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
Vetting a construction employer before you accept: backlog, bonding and who gets paid on time
The contractor checked your references. Here is how to check theirs: public records, backlog and bonding questions, and the calls worth making.
Careers
Working with a construction recruiter: who sees your resume, and who decided that
How a construction recruiter is paid, what to ask before your resume goes anywhere, and how to keep control of where your name lands.
Compensation
Chief estimator compensation: how the pay is built, and what the offer has to carry
Published wage data blends takeoff estimators with the person who signs the bid. How chief estimator pay is built, and why bonus design matters most.
Hiring
Hiring a building envelope project manager: the trade that inherits everyone else's tolerances
Curtain wall, cladding and roofing contractors design, fabricate and install under one contract. How to hire the project manager who runs all three.
Hiring
Hiring a conceptual estimator: pricing a building before the drawings exist
A conceptual estimator prices scope nobody has drawn yet. Why takeoff skill does not predict it, and an interview exercise that does.
Hiring
Hiring a construction director for a hospital system or university: the owner's side of the table
An institution's construction director buys buildings it will run for decades. Why strong contractor leaders often struggle in the seat, and how to choose.
Hiring
Hiring a construction director for a real estate developer: owner-side cost, schedule and lender control
A developer's construction director manages the contract, the contingency and the lender, not the work. Why contractor stars often stall in the seat.
Risk
Hiring a construction project team from a competitor: what a lift-out buys and what it risks
Hiring an intact project team is the fastest way into a sector and the easiest way into a lawsuit. How to do it carefully, and when not to.
Hiring
Hiring a special projects manager: running small, fast construction work inside a general contractor
Small jobs lose money when they are run like big ones. What a special projects manager does differently, and who makes a good one.
Hiring
Hiring a construction technology director: the job is adoption, and software is the easy part
Most contractors own more software than their people use. What a technology director is for, who should hold the seat, and when not to create it.
Hiring
Hiring a construction workforce development director for a self-perform contractor
A workforce development director owns the craft pipeline that HR, safety and operations each own a third of. What the seat is and how to measure it.
Hiring
Hiring a data center commissioning manager: the person who proves the building works
A data center is not finished until it survives a staged failure. What a contractor's commissioning manager owns, and how to hire one.
Hiring
Hiring a design manager for a design-build contractor: owning design cost before the GMP
On a design-build job the contractor owns the design risk. The design manager is the seat that keeps drawings inside the price. How to hire one.
Hiring
Hiring a forensic schedule and delay analyst for a construction claims and dispute consultancy
A forensic delay analyst is hired for the report that survives cross-examination, not the one that looks best. How a consultancy should test for it.
Hiring
Hiring a heavy civil project manager for rail and transit work: delivery on a live railroad
On a live railroad the schedule belongs to the dispatcher. What a rail and transit project manager has to know that a highway builder does not.
Hiring
Hiring a homebuilder vice president of construction: the seat runs a production line, not a project
A production homebuilder's construction seat is a manufacturing job held outdoors. Why strong commercial leaders stall in it, and how to test for fit.
Hiring
Hiring a senior living construction project executive: apartments on the outside, a care setting inside
Senior living is financed like housing and regulated like care. Which background makes a project executive who can build both halves.
Hiring
Hiring a site development and earthwork project manager: the job is priced in dirt nobody has seen
An earthwork project manager runs a job whose main material is unknown until it is dug. What the seat controls and how to tell who has run one.
Hiring
Hiring a sports venue construction project executive: the opening date is already on the broadcast schedule
A stadium has an opening date that cannot move, an owner with several voices and a design that keeps changing. What the project executive seat requires.
Hiring
Hiring a transmission and substation project manager: building on a grid that cannot be switched off
Substation and transmission work is scheduled around outages the utility controls. What that demands of a project manager, and where to find one.
Hiring
Hiring an affordable housing construction project executive: LIHTC deadlines, cost certification and delivery
On a tax credit deal a late building can cost the credits. What an affordable housing project executive carries that a market-rate builder does not.
Hiring
Hiring an asphalt paving operations manager: three businesses and one perishable product
An asphalt contractor runs a plant, trucks and field crews on a material that cools as it travels. What the operations manager seat demands.
Hiring
Hiring an electrical contractor operations leader: the person who owns the labor bet
An electrical contractor's margin is a bet on labor hours. What the operations leader has to control, and how to test for it in an interview.
Hiring
Hiring an industrial construction project manager on the Gulf Coast: refinery, LNG and petrochemical delivery
A Gulf Coast industrial project manager works inside a live process plant. What the seat demands, and why a commercial résumé does not transfer.