Construction Careers

If someone asked you 100 years ago to picture a construction worker, you might envision a white tank top, blue jeans, hard hat…bent over, exposing the top of his crack for the world to see. Maybe catcalling female passersby with a series of hoots and hollers. And probably a sizeable beer belly to boot.

Yeah, uh…you might still be able to find one or two guys who still fit that description. But those guys do a loooot of sweating during the day. No matter how many salami, liver sausage and pepper jack sandwiches they’re consuming at lunch, most of them are actually in fairly decent shape. The hard hat thing is right on though. That one’s not really optional.

However, when we’re talking about all careers under the umbrella of construction…we’re talking about more than just the construction site muscle.

We’re also including on-site supervisors, managers, contractors…plus all sorts of other tradespeople—carpenters, bricklayers, pipefitters, electricians…and not all of them are proudly displaying the area where the, um…good Lord split them.

Because most careers in this field lean toward the skilled labor side, however, the median pay for most aren’t awe-inspiring. $25k-ish a year for maintenance workers, closer to $35k for construction workers and painters. If you have more of a specialty—something you might have actually spent quite a bit of time training for—then you might possibly breach the $50k mark…but unless you’re the owner or manager of a construction company, you probably won’t be making much more than that. You might be building some luxury homes, but you aren’t likely to live in one.

So…what kind of individual goes into this line of work?

Well, you should probably like…building things. If you were the Erector Set/Lego/Duplo type kid, and your mother was constantly tripping over your various creations on her way to the laundry room…then you might be cut out for construction. Especially if you never stopped making your Lego skyscrapers, have been kicked out of your parents’ house and are now seeking employment.

But be prepared—it ain’t easy. No matter how you’re involved in the industry, it’s long hours, hard work, and not a whole lot of respect. You may have a part in assembling some impressive structures, but you didn’t design them, and you won’t get the accolades.

And when that first steel girder lands on your head, or you slip and fall off a third-story joist…you may be wishing you’d learned more about computers or something. Or that at least you had better health insurance.

Careers In This Field