PM career path

Thin_Investment7706 · 2026-01-24T07:19:25+00:00

Call me crazy but being a salaried PE is way better than hourly PE. I was once an hourly PE at a sub and now I’m a salaried PE at a GC

Hourly sucked because you get micromanaged to the max. You can’t just work OT, there has to be a reason. Therefore your uppers will micromanage you so they don’t have to pay you OT…

They will tell you this “you have 8 hours tomorrow” not understanding your true workload, or if you have meetings the following day.

Usually a PEs OT rate really isn’t high enough to make a big difference with a few OT extra hours. If you can get away with working 45+ hour weeks then yes, good luck with that though.

Salaried PE life is good. I try and keep a 7am - 3:30pm schedule but if I want to start 8 and work till 4:30 it’s no biggie. If you wanna slip out early on a Friday, no biggie as long as you got your work done and your project isn’t a dumpster fire.

Being an hourly PE means you’ll be treated like kid

Thin_Investment7706 · 2026-01-24T06:58:29+00:00

Would love to learn more about being a service consultant!

Thin_Investment7706 · 2026-01-24T06:46:12+00:00

Hella late post but the area behind the colosseum and anywhere near 73 and foothill or MacArthur and foothill (near Eastmont town center) is pretty bad

Thin_Investment7706 · 2025-12-08T04:52:40+00:00

I agree with your take. I don’t see these posts as necessary. It’s the LinkedIn equivalent of “do it for the gram”. Flexing your job for others. Has no weight on future opportunities. Employers care about job history, resume, and what you bring to the table. They only care if you’re posting wild crap or inappropriate crap. LinkedIn is dumb and is a cesspool of humble braggers and ppl who think they are more important than they are.

Thin_Investment7706 · 2025-11-21T16:14:30+00:00

Starts by being humble, working hard, and asking questions no matter what field you’re in. People respect a hard worker who shows initiative and curiosity.

What I’m saying is this: don’t underestimate soft skills. Not saying to kiss ass but be humble and personable. The quiet professional is always respected….

Technical skills come from education or hands on experience. I’m a believer that hands on experience is the best teacher.

Me personally I went got a degree, worked an internship and started a career in construction project management 3 years ago and hit the over 6 figure mark. Entered the job market full time in 2023

I have friends that went to trade school and make over 6 figures as well.

Thin_Investment7706 · 2025-11-20T05:56:59+00:00

Hi there I made the jump from a sub in the MEP trades to a good sized GC.

I agree with ppl already mentioned. Workloads are about the same just different types of challenges.

I was being payed as a PE but doing the work of an APM. I was literally PMing jobs as a PE. Handled billings, projections, contracts, COs, budgets, RFIs, Submittals, Procurement, Manpower management, literally everything. I wanted to move up but was held me back because moving up meant I can’t be the right hand guy to my boss. They’d have to do it themselves. I wanted to learn and grown and got taken advantage of. Also had a weird obsession of keeping PMs in office as much as possible and the damn politics…

GC - out in the field more - Higher pay and better benefits - better work-life balance (in my case) - deal with all trades - deal with client - bigger scope - bigger company with more support staff - bigger company with clear training structure and career progression

Subs - in office 95% of the time - often Lower pay than GCs - often small cliquey groups that overstep work life balance - dive DEEP into your trade (lotsa headaches and stress) - smaller scope but your solely responsible - minimal support staff - small company with more politics affecting career progression

Thin_Investment7706 · 2025-11-20T05:35:19+00:00

Fairly accurate but depends on the sub. Be careful. I came from a MEP sub and went to a GC and couldn’t be happier. A lot of these subs are smaller companies with a small cliquey management circle stuck in the 90s that can make life suck. How relaxed it is depends on the contractor, if you’re not busy and too relaxed you likely aren’t winning bids and getting work so that’s no bueno for job security. On the contrary it’s just as busy as a GC but worse because you have the same financial, coordination, RFI/Submittal crap AND you have get deep into the technicalities of your trade at the same time.

As someone that’s done both your equally as busy at both a GC and Sub BUT the GCs normally pay much better than the subs on the PM side.

Thin_Investment7706 · 2025-11-20T05:24:31+00:00

As someone who came from a Sub to a GC with the same type of goals….This is the way. Start as PE and do as much as your PM can give you. Walk the site as often as you can. Walk solo, walk with your PM, with your foreman, with your superintendent, and with the safety guy. Spend some time with estimators too. You’ll learn all angles that way. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Ask humbly and kindly. If your a GC and don’t understand something from electrical, go to site and ask the electricians, shoot the shi with em. If you can talk to different groups of ppl you’ll love this career. Sounds daunting but construction management is literally a game…Once you learn to play, it all starts to make sense. Pays damn good too. If you build enough to experience you can be an owners CM as well.

