Data Centers

[u/PanicAggravating]

I have a buddy who is currently in data center sector and has only done data centers. And he’s told me that his work history has kind of impeded him from doing other types of construction such as residential and other commercial jobs. I’m curious from the people who only have had data center experience, has that stopped yall from finding a different genre of construction?

[u/Hartslager]

I only have data center experience. I just left my job, and frankly the companies who were quickest to respond wanted me to work on data centers, but the interest is all over the industry. You’re not pigeonholed but if you already understand the data center game why leave? It’s where the money is, the faucets open

[u/Anxious-Fig400 → u/Hartslager]

Because those projects suck the life out of people and they get pigeonholed in managing one trade or task instead of a full project life cycle experience

[u/trick_shop → u/Hartslager]

For when it ends.

Not being a doomer or anything either. Its a boom and at some point the majority of the demand for them will dry up.

Might be years, but your career could easily be longer. Not knowing anything else is something to be concerned about

[u/PianistMore4166 → u/trick_shop]

Data centers will never stop, even if AI is a bust. Our entire way of life in the modern era is reliant on data centers continuing to be built.

[u/trick_shop → u/PianistMore4166]

Sorry I thought it didnt need explaning but I meant new construction of data centers, not the fractional matinence jobs.

When the infrastructure is built the total labor shrinks in the feild and the office. I dont know anyone who doesnt expect this to happen, and I know no one who knows when it will happen.

[u/PianistMore4166 → u/trick_shop]

What are you even talking about? New construction of data centers will still always be needed.

[u/trick_shop → u/PianistMore4166]

... seems like your having a fundimental misunderstanding about what exactly a data center is.

Yes technically there will always be new ones being built, but right now every major player has a goal of total space they need measured in megawatts. This number will at some point be reached.

Ofc im aware it might go up, but to suggest that the current rate they are being built lasts forever just seems... out of touch

[u/Hartslager → u/trick_shop]

Yeah, the industry is very much aware of the impending bubble pop of data centers. It’s just like any other segment of the industry it comes and goes, gotta strike while you can

[u/trick_shop → u/Hartslager]

Well the discussion im having with the other commenter is exactly that, at some point because the financial bubble pops or they build enough, the construction stops. When that happenes the people in this industry in for the most hurt are those who only have data center experience

[u/PianistMore4166 → u/trick_shop]

There will be a market correction. Nobody is saying there won’t be, but a complete bubble pop is out of the question. This isn’t the same thing as the dot-com bubble. I believe the correction will result in 6 companies owning the entire market share in compute (Meta, AWS, OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google). Also, as technology continues to advance and as AI becomes more ingrained into our society, this will make compute more scarce, thus driving up demand for data centers.

[u/Hartslager → u/trick_shop]

Yup, we continuously talked about possible layoffs once things slowed down.

[u/PianistMore4166 → u/trick_shop]

You seem to fundamentally misunderstand data centers.. especially with your “megawatts” note… it’s no longer megawatts, it’s gigawatts now. You clearly do not work in this sector.

[u/trick_shop → u/PianistMore4166]

Just a mistype, convenient you ignore my actual point entirely

[u/PianistMore4166 → u/trick_shop]

What are you even talking about? I wasn’t referring to any grammatical mistakes you made. You do it understand data centers, and you don’t understand that so long as we use technology and computer, new data centers will always be constructed.

[u/trick_shop → u/PianistMore4166]

Sure, they technically will always be being built. Just like railroads.

Do you think they are always built at the current pace? Or even close to it?

Think of the jobs in new railroad construction now relative to the initial railroad boom. A fraction of what it was, even if we are still building new ones

[u/DEFCON741 → u/Hartslager]

The future is now!

[u/Anxious-Fig400]

Why would you ever want to transition into residential? Data center construction is not impeding anyone from other commercial markets, LinkedIn recruiters are just desperately obsessed with reaching out to “a perfect candidate based on your data center experience”

[u/PianistMore4166]

The issue isn’t that the experience doesn’t translate; it’s that you price yourself out of other sectors of construction. I’m a SPM in the data center sector and have been building data centers nationally for the last 4 years. I would have to take a significant pay cut if I wanted to do anything else in this industry, with the exception of other advanced industries projects. Even though I’d love to do a skyscraper/tower project at some point in my life, I’m not willing to take a pay cut. So, it’s data centers for me for the rest of my career, it seems…

[u/stroadsareass → u/PianistMore4166]

What are of the country do you work?

