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.
Careers
Being the first project executive in a new construction office
The upside and the risks of leading a contractor's new regional office, and the six questions to settle before you accept the offer.
Hiring
Hiring an overqualified construction candidate into a smaller seat
A former VP applying for your project executive seat can be the steadiest hire you make or the fastest exit. Test the motive and design the seat.
Hiring
Hiring an owner-side cost manager into a contractor
What transfers when a contractor hires a cost manager from the owner's side, what does not, and how to interview and onboard for the gap.
Careers
Is an MBA worth it for construction managers? The honest trade
What an MBA costs a construction manager in tuition and lost pay, when it moves a career toward the owner side or operations, and when experience wins.
Careers
Moving to a specialty contractor from a general contractor: the risk becomes yours
A general contractor's project manager who joins a specialty contractor stops managing risk and starts owning it. What changes, and where to land.
Careers
From preconstruction manager to preconstruction director: what changes
A preconstruction director owns pursuit strategy, go/no-go, team capacity and the handoff to operations. The evidence firms want, and how to build it.
Careers
Rejoining the construction industry after time away
Coming back to construction as a project manager, estimator or project executive: the doubts a hiring manager holds, and how to answer each one.
Careers
Sign-on bonus repayment in construction offers: read the clawback first
A sign-on bonus clawback can ask for more than the bonus paid you. How the clauses are drafted, the gross-versus-net trap, and what to negotiate first.
Careers
Superintendent to project manager: what the move really asks of you
What a superintendent takes on as a project manager: the commercial work, why pay may not rise at first, and the general superintendent alternative.
Hiring
Verifying a chief estimator's hit rate before you hire
A chief estimator's hit rate means nothing without its denominator, its mix and the margin the wins carried. How to check all three before the offer.
Compensation
Vice president of preconstruction compensation: how to set the package
No public survey reliably prices a VP of preconstruction. Anchor the base on federal wage data, then pay the incentive on hit rate and closeout margin.
Hiring
Construction employer reputation: what senior candidates check before they reply
Before a passive project executive returns your call, they check who left, your backlog, your OSHA record, payment suits and who they would report to.
Compensation
What it costs to move a passive construction leader
A settled construction leader prices a move line by line: bonus, vesting, deferred pay, benefits, commute and a new boss. Price the same ledger.
Hiring
Construction offer declined: why the no was decided before the letter was written
An offer to a senior construction leader is usually lost before it is written. What the employer controls, in the order it matters.
Careers
After a construction layoff: the first week, the severance paper and the one sentence that explains it
A layoff at project end reads differently in construction. The first week: severance paper, benefits, references and how to explain it.
Careers
Asking for a construction raise: your number is set two months before your review
When a contractor actually decides salaries, the job numbers that make the case, what to ask for besides base, and what a 'not now' should come with.
Careers
Comparing construction job offers: two letters with the same base are rarely the same offer
Two construction job offers with the same base can differ by a career. Compare cash likely paid, backlog, boss, authority and downside.
Hiring
Construction candidate withdrawal: the finalist who pulls out in week seven decided in week three
A finalist who withdraws late usually decided weeks earlier. The causes an employer controls, the ones it does not, and what to ask at each stage.
Hiring
The construction interview panel: who sits in the loop decides what gets tested
Five interviewers asking the same three questions is one interview held five times. Give each a different evidence area and name one decision owner.
Careers
Construction management certifications: which ones change a hiring decision and which decorate a signature block
PE, CCM, PMP, DBIA, LEED AP, OSHA 30: what a hiring executive infers from each, and the seats where a credential outweighs a project list.
Hiring
The construction new hire start date: what an employer does between the signed offer and day one
A signed offer is not a hire. The weeks before the start date are when a construction leader serving notice on a live project is most likely to be lost.
Hiring
Construction project manager interview questions that get evidence instead of a speech
Generic questions get rehearsed answers. Tie every question to one job the candidate ran and the buyout, the change order and the forecast start talking.
Compensation
The construction salaried overtime exemption: a salary does not make a job exempt
Paying a salary does not make a role exempt from overtime. Where contractors get the federal duties test wrong, role by role, and what to check first.
Careers
Construction salary expectations: answer with the whole package, then a range for the seat
Asked for salary expectations, most construction leaders quote base. State the whole package you have now, then a range tied to the seat.