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
Evaluating a construction equity offer: phantom stock, ESOP shares and the buy-in nobody explained
An equity offer from a private contractor can be shares, phantom units or an ESOP account. How to value each, and the questions to ask before signing.
Careers
Explaining a short tenure in a construction interview: three sentences, and the two questions behind them
What a contractor is testing when it asks about an eleven-month stint or a layoff, and how to answer in three sentences your references will repeat.
Careers
From hard-bid to negotiated estimating: the same takeoff, a different job
Negotiated estimating prices a building before it is drawn and defends the number for a year. What a hard-bid estimator has to learn to make the move.
Hiring
Hiring a construction controller: the WIP schedule, the surety and the first-year gap
A contractor's controller is judged by a WIP schedule the surety and the bank read first. Here is what the seat owns and what to test.
Hiring
The construction jobsite interview: what a ninety-minute walk shows that a conference room cannot
A ninety-minute walk of a live project shows how a superintendent or project manager reads work. Here is how to run it, protect it and score it.
Careers
Joining a family-owned contractor as a non-family executive: where the ceiling is, and who decides
A senior seat at a family-owned contractor can be the best job in the industry or a holding role. How to find the ceiling before you accept.
Careers
Joining a private-equity-backed contractor: what changes for the leader who signs on
A private-equity-backed contractor runs on a clock and a monthly reporting pack. What that changes about the job, the pay and the questions to ask.
Careers
Leaving before the year-end bonus: what a construction leader forfeits, and how to time a move
Most construction bonus plans pay only people still employed on the payment date. How to value the wait, and how to get a forfeited bonus made whole.
Careers
A construction LinkedIn profile that gets you found without telling your employer
What a search researcher types, how to write a headline that states scope, and why the public open-to-work frame is the wrong signal for a seated leader.
Careers
Moving from a subcontractor to a general contractor: what a trade project manager brings
Trade project managers know cost at a depth most general contractors lack. What a GC will value, the gaps it will probe, and how to make the move.
Careers
Moving to the owner's side: what a contractor's project manager gains, and what goes quiet
Owner-side roles trade the pace of building for control of the whole program. What the work is, what you give up, and whether you can come back.
Careers
Moving to a regional contractor from a national one: the job gets bigger and the building gets emptier
What a project executive gains and loses leaving a national builder for a regional firm, how titles translate, and the working capital questions to ask.
Careers
Negotiating a construction job offer: base salary is the line that moves least
A construction job offer has eight moving parts and base pay is the stiffest. How to compare total pay, what to ask for, and when to raise each point.
Careers
The construction interview: how to answer the only question that decides it
A construction interview turns on one question: what did you control? How to prepare two projects in depth, tell the story of a bad job, and ask well.
Careers
Project engineer to project manager: the promotion goes to whoever can say what the job will finish at
What separates a project engineer who gets a job of their own from one who stays an assistant for five years, how to ask, and when to move firms.
Careers
Project manager to project executive: the promotion that takes your project away
The step from project manager to project executive swaps running one job for answering for five. How to tell you are ready, and why good PMs stall.
Careers
Reading a construction bonus plan before you sign: a target with no document is a zero with good manners
Discretionary or formula, project or pool, what profit is measured on, and the payment-date clause: how to read a bonus plan before you accept the offer.
Careers
Relocating for a construction job: your subcontractors do not come with you
A move to a new metro leaves your sub and owner relationships behind. What that costs in year one, what to read in the package, and how to test the city.
Hiring
The remote construction estimator: which parts of the job travel and which do not
Takeoff and pricing travel. Sub relationships and bid day do not. How to decide whether an estimating seat can be remote, and what the offer should say.
Careers
Resigning mid-project: how a construction leader leaves without wrecking the job or the reference
There is never a clean gap between projects. How to time a resignation, what a real handover contains, and how much notice a construction leader owes.
Careers
The construction counteroffer from your side of the desk: should you take it?
A counteroffer answers the pay question and usually nothing else. How a construction leader should weigh one, and what to settle before resigning.
Careers
Signing a construction non-compete: what to read before the offer letter binds you
What a construction non-compete restricts, how state law changes the answer, and the terms an estimator or project manager can negotiate before signing.
Careers
Switching construction sectors: what carries from multifamily to healthcare or data centers
Moving between construction sectors is possible and seldom lateral. What transfers, what a new sector will make you prove, and how to plan the step.
Compensation
Construction vehicle allowance, company truck and per diem: the offer lines candidates actually compare
A flat vehicle allowance is taxable pay and a company truck mostly is not. On a field seat, that gap can outweigh $5,000 of base salary.