Intel
Field notes from
the institutional bench.
Notes on how US construction firms hire preconstruction, cost and project management people, written for the person carrying the requisition.
Hiring
Who owns the construction cost database: the estimating seat that turns finished jobs into new bids
Two estimators, one cost database, two different numbers. Why field cost codes break historical cost data, and who should own the fix.
Careers
The construction scheduler career path: from updating P6 to running project controls
The stages from scheduler to director of project controls, the forensic and owner-side branches, and the skills that move a planner up.
Risk
A contractor emergency succession plan: the first thirty days after the owner is gone
When a contractor's owner dies, bank authority, the surety indemnity and the license qualifier stall first. The plan that keeps them working.
Careers
An exploding offer deadline in construction: forty-eight hours is a tactic, not a rule
Why construction offers arrive with a short fuse, what a reasonable window looks like, and how to ask for more time without losing the job.
Careers
Following a former boss to a new contractor: the loyalty move and what it costs
Your former boss wants you at a new contractor. What the call leaves out: their non-solicit, trade secret risk, and whether the firm can carry you.
Careers
Moving from heavy civil to building construction: what a DOT project manager has to relearn
What changes when a DOT project manager moves into building construction, what transfers, how to present it, and which sectors make the easiest bridge.
Hiring
Hiring a bridge construction project manager: the job is engineered twice
A bridge PM delivers the structure the owner designed and the temporary works the contractor engineered. Hire for the second half.
Hiring
Hiring a concrete operations manager: the self-perform crew that sets the schedule
Self-perform concrete sits on the critical path. What a concrete operations manager owns, and a toolbox to test one: unit-cost history and a pour plan.
Hiring
Hiring a homebuilder purchasing director: the house cost is set before the first start
In production homebuilding the cost of a house is fixed in purchasing before the first footing is dug. What the seat owns, and how to test for it.
Hiring
Hiring a multifamily preconstruction manager for a developer-builder: pricing to the pro forma
A developer-builder's preconstruction manager prices to the pro forma, not the drawings. Why an estimator is the wrong hire, and how to find the right one.
Hiring
Hiring a capital program director for a public agency: a bond program run under civil service rules
A bond or an IIJA grant funds the program and a board watches it. How to hire a capital program director when the salary is published.
Hiring
Hiring a semiconductor fab project executive: the tool install date is the real deadline
Chip plant construction spending has halved since 2024, yet fabs are entering tool install. Hire the project executive who can hand bays to the tools.
Careers
From production homebuilding to commercial construction: what a homebuilder's construction manager brings
What a homebuilder's construction manager carries into commercial and multifamily work, what is new, how titles map, and why the first title may dip.
Careers
Leaving a contractor for a construction technology company: what an estimator trades
Why construction software firms recruit estimators and project managers, how their pay and equity work, and what you give up leaving a contractor.
Careers
The owner offered you a job mid-project: read the no-hire clause first
An owner's job offer before the building is finished can run into a no-hire clause you never signed. What it binds, what binds you, and how to act.
Careers
Moving into preconstruction as a project manager: what the front end of the job pays for
Why project managers move into preconstruction, what field experience is worth before bid day, what it lacks, and how the pay compares.
Careers
A quantity surveyor career in the US: which American job title is yours
The US has no quantity surveying profession by name. How a UK, Irish or Australian QS maps onto the American seats that pay for the same skill.
Risk
Staffing a surety takeover project: the completion team inherits someone else's job
After a default, the completion team inherits another firm's records, unpaid subcontractors and an impatient owner. Who should lead that job.
Hiring
Choosing between two construction finalists for one operations seat
Two strong finalists for a VP of operations or project executive seat. How to decide on year-one work, references and risk, not on the interview.
Careers
Construction job offer rescinded: the checks before you resign and the first day after
Why construction offers get pulled, the checks that lower the risk before you resign, and what to do and get in writing the day it happens.
Hiring
The construction leadership onboarding timeline: when a new hire starts paying back
A senior construction hire pays back at the end of the first project or bid cycle they own, not at day 90. Here is the timeline by seat.
Hiring
The estimating exercise in a preconstruction leader interview
How to build a short, fair estimating exercise for a chief estimator or preconstruction finalist, what to score, and what never to ask for.
Careers
Estimator to business development: you already speak the owner's language, now learn to lose
Why estimators make credible construction business development leaders, why many struggle, and what to test before you move.
Careers
Explaining a career gap in a construction interview
What a contractor worries about when it sees a career gap, a short honest script for each kind of gap, and what you never have to disclose.