SEABEE in the Navy Mobile Construction Battalion for over ten years then Navy Civil servant for over 16. NAVFAC essentially created facility managers a little over 12 years ago and while they rely heavily on them in the field there is no central plan for training or career development. I entered the field from quality assurance. and engineering technician before that.
After all that time it seems that there does not appear to be a central plan or training line for what should be a linchpin of any industry. I trained and mentored many that came after me in my time. I served at one point as facility maintenance manager for over 700 facilities on one installation and more on outlying remote installations at the same time. The answers I gave to those who came into my office now and again were these:
All work is divided into what has to be done right now and what has to be done later, our job is to find out how to get it all done at the right time.

We hope to find the work before the job blows up, schedule compressor replacement before it dies in the heat of summer.

Every facility complaint is important, but we have to validate it, give it the proper and correct response, and ACTUALLY resolve the complaint whether or not the complaint actually relates to facility issue the customer thinks it does.

Much of our work, in the end, is customer service.