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
Hiring a construction equipment manager: the seat that decides whether you own or rent
A heavy civil contractor's second largest cost is usually its fleet, and in most firms nobody owns it end to end.
Hiring
Hiring a construction estimating director: the seat that decides which jobs you never bid
An estimating director is not a senior estimator. The job is deciding what not to bid, and most firms hire for the wrong one.
Hiring
Hiring a construction field engineer: the bench you are not building
Every firm complaining it cannot find project managers stopped hiring field engineers a decade ago. The two facts are the same fact.
Hiring
Hiring a construction general manager: the seat that owns a regional office you cannot see
A regional office runs on trust until the numbers arrive. The general manager seat is what makes that trust unnecessary.
Hiring
Hiring a construction general superintendent: the field seat the firm outgrew without noticing
At six jobs the best superintendent holds the field in their head. At fourteen they are still trying. This is the seat that admits the firm changed.
Hiring
Hiring a construction human resources director who understands a bid calendar
Most HR directors hired into contractors fail the same way. They arrive with a corporate playbook and meet a project.
Hiring
Hiring a construction operating partner
The operating partner who has never carried a bid number gets listened to politely and ignored completely.
Hiring
Hiring a construction president: the seat an owner creates and then quietly competes with
A construction president is hired to run the business so the owner can own it. Most of the risk sits in whether the owner meant it.
Hiring
Hiring a construction procurement director for long lead equipment on a GMP project
Switchgear does not care about your schedule. The seat that orders it before the design is finished is the one that saves the job.
Hiring
Hiring a construction project accountant: the seat that finds the loss before the WIP does
A project accountant is the earliest place a bad job is visible. Most contractors staff the seat as data entry and then wonder why nobody saw it.
Hiring
Hiring a construction purchasing manager: the seat that turns an estimate into commitments
Buyout is where the estimate becomes real money. Most firms treat it as paperwork and lose the margin they bid.
Hiring
Hiring a construction quality control manager: the contract deliverable most contractors staff as a clipboard
On federal, DOT and healthcare work the QC manager is a named contract deliverable with stop-work authority. Most contractors hire the seat as a clipboard.
Hiring
Hiring a construction regional vice president over estimating and operations
The seat exists because estimating and operations stopped talking. Most firms hire it a year after they needed it.
Hiring
Hiring a construction number two
Most number-two hires fail because the founder never actually gave the job away. Here is how to tell before you hire.
Hiring
Hiring a construction vice president of operations: the first seat the owner has to actually give up
The first vice president of operations a contractor hires usually reports to someone who still does the job. That is why the seat turns over.
Hiring
Hiring a heavy civil construction CFO: the seat your surety reads before you do
A contractor CFO is not a corporate CFO with a hard hat. The WIP schedule is a forecast, and someone has to own it.
Hiring
Hiring a heavy civil cost engineer: the seat that knows the unit-price job is losing before the quantities are agreed
On unit-price heavy civil work the estimate stops being true at the first overrun. The cost engineer says by how much, and most firms leave the seat empty.
Hiring
Hiring a mechanical contractor project manager: the seat that buys the job out every week
A mechanical contractor project manager manages labor hours, not subcontracts. The general contractor profile most briefs describe transfers badly.
Hiring
Hiring a P3 construction project director: the seat that answers to the lender, not the owner
On a public-private partnership the schedule is a financial instrument and the lender's engineer reads the report first. A P3 director is a different hire.
Hiring
Hiring an owner's representative program manager: the seat that runs the owner's decisions, not the contractor's work
An owner's rep program manager gets the owner to decide on time across a capital program. The best contractor project manager fails there for one reason.
Hiring
Interview Speed: Why Your Construction Search Is Slower Than the Market
Construction interview speed decides who you hire more often than the shortlist does. The delay is almost always internal, and it is measurable.
Hiring
In-House Recruiting Function or Search Firm: The Construction Leadership Math
The real cost of an in-house construction recruiting function, measured against what a search firm charges for preconstruction and project management hires.
Hiring
Leadership Development or External Hire: The Construction Succession Choice
When a leadership development budget beats an external construction hire, when it does not, and why most contractors choose wrong at the wrong moment.
Hiring
Three Construction Recruiters on One Search: What It Actually Costs You
Giving one search to three construction recruiters feels like competition. It produces speed at the expense of the thing you were hiring for.