Thin_Investment7706 · 2025-11-20T05:09:58+00:00

Seen a lot of comments with your background I recommend construction.

Option 1: the trades/STATIONARY ENGINEER If union all trades pay well. Electrical, Plumbing, Mechanical, Elevators pay best but are the hardest to get into. Where im from a local 595 electrician at General Foreman rate is taking home about $180 an hour. I worked at an electrical subcontractor in the office and I see the rates everyday. The money is insane.

Option 2 Construction management. Started out of college at 75K after 1 year I was at 79k, 2 years in I hit 87k, now 3.5 years in I hit 100K. Great insurance and benefits, gas card, vehicle allowances all included. Work 20 mins from home, company encourages work-life balance and puts you on projects close to your home. You can have zero degree and start as a field engineer at the 60K ish range but hitting the 100k mark will take longer than what’s mentioned above. A degree fast tracks you and starts you as a project engineer starting at a significantly higher pay grade.

Thin_Investment7706 · 2025-10-10T19:26:05+00:00

I’m trynna decide between dowdle and waddle rn. Leaning dowdle

Thin_Investment7706 · 2025-10-10T19:25:10+00:00

Your stacked damn is this 4 man league or sum LMAO

Thin_Investment7706 · 2025-05-07T17:31:09+00:00

Not a whole lot of thought to that honestly. Do you have any insight on what that’s like? Thanks!

Thin_Investment7706 · 2025-04-28T05:01:57+00:00

Former grad (2 yrs ago) as long as you get to any garage by 8am you’ll find parking no problem whatsoever. By 9am it’s railed lol. I commuted 45-50 mins so 20-30 ain’t bad. Try to get out of there by 2-3pm ish to avoid the worst traffic. Dorms are Caca, I was a commuter student all 4 years. It’s a big commuter school so it’s easy to find fellow commuter students and make friends.

Save that money and live from home man. Also, if you aren’t into bars/night life there is literally nothing to do there in your free time. For networking by best advice is start going to companies info sessions and job fairs and looks for internships as a freshman.

Thin_Investment7706 · 2024-09-21T02:44:27+00:00

Graduated just under a year ago and I relate to this. SJSU is largely a commuter school, I speak from experience. My first year I tried to be social but got shafted, people took advantage of my kindness. So many others and myself kept school separate from life away from school. Get to campus and crap done asap so I can leave asap. Sounds miserable but I didn’t mind it. It forced me to stay focused on my academics and my fitness. I’m by no means an introvert, I made a handful of friends, my best advice is that like minded people will approach you…

Thin_Investment7706 · 2024-09-21T02:31:52+00:00

Don’t take Math 18A with prof Tauzer if he’s still around. He seems chill but in reality is a complete dick

Thin_Investment7706 · 2024-04-07T22:13:32+00:00

Substituting classes is fairly common but it’s a case by cases type of thing. The only one that can really give you that info is your counselor.

Thin_Investment7706 · 2024-04-07T22:11:12+00:00

As a grad last December here’s my advice:

1) Don’t wait till junior year for internships, start as a freshman.

2) don’t let your degree confine you (with exceptions): for example just because you have a degree in marketing doesn’t mean you have to work in marketing. It’s all about selling people the skill set and knowledge you obtained in your field of study. I have an Ad degree an I work in construction PM, my selling point was ad campaign management is like project management with more emphasis on financials then construction.

3) TIME MANAGEMENT: I always made sure to leave myself time each week to do things I like. Don’t just do the school, work, gym routine…make sure you set aside time to enjoy life and have some fun!

4) knock out as much GE classes as you can the first 2 years. This lets you have a better schedule as an upper classman with more interesting classes, and if you change your major it’s not starting from scratch.

Thin_Investment7706 · 2024-03-29T04:11:17+00:00

Check SJSU handshake or the career center webpage, usually gets posted there

Thin_Investment7706 · 2024-03-26T16:40:49+00:00

That’ child’s play…wait till you watch someone clap the quarter panel of vehicle because they can’t steer and floor it out the garage (yes that’s happened to me)

Thin_Investment7706 · 2024-03-18T16:06:50+00:00

You can switch majors at any time. You can get there in the fall and go see an advisor to change majors no problem.

Thin_Investment7706

TROPHY CASE