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what college courses should I take if I want to become a construction manager in the future?

what courses should I major in? #construction-management #construction

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Nicholas’s Answer

Hi Grasiela! The best advice I would give is take management courses and General Business Administration courses. These courses focus on how to manage people and take different approaches for the people who are working under you. Take time to focus on these topics because different people respond to different managing styles! Hope this helps
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Jeff’s Answer

Buisness and Finance
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Joe’s Answer

Depends on the type of construction work you want to be involved in. Large buildings, highway and bridges or residential/small Buildings? I work at a large national firm and know people who have masters in civil engineering and leaders with law degrees and some with speech communications majors.

There are construction management majors at many colleges now, but if you are very technical in nature you should look into Civil Engineering or Architecture. In either case a strong business and communications background will be a huge asset in any area that you work in if you don’t go into engineering or construction management.

So basic economics, communication skills, material engineering is a plus, construction management coursework.
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Harry’s Answer

There are specific construction management degree programs that are created just for those who want a career in construction management. Source this out with your local community college or university. This way you will save time, effort and money taking classes specific to your degree. I taught construction management at Weber State University in Utah which they offered day and night classes for a 4 year degree in Construction Management. I am sure you can find this near you in Kansas City as well.
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Jeff’s Answer

I agree with Nicholes's answer completely
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Arnel’s Answer

To be more efficient on becoming a Construction Manager, you should take Civil Engineering then You choose what field you want, Building Construction, Highways/Freeways and Bridges Construction, Telecommunication Construction.
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Mary’s Answer

Look for an associate's or bachelor's degree in Construction Management. I have an AAS in CM and Design both. But you'll definitely need to work in the field in some capacity, in your desired industry, before becoming a construction manager. Nothing replaces the field experience and knowledge so you know what is supposed to be happening and in what sequence. You cannot learn those things from a book, as each project is different.


If you go the 4 year route, you can intern or co-op at plenty of companies, especially if you're in engineering. Where I work we bring in some every year, who've hired on after graduation.


You might find a summer job in high school with a residential contractor, but most contractors have an age requirement due to their insurance.

Mary recommends the following next steps:

There are a lot of relevant YouTube videos, focus on scheduling and CM. There are also groups you can follow on LinkedIn that are specific to occupations as well.
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Jody’s Answer

Hola Graciela !

Construction Managers come from different backgrounds and I will tell you from personal experience that construction management is a hard-nosed field to be successful in. Every construction job must be profitable to stay in business and mistakes can be costly. Every construction manager is responsible for cost, quality, and safety of the crews. There are Construction Management degrees and there are Civil, Mechanical, and Architectural degrees that provide pathways to construction management for companies that build their own facilities and direct hire their own people to build them. Every construction company has to make profit to stay in business and every project runs the risk of overrunning costs for materials, manpower and labor, equipment rentals, schedule delays, changes in scope, and plain old-fashioned bad luck. I spent 20 years in Construction Management and still love being on big construction jobs. Construction Management is also called Project Management and has the same challenges. I started taking pre-engineering classes after high school to prove to myself that I could apply myself at a Junior Community College and then transferred to Texas &M University for a Civil Engineering degree. The Univerisity of Houston has a Construction management degree. Texas A&M University has a Building Construction degree. The schools should post their curriculum classes on-line on their websites. I remember trying to decide which classes I should take and Texas A&M sent me a book of available classes after I requested an application. Engineering is more math and science, calculus and physics, which is really not needed for Construction Management. I wanted an engineering degree and I chose the harder path hoping it would open more doors. The harder curriculum also helped me pass the two 8-hour examinations I needed to get my Professional Engineering license more than 15 years after I graduated college. That was not easy for me at all but I did it. Getting an engineering degree will help you learn how to do hard things. I was a C+ student in high school and I graduated as a C+ student in Civil Engineering and now I am a Professional Engineer with over 20 years of Construction Management. There are many different paths to getting in Construction Management and I hope you love it as much as I did.

Jody recommends the following next steps:

1. Find a college or University that you want to attend
2. Look at the different degrees they offer
3. Look at the classes required for the degree
4. Find local Construction Companies and see if you have any way to approach them and ask their Managers good questions
5. Find Construction Managers and ask them good questions that can benefit your future decisions
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