Will Boyle

Date: March 9, 2017

To: Bic Parma

Owner

Shaub Construction Company

Purpose

The purpose of this proposal is to request funds to conduct a study on how the experience

and education of estimators and managers in the construction industry effects their performance

in the real world.

Summary

In this proposal I will explain all the different ways ways that I will research the factors

of a aspiring construction manager. From the different options of going to college or working

your way up from the field I will find which is better for both the student and the company he or

she will work for. Along with studying how the managers were educated I will compare that with

how they are performing in the industry. To do this I will have evaluation forms that I will have

the construction companies I review fill out. This will show how they believe their company

performs and compare that to the other companies. Along with the forms I will conduct personal

interviews with estimators of different experience, education and see how they approach

estimating a job differently, as well as the same for project managers to see how they create

schedules and run jobs from day to day.

 Using this information I will compare the results of the forms, interviews and the data

collected from each company and use that info to see how experience and communication relates

to the companys profit margins, ability to finish projects on time, and overall cohesiveness of

the company.

Introduction

The construction industry is a lucrative and complex industry that has had many

improvements that have pushed the industry into the efficient and successful industry it is today.

Even with all the improvements in technology, practices, and communication the construction

industry, like many other industries, has its faults. With the advancement in cell phones, emails,

and even video calling the ways project managers can connect with people in the field is ground

breaking, but as you know there are still mistakes made every day. In this proposal I will show

how estimators and managers choices in how the enter the construction industry as well as the

education they chose to peruse, affects how they operate and run jobs and how their lack of

experience causes problems.

This section also gives some background regarding the problem and explains how it developed.

By providing some history or context, readers can understand the scope of the problem and be

convinced of the need to find a solution.

This problem of inexperienced managers and estimators making mistakes and loosing

money has developed more and more over the years. Construction has become more popular and

more and more colleges are offering construction management degrees. While a college

education is necessary in the construction industry so is real world experience, especially in the

field. The problem with this is that field experience is very difficult to obtain while in college
and most people with a degree do not want to work in a blue collar job. There needs to be a

solution so that these future estimators and managers have the proper experience and

qualifications so that they can perform their jobs to the extent a person with a degree in

construction management should be able to.

Annotated Bibliography

Burger, Racheal. "What Are Employers Looking For In Construction Managers?" Capterra Blog

What Are Employers Looking For In Construction Managers Comments. Capterra, 6 Jan. 2015.

Web. 09 Mar. 2017. In this blog post Racheal has noticed that more and more companies are

looking for people with college degrees. Companies do however want their employees with

college degrees to have internships with construction companies to have at least some real world

experience. Formal education is not required; if you have the adequate experience however you

will have a good chance at getting the job.

Collins, Jeff. "5 Qualities of Great Construction Project Managers." Scalable Project

Management and Control Solutions. IMS, 15 May 2015. Web. 09 Mar. 2017. In this article Jeff

Collins goes through all the skills needed to be a successful project manager. These skills are

found in both college and field workplace. Being able to lead and delegate people are the most

important facts of the construction management process.

Lynch, Scott. "How to Launch a Career in Construction Management." Direct Capital | Blog. CIT

Direct Capital, 27 May 2014. Web. 09 Mar. 2017. In this article Scott Lynch explains what is

needed to be a successful construction manager. He goes on to explain what you can do to get

into a career of construction management, the different ways you can make it to a construction

management position from all different ways.

Pierce, Craig. "Keys to Being a Great Estimator." Construction Monkey. Construction Monkey,

11 Jan. 2011. Web. 09 Mar. 2017. In this article Craig Pierce goes over how to correctly estimate

a construction project. This is very helpful for this proposal because it helps see how each

estimator based on their experience approaches a job and which is more efficient.

Proposed Program

With your approval, I would split my research in to 2 sections to cover all the variables in

this problem.

Section 1 Education

To see how college education effects a construction managers ability to estimate

and effectively manage a project I will conduct interviews with owners, estimators, and project

managers to see what they believe is the best way to learn. With their opinion, I will compare

that with how their employees are performing in accordance to their education.

Section 2 Experience

Since experience is what most companies look I will find estimators and

managers who have very little education past high school, but have worked their way up from

the field to the office. This is the hardest way to work your way up and takes a very long time

and is why most people go to college instead of go straight to work. To see if this is a better

career choice I will take performance forms to the field and ask the workers, one under someone
who worked their way up and one under someone who went to school, and find out who has

done a better job at managing and understanding what is going on in the field.

Qualification

Having seen these problems first hand and realizing that a solution needed to be found for

this, I will be leading the research on this project. I have been working in the construction

industry since I was eighteen years old, and know having worked in both the field and in the

office I have seen first-hand how field experience has helped estimators, and project managers in

the office create more realistic estimates, and schedules. I have worked on jobs whose estimates

were prepared by someone who had no field experience and they were some of the most

understaffed, and dysfunctional jobs I have worked on, and I have also been on jobs that were

ran by someone who had worked in the field at all that ran flawlessly. With this first-hand

experience I believe I am more than qualified to lead this research.

Budget and Schedule

Since research for this project will take many weeks and accumulated travel expenses

going to different construction companies, the expenses will be a big part of this project. Seeing

one company will not be able to provide enough information for a solution to the problem, I will

need to conduct a study group of around 10 construction companies of different sizes, trades,

experience, and education. With all the variables need the research will take some time, 2 months

to be exact.
 During the 2 months I will be researching and contacting companies in the surrounding

area, conducting interviews to see who matches the criteria of the different sections in the study

group. Seeing as I will not be able to work while researching and traveling I will need a

replacement salary of $1,000 dollars a week, while researching, as well as expenses account of

$300 a week for travel, and miscellaneous expenses.