Career Change Help

[Underwood84]

Hello,

I am 23 and have a bachelors degree in communications but want to start a career in construction management. I will be starting an associates degree program in building construction in September at a highly regarded tech school in Boston (Wentworth Institute of Tech.). My question is, will an associates degree afford me the opportunity to break into the entry level management sector of the construction industry?

I hope to eventually earn a bachelors degree in construction management but i would like to enter the field before or soon after completing my Associates. How much is an Associates degree worth in construction management? What types of jobs will it afford me? Will i be at a loss without a bachelors degree? Any advice? suggestions?

Thank you very much,
Adam

[txschutte]

IMO, an associates degree won't help much. A degree in Construction Science or Construction Management is really the only way to get your foot in the door for a management position. An associates is a good place to start, however, experience in the field would be needed to back your certificate up.

[Rich]

From my experience working for Hensel Phelps - they hired people out of college to be field engineers - which are responsible for laying out projects and giving control to subcontractors. They also provided drawings to their self-work concrete and masonry people. They hired me without a degree in anything based on my experience alone.
After field engineer, then you go to office engineer, then project engineer (here is where you start getting into project management), then area superintendent, then project manager. From there you could go general superintendent and stay on the field side or go operations manager on the management side.
Typical timeframe for project engineer is around 5 years if you are really good. Some of the better ones have made operations manager in 13-14 years. So it's not a jump right into the management of projects.
Also Hensel Phelps does commercial projects where a small job is 10 million.