What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

Project Management

St. Clown said:
If you’re hourly, you’re non-exempt. Perhaps i
misread the meaning for LynahFan, and he meant that exempt employees were being paid extra for their time.
Click to expand...

Yes, exactly that. Exempt employees only.

This just popped up in my LinkedIn feed tonight:

1629817164227
 
Kepler said:
I've seen construction management projects that are 100x more complex and sophisticated than anything in the software world, and any time people pull out blueprints I get very quiet and feel overawed. You're absolutely welcome -- your experience and knowledge fit right in.
Click to expand...
As a co-worker jokes, we just build targets for the defense contractors.


MichVandal said:
So I assume you are a larger construction manager....

Question for you- are parts of the project dependent on the weather? IIRC, I've seen some bridge constructions that kind of required a specific temp to get it all expand together, so I'm extending that to other projects.... Assuming that you do- how do you deal with delays that move some of the work to a period where the conditions don't support the plans?
Click to expand...
I'm learning the ropes to become a resident engineer, right now I'm a materials coordinator and unofficially assisting the Resident Engineer on my current highway project.

Weather delays are a *HUGE* part of the project. While I haven't worked on any bridge projects, there are specifications that we can work in when placing materials. Asphalt needs to be placed when it is within a certain temperature range, while the air temperature needs to be at the minimum of the specifications. Same with concrete. Concrete can be controlled by the plant where they can create the mix with hot water in the winter months, and with ice and or cold water in the summer months. Rain is an issue with material placement as well. In short, weather delays are a big deal. It depends on the type of contract as to how it's handled. A working days contract is one where the weather delays just push off the target, no harm, no foul. A substantial completion date (most of the big highway projects have been this) is one where weather, utility, whatever delays are documented and then used to push the completion date out. For example on my project, we are already looking at 6 months to almost a year delay because of utilities (and their lack of being relocated when they said they would be).

When those delays push the project into the unfavorable weather, there are escalations that can be sent to the state/local agency controlling the project to allow for the additional expense of working out of season. Because our project got pushed off almost one year to begin with, the project engineer has already submitted the paperwork through to pay for a material allowance for storage of some materials on site during the delay and also for material escalation increases because items the contractor was planning on purchasing has increased since the project was bid.
 
Every engineer should start as a resident.

I learned more as a first year resident than I did in my proper three years at a consulting firm. Which isn't to say it's only for entry level engineers. Most could learn something from it
 
dxmnkd316 said:
Every engineer should start as a resident.

I learned more as a first year resident than I did in my proper three years at a consulting firm. Which isn't to say it's only for entry level engineers. Most could learn something from it
Click to expand...

Ok, I'll bite. What's a resident?
 
dxmnkd316 said:
Proj Eng based in a plant. Usually smaller projects (<$3M), more projects, faster pace. There's also more support for equipment after install. Tend to learn more about operability, maintainability.
Click to expand...

For is highway guys, the Resident is the engineer in charge of one project and signs off on the as-builts. They're the ones approving all the pay items, organizing the work, keeping the client happy and making the contractor do what they're supposed to by the specs.

Project managers oversee multiple projects run by RE's, or runs a(/multiple) project(s) themselves.
 
I have been the head of engineering for a large org, many years. (so, please ignore spelling, grammer, etc)

PMs- great ones will not surprise you. With cost, schedule, or quality issues. Comunicate with the team well to understand challenges, solve issues, and then communicate upward as much as needed to prevent surprises...

The best PMs were also very good problem solvers. Intuition for who to bring on board, who was wasting our time, and who needed to go.

I have had many PMs that got too deep in bed with the big AE firms and construction firms. You need to be in their knickers, and act fruggle with my money...

And if you have bad news to present, use lots of colors. Black and white will get you in trouble...
 
Me, confirming w/ ops our downtime: So we're still good to go on the 7th? No new issues have come up?
Ops: I was told you need to shorten your downtime and I'm not to give you your downtime until you do.
Me: Ooooooookay... thanks?
Me, to Plt Mgr: So, I was just told that you told ops I can't have downtime
Mgr: Uh, maybe we need a phone call to make sure eveyrone is on the same page
...meeting...
Me: Ok good, we're all on the same page and agree that I have an aggressive, but realistic schedule and there are no opportunities for downtime savings. Good to go?
Everyone: Yes
 
It's a massive pain in the ass. This product is at like 120% capacity and utilizes entirely dedicated equipment. We're debottlenexking it but need to install it in the location where the final step takes place. So we need to move that step to other equipment in other buildings which is smaller. So it has a fairly big impact.
 
dxmnkd316 said:
It's a massive pain in the ***. This product is at like 120% capacity and utilizes entirely dedicated equipment. We're debottlenexking it but need to install it in the location where the final step takes place. So we need to move that step to other equipment in other buildings which is smaller. So it has a fairly big impact.
Click to expand...

There better not be a Post-It shortage because of you...
 
This is far more important than post its

It's important enough that the lady who lives across the street, whom I've never even remotely worked with on projects or products or even in her division, said "Hey, I heard your name come up in a meeting last week about project XYZ". Uhhhhhhh.
 
I start in a week. I assume I can go on hour-long crying jags and no one will mind, right?

I checked the self-reported base salaries for IT Project Managers with 6-14 years experience on LinkedIn and found the highest paying markets. The medians seem very low to me -- I am starting at 160.

Code: 
 1. 100.0 SF
 2.  90.0 DC
 3.  88.6 Houston
 4.  86.0 Seattle
 5.  85.1 NYC
 6.  85.0 Boston
 7.  81.0 Chicago
 8.  80.2 LA
 9.  80.1 RDU
10.  80.0 Denver
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top