Construction Managers

Significant Points

• Construction managers must be available - Often 24 hours a day - to deal with delays, bad weather, or emergencies at the jobsite.
• Employers prefer individual who combine construction industry work experience with a bachelors degree in construction science, construction management, or civil engineering.
• Excellent employment opportunities are expected as the increasing complexity of many construction projects requires more managers to oversee them.

Nature of the Work (excerpt)

Construction managers plan, direct, and coordinate a wide variety of construction projects, including the building of all types of residential, commercial, and industrial structures, roads, bridges, wastewater treatments plants, schools and hospitals. Construction managers may oversee and entire project of just part of a project and, although they usually play no direct role in the actual construction of a structure, they typically schedule and coordinate all design and construction processes, including the selection, hiring, and oversight of specialty trade contractors.

Construction managers are salaried or self-employed managers who oversee construction supervisors and workers. They often go by the job titles; program manager, constrictor, constriction superintendent, project engineer, project manager, construction supervisor, general contractor, or similar designations. Construction managers may be owners or salaried employees of a construction management or contracting firm, or may work under a contract or as salaried employee of the property owner, developer, or contracting firm overseeing the construction project. . . .

Working Conditions (excerpt)

Construction managers work out of a main office from which the overall construction project is monitored, or out of a field office at the construction site. Advances in telecommunications and Internet access allow construction managers to be onsite without being out of contact of the main office. Management decisions requiring daily construction activities generally are made at the job site. Managers may travel extensively when the construction site is not close to their main office or when they are responsible for activities at two or more sites. Management of overseas construction projects usually entails temporary residence in another country.

Construction managers must be "on call" - Often 24 hours a day - to deal with delays, the effects of bad weather, or emergencies at the site. Most work more than a standard 40-hour week because of construction may proceed around-the-clock. They may have to work this type of schedule for days, even weeks, to meet special project deadlines, especially if there are delays.

Although the work usually is not considered inherently dangerous, construction managers must be careful while performing onsite services. . . .

Employment (excerpt)

Construction managers held 413,000 jobs in 2004. Over half were self-employed, many as owners of general or specialty trade construction firms. Most of the rest were employed in the construction industry, 13 percent by specialty trade contractors - for example, plumbing, heating and air-conditioning and electrical contractors - and 18 percent by specialty trade contractors. Others were employed by architectural, engineering, and related services firms and by local governments. . . .

Job Outlook (excerpt)

Excellent employment opportunities for construction managers are expected through 2014 because the number of job openings will exceed the number of qualified individuals seeking to enter the occupation. This situation expected to continue even as college construction management programs expand to meet the current high demand for graduates. The construction industry often does not attract sufficient numbers of qualified job seekers because if is often seen as having poor working conditions. . . .