re: What’s the average day for construction project manager or superintendent?

Fields differ. I know a guy that pm’s Starbucks new builds and makes 70’ish. I know another guy that tank construction at plants/refineries/etc and he makes $150k+ bonus. The later is a ccm the first is not. I’m a recent MBA with pm concentration grad and I had an offer of $65k doing small cap ex projects but I’m in the midst of earning my pmp then I’ll reevaluate the market.

If you’re a project manager and you’re worried about what’s planned today on site, you’re already 2 weeks to a month behind.

Whoever said putting out fires all day nailed it.

Eta:

quote:

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dealing with half retarded workers

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Half?

Calling up your door and hardware supplier to try and find out why it takes 12 weeks to get the material to site.

Have fun with material submittals and certificates of insurance for the next 4 years

quote:

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you forgot standing around and dealing with half retarded, spanish speaking workers

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FIFY

Ride the school bus into the site before dawn
Attend useless safety meeting with red hat and crew of misfits.
Estimate change orders
Order supplies needed for change orders and figure out what needs to be hot shotted to stay on schedule.
Input progress in scheduling software
Review reports from foremen and superintendents
Attend endless meetings with site owners, project engineers, GC’s, and architects
Type up RFI’s and track responses
Update PM’s daily diary
Update rental schedule and make sure you have rental equipment lined up for future phases of work
Tell intern or new helper to go get a left-handed pipe wrench or rent a sky hook
Practice your spanish with the insulators and scaffold builders
Listen to alcoholic welders complaining
Figure out how many people to lay off this week and how many you can keep building bbq pits and mailboxes until you’ve got more real work for them to do
Eat the boudin and cracklings that supplier or potential subcontractor brought over
Walk the site to get your steps in to work off all that boudin
Shoot the shite with the old man in the tool room
Lose half your paycheck on 6 game parlays to the sketchy bookie at the job site
Get told to pound sand by operator who won’t let you lock out/tag out a piece of equipment that you need to work on while they watch Days of Our Lives.
Watch that arsehole ironworker apprentice pepper your truck with rocks as he peels out of the gravel parking lot in his 8 year-old Dodge Charger.

I'm a field super for a GC in Houston. We specialize in school building (both ground-up and remodel).

My day usually runs from 6/6:30A - 5:30/6P.

Usually broken down like this:

6A-9A - walking the site making sure subs are on site/ working where they should be/ answering stupid questions that are easily figured out by looking at plans.

9A-11A looking over the work plan for the next couple weeks. Calling and scheduling subs, etc. Answering emails that need a response, other BS paperwork.

12P-3P - walking the site making sure subs are doing what they said they're doing, asking why they aren't, lining subs out on stuff that got overlooked/missed/generally fricked up.

3P-5P review drawings, talk to architect/engineer about issues, put in RFI's if needed.

Usually try to walk the site around 5P after everyone goes home so I have some time to actually look at shite without my phone ringing or someone yelling fire


I basically spend all day babysitting adults. I swear some of these idiots can't read plans.


My best advice is learn Spanish, and if you have a choice, go the office route.
PMs are lucky enough to usually be dealing with other educated/semi competent people.

Pro tip. Get into CM or PM on the owners side. Then you just babysit the contractors. There is a lot of work that goes into construction from the owners side that most don’t realize and the work is more stable.