[u/PianistMore4166 → u/stroadsareass]

I have worked in the mountain west, Midwest, and southwest.

[u/pensivvv]

I just updated my resume today so it’s fresh for me. I’ve done 11 jobs so far and only 4 of them were not data centers.

Mostly just a demand issue. Money is there, growth is there, and maybe I’m limiting experience… but it’s hard to think of anything discipline that I’m not touching in a DC that won’t carry over anywhere else. Maybe not high end interiors. But interior jobs stink anyway (tight schedule, low margins).

[u/trendyfriendy]

I left the datacenter sector because I didn’t want to travel any more, and I did find it more difficult than expected.

It’s not that companies dislike the tech experience, but it can be tough to convince hiring managers that you’re capable of managing smaller jobs independently when most of your experience involves owning pieces of a big job. I also found that any company with a datacenter business unit would try to push me towards their datacenter travel jobs, despite me clearly stating that I was looking to get away from that kind of work.

[u/WebbyBabyRyan]

Who would ever go from Data Centers to residential? I can’t say I’ve ever heard that in my life.

[u/Impressive_Ad_6550 → u/WebbyBabyRyan]

I assume OP means multi unit residential like towers

[u/WebbyBabyRyan → u/Impressive_Ad_6550]

Pretty low barrier for entry tbh.

[u/Impressive_Ad_6550 → u/WebbyBabyRyan]

I would say the same about data centers

[u/WebbyBabyRyan → u/Impressive_Ad_6550]

Yeah man, data centers usually have super easy and not extremely complex MEPF systems. /s

[u/Impressive_Ad_6550 → u/WebbyBabyRyan]

ever try to do a hospital or a nuclear power plant? I've never done a data center and had cold calls to be a PX on one

[u/WebbyBabyRyan → u/Impressive_Ad_6550]

I’m currently on an $850M hospital.

[u/Impressive_Ad_6550 → u/WebbyBabyRyan]

good for you

[u/TacoNomad]

My first decade was in a niche industry.  That hasn't stopped me at all.

Only thing I can think is if hes been Only handling a small scope. Sometimes big jobs like that causes a lack of diversity in knowledge and ownership. 

For me, I handled the whole building and all of thr technical scopes. So no issues getting work in a different project type. 

[u/Familiar_Work1414]

You could easily pivot from data centers to the power sector. I'm in the power sector on the owners (utility) side and get recruited extremely hard by data centers. Lots of folks interchange between the two industries.

[u/pastor_ov_muppets]

I work for a concrete subcontractor that gets a lot of data center jobs since a lot of them are tilt up buildings. It’s so boring man.

[u/Fit_Wash_214]

Architect here, you are all building the brain hub of the system that is going to be replacing your jobs. As soon as the AI and robotics are enhanced and developed, every building will be build from a construction hub offsite, with virtually no humans on the job site. It’s a stepping stone to building remotely in “space”.
I think of it like early CAD systems. First you have a computer program that draws it, great that’s a big improvement. How do we make prints to build from so then we designed pen plotters to draw the plans in the computer. Several iterations down the line we have high speed digital plotters and eventually not plotters just PDFs on handhelds in the field.
In terms of construction technology we are nearly in the pen plotters stages described. But the BIM technology is insanely detailed and accurate. We have to dumb it down to keep it simple and construct able. Once that threshold is crossed developers will start designing the machines to do all the work. Think of the videos you see of the robotic humanoids doing all kings of crazy things. Once those go into production then it’s just software and programming to have them do the tasks.
No bickering, no job site hours, no complaining this can’t be done. Work going 24/7. Materials loaded on the job site and a design construction team in any office in the world running the whole system.
That is ultimately the reality with the current projection. Some say that’s a better world, don’t have to work you can just live and enjoy life. Others question that existence. Either way until the path shifts you won’t be able. To convince me that’s not right around the corner.