What Does Construction Management Involve?

The building and construction industry offers people a fantastic assortment of career options, and allows them to specialize in a specific role to hone their skills, or helps them teach others and manage through management positions. When starting out in their studies, many students don’t have a firm grasp of what these management positions might entail, which is why we thought it important to touch on. Basically, construction supervisor will take care of and manage many roles on a construction site, which keeps their hands more than full most of the time. These roles might include specialists such as plasterers, plumbers, concreters, electricians and painters, but it will often just involve whoever the job calls for. There’s a lot more to it, though, so in this article we take a deeper dive into construction management to see what it’s all about.

Why a worksite needs construction management

If you know of someone who has enjoyed their time with a diploma of building and construction management or you’ve just finished up your studies and enjoy the idea of managing a large and experienced team, this kind of study would likely be ideal for you. Relevant teaching modules should have given you an idea of some of the more intense things to expect, so jumping into the deep end in this regard is not for everyone. This is because when things go wrong on a construction site, the person who is responsible for managing it is the construction supervisor – that kind of pressure certainly isn’t for everyone. It is their responsibility to fix the issue as quickly as possible while also remaining calm, level-headed and retaining the ability to respond well to the workers onsite (exploding at innocent people due to being frazzled is not an option in this case). It’s not just about being quick on your feet, though – management of the jobsite requires overseeing a huge assortment of things at once, so multi-tasking is a very important skill to have. 

What construction management roles are responsible for

Managing large groups of people requires a good amount of understanding related to behavior and people skills, as helping teams work together to deliver the very best work possible alongside very strict deadlines and unforeseen worksite conditions can be tough at the best of times. Good construction management means knowing that a lot of people on the worksite will not necessarily have good people skills, and investing time in rectifying this where possible. This could involve a lot of things, but as a quick example it might mean they provide construction training and team building opportunities to help upskill. People in construction management roles will also need to meet with a variety of different stakeholders, which is another circumstance where their people skills might come into play. 

Does construction management sound up your alley? 

It’s not difficult to see how in a construction management role every day can be very different from the last. Those interested in overseeing projects and variety in their work will find a lot to love about construction management, and although the work can be tough, the rewards are always worth it. It’s an excellent choice for anyone wanting to pursue a long-term career in the construction industry, and it can lead to a lot of unexpected career trajectories as well, which further adds to the unexpectedness of the position.