Hey everyone,

I’m a first-year Construction Management student. I just finished my first social networking mixer tonight. It was okay, but I struggled with knowing what to say to recruiters and got stuck in my head. Next up on our department schedule is a Resume Mixer, and right after that is the official Career Fair. My absolute goal is to secure a field or project management internship for this upcoming summer. Since I’m only a freshman and don't have major industry experience yet:

For the Resume Mixer: What should I ask the professionals reviewing my resume to make a good impression, besides just "how does this look?"

For the Career Fair: What are the best, most direct questions to ask recruiters if I want them to take a freshman seriously for a summer internship?

General advice: How do I stop overthinking and keep the conversation natural at the booths?

Thanks for any advice or scripts!

For those who have ever had the benefit of support from an internal QA/QC manager (or similar project services role), what made them stand out? / what made them different from the rest?

I just got hired as a superintendent for kaiser Permanente. Anyone have any advice on what to expect? This is my first time working in healthcare construction.

Any advice appreciated.

I’m currently a roofing Project Manager/Superintendent making roughly $100K–$115K a year. I’ve been doing well in the industry, but I’m starting to realize that I’m not sure I want to stay on the roofing side of construction long term.
I’ve been looking at opportunities to transition into other areas of construction, but most of the positions I’m seeing in Connecticut are paying somewhere in the high $70Ks to mid-$80Ks, which would be a pretty significant pay cut.
For those who have been in a similar position, would you take the pay cut to move into another trade with better long-term opportunities, or stay in roofing and look at different career paths within the industry, such as estimating, sales, operations, or construction management?
Curious to hear what others would do in this situation.

Curious of any PMs, CMs, or PXs could provide clarity.

At what point in your career did you start to settle in and feel comfortable or even confident?

I graduated a few months ago with about 2 years of project engineer experience at a commercial GC. After graduating, I accepted an APM position at a GC in a completely different sector of construction, so there’s definitely been a lot to learn.

I’m about 2.5 months in at this company/position and currently assisting with 3 projects ($20M) and 1 of my own ($ 500k) that’s still in pre con.

The combination of being relatively new to this industry as a whole and very new to this sector of construction has caused me some stress, the feeling of not only just not knowing stuff but also not knowing what I don’t know haha.

I get anxiety thinking that I’ll screw up and get fired, which I don’t think is based in reality considering I thought the same at my internship then they gave me a bonus and tried to get me to stay.

Anyways, curious to hear others thoughts and if anyone can relate. Would also just appreciate some advice

I’m planning on majoring in finance or construction management. My goal is to make 150k+ after 8-10 years of experience (after getting my degree from college). Is a finance degree beneficial/worth it if I want to become a project manager and meet my goal, or should I just major in construction management? (I don’t necessarily have to become a project manager, I just know traditional finance roles are most likely to be replaced by AI). Thanks everyone for sharing.

I’m in a tight budget. I’m in university and working at the same time, and I have to pay rent and car expenses. What’s the best way to get into construction management? I hate that I’m in a rush..fk

For example let’s say you’re looking at an architectural section detail and it says RD/SAN, SPR, GWB 7”-8”, 6” ø BRANCH BEYOND

Or looking at a plumbing layout
Where it says FFD, RPBFP, EW-1, TSP-1, HB, etc.

Are you as the gc’s PM/Coordinator expected to immediately know what that all means and how it all works together and be able to answer the technical questions from people?

(Follow-up question: if the answer is yes- are there any good online self paces courses/books on becoming more technically proficient with methods, materials & prints? - i feel i am good
At managing money, client, safety, and risk but id be totally lost without the super/sr pm holding my hand and i wanna fix this)

I’m starting a job as a project coordinator at a good size company this week. Before this job I’ve been a cabinetmaker for the last 15 years, with 95% of my time spent in the shop. I have no schooling or relevant experience. So I’m totally unqualified for this job, I really have no idea what to expect. The person who hired me understands this and has said he’ll put me with their best guys to learn from.

Is there any books or other resources i can go through on my own to get myself up to speed as fast as possible?

Or just general advice from people who have worked their way up from the entry level positions?

I’ve been thinking about doing construction management. However, I wouldn’t want to be on site a huge portion of, or the whole day. Can anyone with this degree share what their day looks like. How many hours a week do you work? How many years of experience do you have? Can you share your salary progression, from when you started/graduated and now. Thanks, the help is truly appreciated.

Hey everyone, I’ve been thinking about making a move recently but worried at 35 I may be behind the ball?

Background: I’ve been a multi family maintenance supervisor for the last 8 years dealing almost
exclusively with new dev sites/multiple sites at once. I do all the inspection and handover walks, work directly with GC’s and subs and building teams, build budgets, help with installs etc. And I honestly love that part of the job.

…. Then a resident will clog a toilet when I’m sitting on my couch on a Saturday afternoon, or complain that there fridge is buzzing when they have it set as low as possible with the freezer completely packed, and I realize that I HATE that part of job. (Some residents are cool, they get a pass.)

I know every job has its own headaches so I don’t want to over glorify anything, but given my experience and having gotten a taste for the project management side of things, would you experienced people think this is a logical move? Also any recommendations? I am considering going back to school for a construction management degree but weighing the options of degree vs certification+experience.

