Construction project managers are jack of all trades and they’re the whole and sole of a construction site. This article will inform you about certain aspects related to their job.
It is easy to identify a project manager at a construction site. He is usually the one who roams to every nook and corner of the job construction site, with a safety helmet on his head and a cell phone or walkie-talkie in his hands, monitoring, instructing and guiding every worker on the job site. He is a dynamic personality, smartly dressed and proactive in every decision regarding the project management at the construction site. Construction project managers have lots of duties and responsibilities. They have to be technical experts in understanding construction related fundamentals, civil engineering, material management and so that they’re aware of monitoring various tasks at the site. They also need to have management and business knowledge as they have to delegate duties and tasks to various contractors, sub-contractors and supervisors. In the last analysis, project managers are the professionals who are answerable for the success or failure of a project.
Duties and Responsibilities
The construction managers ensure that the project is completed within the scheduled time and it is done as per the requirements of the clients. Here’s more information about the job of a construction manager.
He Manages Teams Well
A construction site is a conglomeration of a large number of entities working separately to achieve similar objectives. The main task of a construction project manager is to make all these entities work in harmony so that all tasks are finished timely. For instance, on a site where a building is being constructed, there are various crew groups working. One group may be involved in laying the concrete, slabs, the other group may be a team of carpenters working on doors and windows and some may be involved in roofing or painting. A project manager has to estimate the time of each of the tasks and coordinate different groups so that there can be a maximum utilization of the human resource at disposal. A project manager having the ability to manage all crews effectively helps in saving lots of time and costs for his company.
He Knows the Blueprint
Rarely you’ll find a construction project manager sitting idle, without any plans. They’re always on their toes, moving on to next assignments, duties, tasks until the project is completed. Project managers are aware of all the planning and strategies which have to be used to complete the task. In case, they find discrepancies or errors in the execution of planning, they may direct the team heads to make any changes. He is the individual who has a deep understanding of the basics of work, he knows the estimated time a task takes to be completed and he recommends changes in working methods that he believes are mandatory for the success of the project.
He Knows to Delegate Tasks
Except for frequent meetings with contractors or sub-contractors whom the construction project manager has assigned various team lead roles, there is not much physical labor involved in this work. However, you’ll find that the time saved by allotting specific monitoring duties to various team heads is utilized by project managers to schedule meeting with architects, engineers, management executives, CEO of the firm and other managers who’re at higher designations than the project manager.
Every day in the life of a project manager at the construction site brings with it new sets of challenges and problems. Like a true leader and manager, he works diligently to make the project a grand success. Since this designation demands lots of hard work, brainstorming and planning, being a construction project manager can be a stressful job. However, having reached a managerial position in a firm, project managers are generally habitual to stress and long hours of work, often sacrificing their personal time. The earning potential of project managers in construction field in the US depends mostly on work experience as managers with good work experience are hired for top-notch projects and mega constructions.
Being at a managerial position, construction managers earn good salaries and it may even cross a six figure mark, if the project is very big and demands few years in its completion. Besides that, job location and employer type also makes a significant contribution in determining the salary. Nevertheless, construction project managers with educational qualifications in construction related fields and with a business management degree can easily make anywhere between US$60,000 to US$90,000 within their initial to middle years of work.