r/ConstructionManagers

Traveling PM role on a hyperscale data center build in Texas. Wanted to get the community’s thoughts on the comp package:

$155K base + 20% guaranteed incentive added to paycheck($186K effective salary)

$700/mo car allowance

$7,100/mo net per diem

Home every other weekend and trips home come out of per diem

Bonus potential not detailed

What do we think?​​​​

There’s a lot of noise about AI in construction right now but I rarely hear from people who’ve actually put it to work on an active project. I’m curious what the real experience has been. What worked, what didn’t, and what would you tell someone just starting to evaluate these tools.

A contractor I’ve known for a long time now (not exactly the most organized guy) just got their license banned. In a previous project, he submitted a draw request with forged material invoices, just to draw the money to let the project keep moving forward.

Long story short, the owner and bank caught him, he got sued for fraud, and after the insurance company got involved, his license was straight banned.

GCs aren't dumb, he was just a messy and desperate guy. But be careful with your paperwork at any stage. The job site is key, but the paper backend is important too, more so than people give it credit for.

List your company, title, and bonus structure. Also any other big benefit information.

I'll go first:

Balfour Beatty, Florida location, SPM, 20% eligible yearly bonus, $11,000 car allowance, 4 weeks vacation, 5% 401k match.

Hello, I'm a project engineer for a medium sized GC and recent grad out of school. I'm making 85k and am about 8 months into the job working in Georgia. I really want to move to the West Coast or simply somewhere a little nicer but am finding job listings for my same position or higher to be paying less or about the same for places like San Francisco, NYC, Seattle, etc.

Are salaries in the CM industry really not scaling for cost of living?

Looking for some real-world feedback from anyone who has successfully negotiated their builder contract 👇

I’m reviewing a cost-plus agreement right now and trying to gut-check what’s standard vs. what’s worth pushing back on.

Here’s what I’m seeing:

* 20% markup on all construction costs

→ Seems to apply across the board, even if I source items myself (appliances, cabinetry, vendors, etc.)

* $8,000/month staffing fee

→ This is in addition to the markup

For context, I already have my own team in place:

* Architect

* Landscape architect

* Owner’s rep / project manager

So I’m trying to understand:

* Is it typical for builders to still apply full markup on owner-sourced materials/vendors?

* How have you successfully negotiated this (reduced %, no markup on owner-provided items, etc.)?

* Has anyone adjusted or pushed back on monthly staffing fees in a similar setup?

Not trying to be difficult—just want to make sure the structure aligns with scope and responsibilities.

Would really appreciate any insight, lessons learned, or what worked for you 🙏

I’m currently applying for PE positions in southern cali, but I hate LinkedIn with a passion. I just don’t like how anyone can just search your name and immediately know where you’re located/where you work. :/

I have about 3 years of experience in a large GC, and really want to get into working for Skanska or Balfour Beatty. How hard is it to get into these international companies w/o direct connections? Is it even possible?

If anyone has any advice, please let me know! :(

Are my friends lying to me?

2 friends work at a large commercial contractor doing mostly data center dev in Texas. One is a project engineer, the other is an APM now. They are claiming that in a few years, when they make PM, they will make around 300k in bonus, not including base. Is that realistic for 3/4 years out of college? Or are they just lying out of their ass

Background: Recent college grad, ~6 months into a position as a project engineer at a large GC, data center project.

Well, after a few months of telling myself to “just give it time”, I’m almost at my wits end. I do not understand how people find this job enjoyable. I spend 8 hours a day bored out of my mind in a meeting or at my desk. I process the occasional submittal or RFI, and run/schedule meetings for my PM. That’s about it. Everyone says “get out in the field” but I go out and stroll around but don’t find much to do that isn’t already taken care of.

It is a very heavily staffed project, definitely to the point of over staffing. Do I just need to wait for the next one? Has anyone been in this situation? I specifically chose this career to be moving around, solving problems, and getting shit done. I feel like a glorified assistant at this point. It’s got me thinking about joining the trades in all seriousness.

I am working on writing an RFI to confirm the allowable tolerance is between finishes. We have several planned details that call out for alignment between Gypsy board and Case work, suspended ACT ceilings and gyp, etc. We are concerned that the specifications do not show allowable tolerances between two surfaces that are to be aligned per project details. I would like to be able to site industry standards for gypsum ACT and casework in an RFI as it is inevitable to dis similar surfaces will not align perfectly as is shown on the plan details.

Any advice you can offer would be helpful.

Also, I need to mention this is a school project.

Hi, I hope this post is allowed. I am new to the construction tech industry (8 months in, but not new to tech in general) & looking for some insight into how construction as a whole is being impacted right now in your opinion? I'm feeling really unstable...and like things might implode. For context....our tech is for companies anywhere from 100-1,000 employees & I mostly talk to PX's and PD's

This month, something has changed big time. The PX's and PD's I speak to are increasingly stressed out, short on time, and no longer have any interest. Last month, everyone was interested. What did I miss?! I've changed nothing on my end but the vibes are OFF. I can tell there's a shift but I don't know what to attribute it to. I'm a problem solver by nature so my mind is reeling with if this is just a me thing or if yall have also noticed a shift this month & why?

Thanks for any insight. I'm about to go on maternity leave and really wondering if I need to job search for a lot of diff reasons but mostly, I feel like the industry is about to hit a brick wall with the economy. I don't know how much of that is my feeling vs reality though!

I’m wondering how valuable my experience is in this field. I served in the military for 10 years, mainly in a construction laborer/management role.