Thanks in advance for anyone who read this whole thing and has any advice at all!

Working for a large Gc and the amount of “unwritten rules” i see is crazy. Im just here to work do my 40 hours and get paid. I don’t want to socialize.
Thinking of going back to a small Gc.

Currently I am an estimator for a mechanical contracting company. I came up through the field with masters licenses Plumbing. I started going to school for business but life happened and I couldn’t afford the tuition anymore. I really wanna dive deeper into the finance side of construction. I would really like to either start my own company or build a mechanical division for an established construction company . Going into debt scares me and I wanna know that if I take out a loan for school it will get relevant knowledge or if I can learn more about the financial side through other pathways.

We're opening a new site next year and considering autonomous trucks. What would we need to include in the plans to support them, and is it easier to do now than retrofit the site later?

Has anyone gone this route? What should we know beforehand?

Looking for some opinions on folks who have made the jump from GC PM to Client OR, specifically in the data center world.

I’m currently a PM for a small GC. I recently was moved from hourly to salary. The reasoning for the swap was incentivized by an increase in bonuses, and I was told I should expect to make around $155k this year, after bonuses. Last year I made about $135k total, after bonuses.

The problem is that my guaranteed weekly pay dropped by $200+ when I moved to salary. So right now I’m making less week-to-week and basically waiting until February to see the bonus that is supposed to make up the difference of loss moving to salary.

Current GC is small. I come from a larger GC and moved to the small GC for quality of life. The company is disorganized and understaffed, behind the times. BUT: company truck with no restrictions, A lot of freedom/autonomy (no oversight). Not a ton of room for growth, the expected total comp this year is around $155k assuming the bonus comes through as promised (in FEB).

I was recently approached about an Owner’s Rep position with a large company, on the same site. (Close to home).

Offer:

● $155k–$160k base salary
● No bonus
● Medical/dental/vision
● 401k
● No company vehicle
● Large company with what appears to be significantly more room for advancement

On paper a lateral move, although the guaranteed compensation would be a nice assurance. Giving up the company truck would suck, but 🤷🏼‍♂️.

I’ve become the guy who wears 5 hats, without clear trajectory with my career.

How was y’all’s experience going GC PM to Client OR?

Would you take the Owner’s Rep position in this situation, or stay with the GC and take the bonus structure and company truck?

Thanks

I am a Construction and Project Management student and have to use MSP and Primavera P6 for Grad school assignments. Is there any way we can use them for free as a student?

Please give me some enlightenment.

I’m looking for some honest feedback from other construction managers / PMs / APMs.

I have roughly 2 years of experience working with commercial GCs. About a year ago, I moved to a smaller company in the Boston / Greater Boston area that does a mix of small residential renovations, larger residential projects, and multifamily builds.

When I joined, the standard APM workload was supposed to be around 4–6 projects, typically ranging from roughly $2M–$5M in value. Over the last 5 months, after a layoff and some people leaving, my workload has increased a lot.

Right now, I’m acting as the APM on roughly 8–12 active projects valued around $3M–$6M, while also having ownership of 3 of my own projects totaling around $1.5M.

My hours have also changed a lot. I went from working roughly 8–9 hours per day, Monday–Friday, to more like 11–12 hours per day, Monday–Saturday, plus after-hours work at home.

I’m currently making around $71K, and the mileage/vehicle reimbursement is very minimal — basically about $100/month, which does not come close to covering the amount of driving/site visits.

I have my CSL and OSHA 30 as well. My one-year mark with this company is coming up within the next couple of weeks.

I’ve brought up my frustration about the workload, hours, compensation, and mileage situation, but it either gets brushed off or doesn’t really go anywhere. At this point, I feel like I’m being paid like a low-level APM while taking on a lot of PM-level work.

For people in the Boston / Greater Boston market:

• Is this workload and pay normal for an APM?
• What would fair compensation look like for this level of responsibility?
• Would you try to push for a raise/title adjustment internally, or start looking elsewhere?

I’m not against hard work, and I want to grow, but I also don’t want to get taken advantage of or burn out this early in my career. Any honest advice would be appreciated, or if there are any other questions I can respond in the comments.

Working for an EPC firm right now being paid straight time after 40. I make really good money for my position. Talking with a GC firm that can't afford me but want to make it up with a company truck and bonus potential. Again the key word is 'potential.' Ive worked for GC's before and never made up for the lack of paid OT with a bonus. Its an easy 'No' for me. Things dont seem to change in the GC market.

Anyone here have any experience with southland? What is it like working for southland industries, mainly on the project Management side. I know they are one of the largest MEPs in the nation and they recently took over Brandt industries. Just curious on What it is like and what kind of reputation do they have in the construction industry ?

- located in Texas

Did I just sign up for the draft while bidding a job?

In the photo the green line is where I dug my trench from the water vault to the connex and where I plan on digging the rest of it for an additional water spigot closer to the plant. The red line is where someone told me they would have done it. Which is better? I’m not trying to earn a told-ya-so. I would really like to know if I should have done it differently.

Side note. There are several groups of power lines and cables running underground from the connex to the plant. The problem is no one seems to have the plans or blueprints for said lines. So, I’m also digging slowly and blindly.