How Do I Get Started?

DHBill

Sorry to jack this thread, but I am in a similar situation to the guy who started it only i hav run machines and labourered a bit for th elast 2-3 years and am ina position to do a degree, or apparenticeship...reading all these replies i guess i should get a degree as that seems to be the wise choice...I am not a massive fan of maths and I reckon civil engineering will be full of some of the most savage maths ever, am I right? could someone sum up what construction management and civil engineering degree's are about for us please? Like whats the differences limitations and benefits of each? Guidance/careers people are useless at giving you the core industry info about this sorta stuff

woodmagman

how do i get started?

hi
im 17 and ive been wanting to start my own business in some kind of construction. ive taken my far share of business classes in high school so far. a couple of months now ive been thinking about owning my own excavating company. my problem is i dont know how to get started. i know i am way to young to be starting my own business nor have any experiance. how do i get started?

after reading alot on here. it seems that the schools for excavating arent worth the paper the deploma is printed on and the only real way to get started is to get working for someone for a while.

how do i do this. looking in the help wanted sections of local newspappers the ad for help for excavating companys dont exsit. do i just go down the yellow pages calling companys and tell my story and see if they would need any help?

once i do get some experiance how do i get going to starting my own company? will the questions i have now be answered after the experiance comes? like what equipment will i need, how do i get business, do i start doing it doing it on the side or do i do it full time, what i need to do to be legal with the goverment, what kind of insurance i need, ect ect

i also have my all my school paid for up till i am 23 because my parents are devorce and my dad has to pay for it. and i would like to take advantage of it while its free and i can always fall back on my education incase owning my own business dosnt work out. but i dont know what i want to go to school for.

thanks so much already and thanks for any help or advice you can give me



With that much grammar and spelling mistakes, no one would take you very seriously, no matter the business. And I have missed some.
Stay in school if you can.

Blas

A civil enginerding degree is far more diverse in it's applications and in my opinion is worth much more than a construction management degree, simply because it provides access to more career opportunities. However, it is also much harder to obtain. Especially if you have no aptitude for high level math. I went the construction management route and all of my friends have some kind of nerding degree, so I have a lot of respect for them cause I couldn't hack it. That being said, a construction management degree is great. It gives you a lot of tools and gets your foot in the office door. It is also a little more specific to estimating and project management from the builders point of view not the design point of view. That's my two cents.

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"It is what it is"

woodmagman

If you go into the trenches, you are the fall guy. Someones sedan two blocks away get dust on it from load of top soil you brought in and you are the one who spends two hours chatting it up with a fool in a black sedan that had no buiseness there in the first place.
Company ownership does not put you at the top of the food chain...education does help level the playing field.

rino1494

What ever you do, don't get a criminal justice degree.

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Mezei

i didnt plan on turning it in for a grade

ElIngeniero

Exactly. I always find it strange how the people who are quick to judge someone else's intellect due to informal grammar mistakes are usually (as in this case) the ones who themselves with poor writing skills.

You're asking the right questions. Keep it up.

ElIngeniero

And DH, I graduated with a CE degree with a broad specialization but took a number of construction management courses.

A good way to differentiate the two is by using a mechanical analogy. A mechanical engineer designs the car, a mechanic works on the car.

A civil engineer designs and often manages the project whereas a project manager (construction management degree) specifically manages a project.

In engineering, you'll get a degree and have no idea what you're doing once you graduate--in construction management, you come out of school with an arsenal of tools to help you do your job well.

Either degree and the experience associated therein is wonderful.

DHBill

I see, so a Civil engineer spends ht emajority of his or her time in the office? where as a 'construction manager' is mostly on site. as a project manager and other jobs that sprout from a construction management degree is there much chance to actually get on the machines and do some propper stuff if one wanted to and had the skills?

TMatt142

Ok Mezei,.. Don't let your average grades be the deterant that keeps you from applying for college. I was a complete slacker in H/S. But I did very well on my SAT's. That alone will get you in the door of a lot of schools. Don't be fearful of math either. I hate math, but as a foreman, have to use it every day and i do just fine. The main thing is this. We all see your ambition and quite frankly, as a young buck, you impress me compared to most kids your age. Simply saying though, How can you expect to start your own business in construction when you haven't even spent a day out "in it"? It seems as though it is a line of work that you can slowly work in to. Start little, do things here and there etc. In fact, it isn't. This line of work is deathly competitive. Ambition, determination...these things may keep you in the game, but it won't get you more work, or work at all for that matter. There are a lot of people in this business, who are upper echelon management, have all the degrees and brain power and still can't build a road, or building, or parking lot.....you name it. If you want to be the owner of your own construction company, know this...It will take you a LONG time to get there, and as the owner of YOUR company, you should know every persons job, how to do it, and when one of your employees is doing it wrong. The only way your going to know all of that is to start at the bottom, doing the grunt jobs yourself.
Find any contractors front office, walk it, politely ask for a job application. Don't walk out...Fill it out there. Ask to speak with their Human Resources person. He or she is the person who does the hiring. Ask him/her if they are going to be hiring in the spring. After you have given them your application for work, call them back at least once a week. Let them know that you want to work for them, show them your ambition. If they ask what you would like to do most, just tell them you don't care, anything is fine. Make sure though, you are at a contractor you wouldn't mind working for. Look the place over, look at their yard, is it orderly? Do all the other employees seem to enjoy their place of work? You can tell a lot just by being aware of things around you. You don't want to waste your time with a fly-by-night contractor who doesn't care about their employees. If you've worked more than one job, type up a simple resume and hand it in with your application. May seem silly, but it shows you mean business. Make sure you act quickly here...March is hiring time!

