Construction Management Degree

cjc21021

HI All,

I have a question. I am currently in school for residential construction and I am debating if I should go ahead and get a degree in construction management or if I should just settle for my certificates I am currently completeing. I plan on starting my own company this year and am taking my builders exam in April. I currently live in michigan and would appreciate any advise. This forum has been very helpful already and entertaining to say the least.

cjc21021

Also, would a certifcate or degree mean anything to any of you as a potential employer. Or would the experience be useful for owning my own company.
Thanks

Bob Kovacs

Chris-

Alot depends on what kind of courses your "certificate" program included, vs what you'd get with the CM degree. I have my Bachelor's in construction management, and it's been extremely helpful- both when I worked in residential remodeling and now in commercial construction.

If you're planning to start your own business, you need as solid of a foundation in estimating, project management, finance, and sales as you can get. Most new construction businesses fail not because the owners are unskilled as tradesmen, but because they have no clue what it takes to actually run a "business" rather than having a "job".

What type of work are you planning to do with this new business? Do you have any field experience in that type of work, or are you fresh out of college?

Bob

cjc21021

I currently have rough carpentry skills and a good uderstanding of print reading. I am recieving a certificate in residential construction and I have built two house with a crew and some small work on my own. During the building of the two houses I was considered the lead carpenter, which isn't much because it was a learining enviroment. I feel confident in rough framing and the basic building of a home. My instructor is a retired union carpenter and he is not a people pleaser and makes no friends with his students, but he has told me on more than one occasion that he would reccomend me to anyone for a job and told me that I have the skills to compete with most 3-5 year residential carpenters. I plan on starting very small and doing this work right know almost as a hobby. I have a current full time job to pay the bills and if I can find one maybe two jobs a month then I can take my time on, do a good job, learn from my mistakes and develope good customer recommendations. I hope one day to be able to do this full time but right now I just want to get started right and learn as much as I can.