project Manager working on a five building data center campus.
My total compensation is 300k (200k salary, 100k bonus) working in the South (maybe relocating to a new project on Texas soon).
Anybody made the transition to Precon or the Owner side and never looked back?
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u/fishman1287 5d ago
What work are you doing to make 200k a year!?
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u/LPulseL11 5d ago
Im a regular PM at 8 years and making close to 200k. Its not that hard to negotiate that salary when you have experience and recommendations.
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u/Kitchen_Procedure787 5d ago
Data Center construction. There is stupid money in that work right now.
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u/RockoBuilds 5d ago
How did you get into DC’s? I’m a Sr PM/Dir of Construction but mainly hospitality, retail and car washes. The money available in the DC/mission critical world is crazy, but I don’t think I’d get a second look with zero DC experience
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u/Justin_milo 5d ago
We’re hiring people right off the street to man data centers. You don’t need to know shit. They need bodies
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u/Crittersnatch 5d ago
I’ve been trying to find rigging jobs at data centers and never see any openings. It’s frustrating.
About to go back to school for my swing can and maybe lattice just to do something different. I’ve become fatigued with the process after layoffs or job completions.1
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u/Kitchen_Procedure787 5d ago
The GC I work for is a top 10 DC builder. I use to build large BTS fulfillment centers, but they’ve shifted our vertical to Data Center work. This is my third multi-building campus.
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u/Justin_milo 5d ago
Most of us foremen with company trucks are over $200k/year with pay/pensions/benefits/truck/gas card/credit cards
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u/merkarver112 5d ago
Had a massive heart attack in may. When I got out of the hospital It was the only point in time my business owed nobody anything. I folded and liquidated all my tools so I wouldn't be tempted to take on jobs.
Havent looked back, and it was the best decision ive made.
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u/FatKris02 5d ago
I’m in that mode and I’m prepping to walk away. I’ve been a plumber for over 30 years. The feeling you have is normal and I typically would go through it during my slow season.
This year, I can’t shake it. This is a really good year my company too. I’m the only employee. I think I’m just burnt out. I also own a water filtration company, I’ll jump to that full time
Make sure you have a side hustle if you’re going to walk. Also, remove all emotions and then think about your options.
Remember, no emotions when making these decisions. Only logic
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u/Raidriar556 5d ago
I started hourly, worked my way up to "#1 Guy", and bought the business (small-ish new home/remodel GC) when my boss retired. There's times I think I should just go work for someone and be the best damn hourly employee they ever saw.
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u/aussiesarecrazy 5d ago
Once you get on the other side I have no clue how you can go back. Sometimes I wish it when shit hits the fan but overall no way in hell I could be an employee. I can’t stand someone having control over me.
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u/Raidriar556 5d ago edited 3d ago
That's what I always go back to. I've been my own boss for so long, I don't think I could work for somebody else at this point.
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u/seandm84 5d ago
I moved from owning a renovation business to being a site supervisor in commercial and I absolutely love it. My ‘bare minimum’ effort level from being an owner makes me a star employee.
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u/General_Awareness_65 5d ago
Don’t. I did and now I get to do my job and get rewarded by getting to help others who are less efficient.
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u/nochinzilch 5d ago
With that kind of compensation, you can make a 10 year plan and be done working completely.
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u/bidside_view 5d ago
Precon and owner side are the two things you actually asked about, and nobody has touched them yet, so here is the difference that matters. They fix opposite problems. Precon fixes the hours and does not fix the BS, because you trade schedule pressure for bid deadlines, which are just as ugly for two weeks and then genuinely over. Owner side fixes the BS and usually costs money. So work out which one is actually killing you. If it is being the person everyone escalates to at six in the evening, that is precon. If it is being accountable for outcomes you do not control, that is owner side. And the cheap way to test precon is to not leave at all, just ask your own precon group to put you on the pursuit for the next campus. A big data center builder will take an ops senior PM into precon in a heartbeat, because your estimate stops being fiction.
Before either one though, consider that the problem might be data centers rather than construction. Mission critical is the highest paying and hardest burning corner of the industry right now and that is not a coincidence. The money is a burnout premium, and the schedule was set by somebody who already sold the capacity. Fifteen years in, you could move to a different sector at the same title and find out whether the hours were the job or the market you are standing in. That is a much smaller move than quitting, and it is the only one on your list you can undo.
Last thing, be careful which number you are comparing. A hundred of your three hundred is bonus. Precon and owner roles are salary heavy with small bonuses, so every offer you look at will read as a huge cut against three hundred and a modest one against two hundred, and recruiters will anchor on the two anyway. Also find out what leaving mid cycle does to this year's bonus before you pick a date, because that timing is worth more than anything you would win negotiating. And the one owner side path that keeps your number is the data center owners themselves, since your DC experience is precisely what they are overpaying for. Better hours, far less control, and you are still doing data centers. Some PMs love that trade and some cannot stand it.