Blas

Not necessarily. If you are a project manager you spend most of your time in the office. Sometimes that office is on site but not often, unless you are a project manager for the general contractor/construction manager. In heavy construction Your day will consist of proposed construction site visits, takeoffs, proposals, meeting with potential clients, selling your companies services, pre-bid meetings, and pre-construction meetings. If you get to be a higher level project manager you bill projects, track costs, find resources, make deals, manage other project managers proposals, lunches, dinners, golfing, bar time etc... Not sure what the Civil enginerds do all day.... oh yes they try to make water run up hill.... J/K Civil engineers are very crucial in project development from conception to final product. As the civil engineer you will be asked to design the project cost effectively and trouble shoot problems as they arise. If I have a design problem on a project as a project manager I just say there is a problem, whereas a civil engineer will come up with a solution to the problem. There are a billion other things that civil engineers do that I do not have time to to talk about so talk to Elingeniero about the civil side he is a civil engineer.

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Mezei

ive looked down the phone book and searched for local companys and the only ones i could find around here are small ones mostly ran out of their homes.

i guess the bigger companies i see are from st louis.

TMatt142

Mezi. Your best bet in the St.Louis area is Fred Weber Inc. They are huge! You would have to see about getting in the union though. If that's not your deal, a good smaller company is Dave Kolb, Kelp Contracting, Another one my good buddy works for, is off of hwy 44 and W in Eureka, south of Eureka highschool by the concrete plant. I'll remember the name and post it but that's the general area. The thing about St. Louis is that it is a big union city. You can find some non-union outfits, but they are all pretty much fly-by-night. One thing I know for sure.....DO NOT submit an application to L.Krupp Contracting Inc. They also go by a second name (All Type excavating). They do not have the personel to show you the CORRECT way to do things! Stay away from J.H. Berra as well. They are on a downward spiral to oblivion. If your interested, I can dig up some more stuff being that I used to live in Mo. Let me know for sure and I'll see if I can assist. Most of these large companies have their offices outside of the city so your gona have to do some driving. Dave Kolb is out towards ST. Charles, Fred Weber is out West of the cites as well. BTW, where are you at in Missouri?

Ok i remember now.....Out of Eureka Mo. Gershenson construction. Very good outfit. If you are in the St. Louis area....this would be a company you would want to work for.

Mezei

I live about a hour outside of st louis in a small town augusta by washington missouri kinda if you know where that is.

TMatt142

Washington....Is that down 44 past Union? We did a big box culvert there at a Huge Target store, big strip mall area last winter before I moved up here. Anyway...That's not far at all. Get used to driving because in this business...you go where the work is. Check out Gershenson though, they are closer to where you live and are a pretty reputable company.

Mezei

yeah that sounds right. the target store was just being built there at the time along with that whole little area.

i think im going to make the little trip out there. if the weather allows. ill see what i can get done. thanks

TMatt142

Do you know where Gershensons office is? Take 44 east to the Eureka/ W exit. Head south past QuikTrip, at the bottom of the hill take your first left, across from the gas station ( Should be the exit to the Concrete plant that you can see to your left). Take that road past the concret plant and all the way to the end. Gershenson is the office at the end of the culdesac. While your there, put your app in at the two other contractors along that drag! Can't help ya much more than that!

Brock

Get your class b drivers licsense
travel the country wherever the big time commercial jobs are at the time.start by taking on dump truck driving jobs and get the big excavators to teach you how to run the machines after work. you will be running one before you know it. in the evenings hit the nightclubs/stripbars and live it up for about 10 years. before you know it you will end up in some town working for some old boy who is sick and tired of working for a living and will sell his business and machines to you for pennies on the dollar.

Mezei

yeah i map quested it last night and got directions. but it snowed today and i worked today since i didnt have school. so i didnt make it out there.

i was talking to this snow plow driver for this fairly big and well known local landscaping company i live by at work today. He was telling me, id probly be able to get a job there pretty easily. as a lot lizzard cleaning trucks and equipment.

dayexco

geesus man, you have more life expectations than being a "lot llizard", don't you? sell you capabilities! the way i see it today, any young guy that has ANY expectations of making it in the construction industry....is if he can walk into the interview and say....."hey, i have a clean CDL"....good chance he's hired

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