I came up on the open shop side. Laborer... Rigger asst....carpenter asst.....carpenter.... foreman... layout asst.... Layout/field engineer. I worked back and forth in industrial and commercial construction in the Northwest and in Texas. Then I hit the invisible wall. The guys in the next step above me were either connected by family to the big shots or had degrees.
If you want to be a Superintendent you either need to grind it out mid career and work your connections and find those opportunities for advancement. This is a long path requiring some luck. And there will be short term pay cuts as you move over to salary. Most of my foremen won't take that hit so they stay foremen even though they show potential.
Or you can super charge your career by doing a degree with night school. That is what I did. Many top tier regional contractors want to be able to tell clients that all their PM's and Superintendents have accredited degrees. Do the basics at a community college. If you can... see if a local municipal University offers an evening cm degree (my alum University of Houston had the program at night). Be very picky if you go online. Avoid for profit schools. The benefit of a local school will be a large local alumni community and you will be able to move over to a general contractor while completing the degree. Pay cut likely.
You have to want the job. Believe me.... There are many days that I day dream of just swinging a hammer and going home at the end of the shift.
The job in a nut shell.... You are responsible for the safety, productivity, and the quality of work of everyone that steps on your site. Every single individual. And you have to work to facilitate communication between all parties and work with the pm to keep the money and materials and documentation flowing. You must maintain the confidence of the owners and the design team. If you break that trust the job will very tough to complete. You must build a reputation of integrity and honesty or you will fail. All it takes is one idiot out of the dozens or hundreds of workers to take you down.
On the plus side for you... Carpenters seem to be the largest contributing trade group that move on to be general Superintendents one day. The highly specialized nature of the other MEP trades seems to keep that group within MEP and general Superintendents lean heavily on their knowledge for success. I think it is also because the successful structural carpenter is always coordinating with all the other trades to get something poured out and done.
Good luck... I have found my path to have been particularly hard and stressful on the superintendent side. Much more so than my time in the trades. But also very rewarding.
I can totally relate to this “You have to want the job. Believe me.... There are many days that I day dream of just swinging a hammer and going home at the end of the shift.”
There are days that I feel like that now, but there are also days that I appreciate being in more of lead roll. It’s a nice perk to be in a position to tell someone else to work on some of the pain in the ass details that pop up on jobs.
3
u/gertexanadian Apr 19 '20
I came up on the open shop side. Laborer... Rigger asst....carpenter asst.....carpenter.... foreman... layout asst.... Layout/field engineer. I worked back and forth in industrial and commercial construction in the Northwest and in Texas. Then I hit the invisible wall. The guys in the next step above me were either connected by family to the big shots or had degrees.
If you want to be a Superintendent you either need to grind it out mid career and work your connections and find those opportunities for advancement. This is a long path requiring some luck. And there will be short term pay cuts as you move over to salary. Most of my foremen won't take that hit so they stay foremen even though they show potential.
Or you can super charge your career by doing a degree with night school. That is what I did. Many top tier regional contractors want to be able to tell clients that all their PM's and Superintendents have accredited degrees. Do the basics at a community college. If you can... see if a local municipal University offers an evening cm degree (my alum University of Houston had the program at night). Be very picky if you go online. Avoid for profit schools. The benefit of a local school will be a large local alumni community and you will be able to move over to a general contractor while completing the degree. Pay cut likely.
You have to want the job. Believe me.... There are many days that I day dream of just swinging a hammer and going home at the end of the shift.
The job in a nut shell.... You are responsible for the safety, productivity, and the quality of work of everyone that steps on your site. Every single individual. And you have to work to facilitate communication between all parties and work with the pm to keep the money and materials and documentation flowing. You must maintain the confidence of the owners and the design team. If you break that trust the job will very tough to complete. You must build a reputation of integrity and honesty or you will fail. All it takes is one idiot out of the dozens or hundreds of workers to take you down.
On the plus side for you... Carpenters seem to be the largest contributing trade group that move on to be general Superintendents one day. The highly specialized nature of the other MEP trades seems to keep that group within MEP and general Superintendents lean heavily on their knowledge for success. I think it is also because the successful structural carpenter is always coordinating with all the other trades to get something poured out and done.
Good luck... I have found my path to have been particularly hard and stressful on the superintendent side. Much more so than my time in the trades. But also very rewarding.