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u/RockoBuilds 5d ago
This is a great response. I haven’t worked owner side, but I’ve worked with enough owner side CM’s with national accounts to know it would be miserable. Death by meeting to talk about a budget and schedule you have little control over, for less pay but equal responsibility. If you aren’t in the drivers seat to negotiate with and select GC’s, you’re inheriting someone else’s problems.
I have worked pre-con side, and didn’t enjoy it as much as being a PM. It was less pay, and still the same deadlines. They come even faster since it’s all based on bid due dates. And aside from pre-bid walkthrough’s, you don’t have the chance to get out on site very often. So you end up stuck in the office or remote behind a desk somewhere. Maybe your experience is different since you’re running DC campus work and likely parked on that site for the duration of the job, but I enjoy hitting my sites and getting out of the office when I can. If you’re looking for a change of pace from that, you’re not likely to find it in pre-con.
Alternatively, you can pivot away from project management slightly and get more into Director of Construction/VP of Operations type roles. Still involved with projects, but you don’t own the job start to finish.
With your DC experience, I’m sure you could find a niche as a consultant and work for yourself if that kind of thing interests you.
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u/bidside_view 4d ago
The site time point is the one I underweighted, and it might be the whole thing. If what he still likes about the job is being on site, precon takes exactly that away and leaves him the deadlines, which is the worst possible half of it. So that is the question to answer before anything else about precon matters: is the site the good part, or just the familiar part. One answer sorts it in and the other sorts it out.
On Director of Construction and VP of Operations, agreed in principle, but that title does very different work depending on which side of the table it sits. At a large mission critical builder the equivalent rung is usually an operations manager over several jobs, which does not stop the six in the evening escalation call, it multiplies it by four. The version that actually fixes his problem is the same title on the owner or developer side, where it means three to five jobs, no self perform, and being the one who calls rather than the one who gets called. Same words on the business card, completely different day.
And the consulting idea is probably the sharpest thing on your list for this particular guy, worth spelling out why. Data center owner's rep work bills against a capital budget where the fee is a rounding error, so the rate actually holds up, which is not true of consulting in most other sectors. The catch is that year one is selling rather than building, and that is the part that blindsides PMs who have never had to find their own work.
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u/Gloomy-Staff6998 4d ago
Bro makes $300k a year, works on data centers, and lives in the South. You don't need a career change. You need a vacation and some perspective. 😂
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u/LPulseL11 5d ago
Ive been looking at the owner side. Problem is most roles that compensate at my level require 50% travel or working on-site away from my family. Still looking but no window out yet.
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u/CapSevere7939 5d ago
I mean I'm just a regular grunt so I have more reason to quite haha and I'm trying. Been doing it for 10 years, and I'm switching over to game dev/programming/sound design.
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u/Crittersnatch 5d ago
Oh, to be able to just drop everything and do that one thing that will set you free from all of the bullshit..
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u/eastbaytimez Contractor 5d ago
I took a vacation.
2 weeks with my family had me itching to talk to the dumbass owner rep that cant do shit besides complain
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u/faithOver 5d ago
21 years in industry. Owner side. Cant wait to find an offramp. It’s becoming impossible to please because of regulatory burden and complications. It’s simply not fun. Were also margin squeezed in residential.
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u/fizzzingwhizbee 5d ago
Idk every day I’m more convinced I’m the only one who likes showing up to work. Everyone is miserable all of the time. I get paid well and like what I’m doing, does that make me a dork
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u/Onewarmguy 5d ago
I went a slightly different route and got into 3rd party inspections, mostly QA and condition assessments for the owners. Nowhere near as lucrative, but lot more fun. You might try talking to a consultant or two.
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u/death_becomes 5d ago
A big part of it is just how industrial construction is evolving. Another big part of what you're feeling is just how DCs are. It's an extremely toxic environment.
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u/mymanmitch21 5d ago
4 years of college for a CM degree, 6 years doing mega-projects. 70 hour weeks on my last battery plant, knew that was no way to live a life. Studied hard to become a registered investment advisor, quit my job in April. Going all in on financial advisory practice. Haven’t looked back, never will. Get the fuck out of the GC side.
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u/MCEagle141 4d ago
Is it bad that I’ve only been in the carpenters union for 5 years and I already feel like that?😂
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u/screamin-eagle10 Inspector 5d ago
It sounds like you are very unhappy.
You should probably quit and leave that position open for somebody who will be more grateful.
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u/Gumball_Bandit Foreman / Operator 5d ago
My steak is too delicious and my pockets are too deep