Types of Project Managers in Construction

As part of my quest to match jobs with people, it becomes necessary to catalog them.

Project managers have without question, proven to be among the most difficult to pigeonhole into any one discipline.   Ask one to classify himself and he will usually resist saying that she can do any of the jobs listed below.  I can tell you in no uncertain terms that most of the folks doing the hiring do not believe that to be the case.

A Facilities Project Manager works for an Owner [Developer, Government, or Industry] who hires a

Construction Project Manager who works for either a general capital improvement construction company OR a strict Construction Management company.   The Construction Manager secures

an Architects firm who has its own Project Manager, perhaps even with an engineering license.   The architect polices the

General Contractors Project Manager.   This person often started as an engineer doing estimating; or he came up through the ranks probably starting as a tradesman, then moving to a Foreman, then a Superintendent, and finally to a Manager.   His job is to manage all of the

Sub-Contractors Project Manager(s) and possibly their

material Vendor Project Manager who is often more of an estimator and salesman.   If you keep going down the supply chain, next would be the

Manufactures Project Manager who could be in charge of production, business development or even research and development.

Make no mistake about it, when you apply for a job the first thing that the person reading your resume is trying to do is figure out where in this list your experience comes from and then he is drawing conclusions from that based on his own experiences and biases.

Our blog doesn’t really provide much reason for soapboxing, but maybe this one is worthwhile.   I’d love to hear from some of you.   Have you experienced the brush-off because you’re just a Facilities Manager and couldn’t possibly understand what a general contractor is up against?