Since separating, I tried to purse a Comp Sci degree to try something new but i’m thinking that my experience is too valuable to not get some kind of PM/CM degree.

Any thoughts of how my experience translates from military to civilian and if pursuing PM/CM would be a better idea?

Traveling superintendent. Useless degree. Post-Bacc in CM from LSU. 4 years of commerical superintendent experience. I live in the US with no family or anything so I can go anywhere, Preferably West Coast somewhere.

How is it over there? Not just right now, but generally over the past 10-20 years?

I've looked on LinkedIn at jobs in SF and LA and... $120k/year, is that good over there? I know it's expensive over there but I get more than that now in cheaper cities (Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Louisville, St Agustine, etc). I know travel pay is generally higher but still. I want to settle down and actually have friends/community (maybe sounds kinda lame). Would take a pay cut to do so.

Are there traveling international jobs? I'd probably stay traveling if I could do that. China or something. Used to live in Thailand for 5 years so I know I could handle it.

I'm not really sure what I'm looking for but this job has gotten... almost too easy. It's the same thing over and over again. I could probably run one of these remotely from my house. I guess that's a weird thing to complain about in this industry but I really just want to stay in one general area now.

Mid 20’s. Was working in the field and saw an opening as an APM for another division in the same company and went for it. They brought me in. I’ve learned a lot and get paid salary 70k and only have a few months of experience.

There is talk about me eventually becoming a pm that would include salary and commission. 130k base and commission give or take. Timeline would be 2-5 years depending on my performance. Other APM jumped from 70 to 90 2 years in with same title.

Pro’s: lots of responsibility, growth, talks of advancement, individually, talks about expansion and market share. Small family business 100million across all divisions. Lots of for lifers at this company.

Cons: eventually will handle 12-20 jobs ranging from 200k to 5million, lots of headaches per usual as a pm, huge product line and several specs/scopes a single APM/PM handles. Very small, if one PM leaves the division crumbles. PMs do business development as well as manage projects. Like going to trade events and taking GC PMs out for dinners and design teams. One general super holds the fort down for subordinate supers and foreman and experiencing health issues sadly. Nepotism due to family business so very very cliquey. Frat guy atmosphere at times, which if fine for the most part but sometimes it gets out of hand.

Other side of the coin:

Top 10 ENR project engineer opportunity

Will be working with self performing division that is only one scope.

20k raise. Waiting on more details.

Would think there would be less headache in this position by having no middle man for submittals, shop drawings, RFIs, etc. Doing this at current job with many projects, many GCs, and different products is a huge pain.

I feel in a way it would be betrayal to leave this early but I see a lot of vulnerability at current company. Head PM says he hates his job lol (guy holding down sales and PM side).

Would really appreciate your opinion. I don’t think I would honestly want to go any further than being a senior project engineer career wise to be honest. Or PM for a sub.

I am just starting my fourth year in the industry coming out of college in 2022. I've been an assistant project manager my whole career (first company was too small to have PEs) but I have never truly been an "assistant." Early on my PMs quit, got fired, after those two they never got replaced and I took on the quarterback role of all jobs I've been on since. I think I'm being compensated fairly (105k) so that is not my issue, although who wouldn't want more? lol
I switched companies once to be closer to family, now running multiple jobs at once, based out of the central office but travel to sites when I need to (don't have trailers).

I am having a huge issue with burnout. I really enjoy construction because I love learning how systems work and how everything around us is built. The process of building? It's absolutely killing me. I get 50+ calls daily, people asking me how to do their job, ridiculous emails and dealing with people who just don't have common sense. I'm not myself right now, I'm constantly pissed off, I hate sitting in a cubicle for longer than I should be. I work very efficiently and often find myself sitting in the cubicle doing nothing when I could be out of the office doing other things (I think I'd enjoy remote/hybrid work, but they like butts in seats, micromanagement). Not to mention, I am in a corporate company at the moment and am coming to the realization that I'll never make the "big bucks" working for someone else, it's just a big machine (got bonused 1k this year, LOL). I kind of want to go my own route, but just feel like I am not giving great effort right now because of the burnout. What do y'all recommend? I really enjoy reading comments on here and look forward to reading more.

I do know that I am doing a good job, I am effective at what I do, i just don't enjoy it at all at the moment and wish I had a different outlook on it. Open to switching roles within construction or switching industries as a whole.

Context:

I am graduating college here in a few weeks and have a question. I will be starting a job at a company that focuses on infrastructure repair projects (largely waste water stuff). I’ve been working at a commercial GC as an intern PE for ~2 years.

Question:

I understand work/life balance in this industry can often be pretty poor and long hours aren’t rare. I know it differs largely based on your company/project/team but does this generally apply to all sectors?

As I said above, I’ll be starting at a company that focuses on infrastructure repair projects (largely waste water stuff), and I’m pretty sure one of the dudes I talked to/interviewed with said they work 40 hrs/week. Their website says their office hours are 7 am - 3:30 pm. I understand that office hours don’t mean field hours or that you only work between those times, but man that’d be a sweet schedule.

How are you guys actually tracking everything across jobs?

I’m dealing with multiple sites at once and it’s starting to feel impossible to keep things clean:

Leads / clients coming in from different places

Quotes being done manually every time

Jobs moving forward but no clear “single view” of where everything stands

Invoices and paperwork scattered across different tools

I feel like I’m constantly reacting instead of actually managing.

Are you guys using software for this or still relying on spreadsheets / WhatsApp / email chains?

I ended up putting something together for myself to try bring everything into one place, but I’m not sure if I’m overthinking it.

Curious what’s actually working for you guys in real projects.