Civil Engineering, Construction and Architecture Careers | Commercial Construction Project Manager

Commercial Construction Project Manager

Career Area: Construction, Extraction, and Architecture

Occupation Group: Construction Managers

Salary

Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.

An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.

A typical Commercial Construction Project Manager earns the following wages (national and state):

State

The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $78,456

*The salaries depicted here are representative of the range of salaries posted in job listings over the past year. Living wage in North Carolina is $30,000.

National

The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $82,259

*The salaries depicted here are representative of the range of salaries posted in job listings over the past year. Living wage in North Carolina is $30,000.

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

Supervises commercial construction projects from beginning to end, ensuring that projects are completed within time and budgetary constraints. Controls the time, cost and quality of projects. Plans and coordinates all aspects of the construction process, including hiring contractors and working with engineers, architects and vendors. Often works with construction superintendent.

Employment Trends

The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.

Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:

LocationGrowth
North Carolina393+13.3%
Nationwide8502+9.8%

Skills

A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:

Baseline Skills

The following are baseline skills every Commercial Construction Project Manager is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:

  • Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
  • Microsoft Office: Microsoft Office is an office suite of applications, servers, and services developed by Microsoft.
  • Detail-Oriented: A detail oriented person is someone who pays attention to the details and can make a conscious effort to understand causes instead of just the effects, and that does this in a second nature type of way.
  • Building Effective Relationships: Building relationships is about your ability to identify and initiate working relationships and to develop and maintain them in a way that is of mutual benefit to both yourself and the other party. Good relationships are the key to getting things done and are essential when your success is dependent on others.
  • Teamwork / Collaboration: Experience working in collaborative efforts with a team to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.

Specialized Skills

These skills are specific to working in this career:

  • Project Management: Project management is the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria.
  • Commercial Construction: Commercial construction is the business of building and selling or leasing manufacturing or assembly plants, medical centers, retail shopping centers, and standard space for offices.
  • Budgeting: Experience planning how the financial resources of a business or department are to be allocated during the next business period.
  • Scheduling: Working experience making schedules, which are basic time-management tools, consisting of a list of times at which possible tasks, events, or actions are intended to take place withing an organization.
  • Construction Management: Construction Project Management (CM) is a professional service that uses specialized, project management techniques to oversee the planning, design, and construction of a project, from its beginning to its end.

Distinguishing Skills

Any Commercial Construction Project Manager that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:

  • Renovation: Renovation (also called remodeling) is the process of improving a broken, damaged, or outdated structure.
  • Primavera: Primavera is an enterprise project portfolio management software.
  • Punch List: A punch list is a document prepared near the end of a construction project listing work not conforming to contract specifications that the contractor must complete prior to final payment.
  • Building Codes: A building code (also building control or building regulations) is a set of rules that specify the standards for constructed objects such as buildings and nonbuilding structures.

Salary Boosting Skills

A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills:

  • Cost Control: Working experience of Cost Control, which is the practice of identifying and reducing business expenses to increase profits, starting with the budgeting process. A business owner compares actual results to the budget expectations, and if actual costs are higher than planned, management takes action. As an example, a company can obtain bids from other vendors that provide the same product or service, which can lower costs.

Experience

This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Experience Required%
0 to 2 years12%
3 to 5 years67%
6 to 8 years9%

Many of the programs offered through NC State are designed for working professionals who need additional credentials to enhance existing work experience.

Students who do not have the expected level of experience may wish to look into internship and employment opportunities.

Common Job Titles

It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:

  • Construction Project Manager
  • Project Manager
  • Commercial Construction Project Manager
  • Project Manager Commercial Flooring
  • Project Manager - Commercial Construction

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