Construction Managers
Skills & Knowledge
Most Important Skills for Construction Managers
- Coordinating with Others—Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Monitoring Performance—Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Listening—Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Making Decisions—Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Managing Money—Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
- Managing People—Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Managing Things—Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
- Managing Time—Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Negotiating—Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Reading—Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
Most Important Knowledge Areas for Construction Managers
- Building and Construction—Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
- Design—Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
- Customer and Personal Service—Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Engineering and Technology—Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
- Administration and Management—Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
- Mathematics—Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
- Clerical—Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
- English Language—Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Mechanical—Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
- Computers and Electronics—Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Interests
Different careers may be a good fit for your personality or interests. This career is:
- Enterprising—Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.
- Realistic—Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.
Learn more about your interests. Take the MnCareers Interest Assessment.
Describe Your Skills
People who have worked in this career typically perform the following tasks.
These statements can help a prospective employer understand what you can do, on a resume or during an interview.
- Making decisions or solving problems.
- Communicating with supervisors, co-workers, or people that work under you.
- Resolving conflicts or negotiating with people.
- Scheduling work and activities.
- Collecting information from different sources.
- Using computers.
- Organizing, planning, and prioritizing work.
- Communicating with people outside your organization.
Careers that Use Similar Skills
The following careers use skills, knowledge, and abilities that are similar to those used for Construction Managers.
View more careers in the Architecture and Construction cluster
View more careers in the Construction pathway
This page includes information from the O*NET 24.2 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Source: You can learn about our data sources in the About Us section.
