re: Construction Project Management and Career Changes

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I was basically in your exact same shoes at almost the same age. I graduated from LSU in CM and started working as an estimator at a good sized commercial GC in the New Orleans area. Moved up to Assistant PM then to PM. Worked in those three positions for about 8 years.
The company I worked for was great. The owner took care of his employees. They did great work and had a very good reputation in the industry but I eventually grew into hating what I was doing. For me personally, the stress that came along with what I was doing just wasn’t worth it. To me, all I felt like I was doing was fighting with people to get them to actually do what the said they were going to do and what they were contracted to do.
I was literally running three jobs with roughly 25 different subcontractors on each job. Just to name A FEW job requirements, I wrote all subcontractor agreements, built and maintained all schedules, reviewed and processed all submittals, balanced job budgets, reviewed and processed all RFI’s, change order proposals, change orders, produced bills to the owner, reviewed and coded all invoices for every aspect of each job, held weekly architect/owner meetings and typed the meeting minutes, held weekly subcontractor meetings and typed the meeting minutes. The list goes on and on. Lots of people don’t realize what actually goes in to building something and the GC is obviously on the front line of the whole thing.

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Man, I don't know that I could have said it better than that. I always resort back to the thought "maybe I'm just complaining too much and need to suck it up. Work sucks and you have to suffer"