Construction Management Degree towards RE Development
New to Real Estate · Kansas City, MO · Member since 2018 · 41 posts · 6 votes
I’m a college student currently enrolled in drafting and design but I have been seriously debating switching to construction management. I currently have no real construction experience but I noticed CM is more planning, estimating and overseeing the building process. I’d honestly much rather coordinate an entire project (as opposed to doing any hands-on work like framing,etc) and I was wondering how much value a degree in Construction Management would be in real estate development for an entrepreneur than actually trying to be just a project manager for a construction company?
I am not a fan of starting your career in construction or CM if you ultimately want to be a real estate developer. The two are definitely related, but those in the RED business from whom you'll seek RED jobs in the future don't see CM or field experience in that same light as being a PM on a development deal. Per @Kevin Keith Beck above, they are very different domains.
In your case, either degree would be fine, just look for your first job to be in RED. Your background in either degree would be fine for an APM job at a RED company. Also, think hard about internships in RED, they are perfect to build your resume while still in school, see below for other guidance on building your career in RED:
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In my daily conversations and interactions online, I get the question almost daily of how to break into the real estate development business. Whether you are just deciding on your career, or are a seasoned veteran looking to make a move, this post was written to provide value in your efforts to build a career in the development business.
Get the right college degree
While there are many paths to a career in the real estate development business, one of the first things to do is focus on the right college degree. While being a developer does not require a degree, to get the right first job, does.
The following degrees are often in the background of those who have entered the business:
Civil Engineering
Architecture
Finance
Accounting
City and Urban Planning
Build your networks early
Build your networks early, either during college or once you enter the business. To build your networks, and facilitate choices for your first job (see below)
Your goal here is to meet as many people as you can, and gently let them know you are seeking a position with a real estate development company, and ask if they might know of anyone. A powerful way to approach anyone is the indirect approach: “Do you know of anyone who might be looking to hire or that is seeking an intern?”
Get the right first job
As a developer in training, you want a first job that exposes you to the maximum amount of the development cycle with the maximum possible learning velocity (time and speed). You will need to learn all of these components of a development deal: land acquisition, site selection and sourcing, zoning and entitlements, architectural design management, deal underwriting, financing, construction, leasing, property management, and sale or asset management.
I would suggest working for companies that already develop the types of projects that you are ambitious to build in the future. One word of caution, don't take a first job that is oriented around construction or construction management, I have found it very hard for folks to move from construction to development without some loss of career traction to do so.
For example, I come from a family of real estate developers, but I was ambitious to learn rapidly and work for others in the multi-family development domain, so I obtained my first job (asst. project manager) for a division of KB Home (Kaufman and Broad Multi-Housing) that developed in-house apartment projects. I started as a rookie assistant project manager, and left there as a seasoned senior project manager running the entire project myself from finding the land to putting the project into long term asset management phase. This gave me the exposure to all aspects of a development deal on multiple larger ground up development deals.
Your likely job title will be: assistant project manager, analyst, development associate. Whatever it is, you will be working for a more seasoned project manager or senior project manager.
To find companies, search in your local area:
Google search for news about company activities, company announcements, new projects, public hearings, phase releases (new units released to the market), new hires or promotions.
Google search and look for advertising for new projects selling or renting units and identify the developer.
Get a development internship
An alternative, if you are finding a job a challenge, offer yourself up as an intern for a small development company, with the express purpose of gaining development experience, or at least that's how you should communicate it to them. You may have to work for free or at low cost to the small company, as they will be very sensitive to cash flow and costs.
Get a mentor
This is the single most important part of the advice in this article. A mentor could be someone you work for at a company, a senior project manager or VP of development. It could be someone you intern for, or just an individual that you have met and attracted into your network.
Know this: that person is worth their weight in gold, and can be the primary person that you run things past or ask questions as you move through your day. They can help you move up rapidly, and avoid pitfalls in your career. Development is a complicated business, the more knowledge you can acquire with more velocity improves your ability to increase your income.
Personally, my best days were when I would be tasked with managing a project (or part of it) and could at the end of the day ask a TON of questions about how to do it, what happened, what went wrong, what could be done better, and what could be done better than anyone else. I used to carpool home with a very seasoned PM, and we would be in the car together for 1-2 hours each day, and that poor guy got squeezed dry like a sponge by me for knowledge and information. He and I still laugh about it today, but that was the best learning I ever did. I have made a point over my career to ask questions all the time, to everyone I can. You’ll learn to ask them professionally as you hone this practice. Be open to learning for your entire career, the speed of change in all markets today demand constant and never ending learning.
Give yourself plenty of time to build your career
One caveat, building your career will take some time. Development as I said before is a complicated and a risky business; there are many facets to what we do daily, and you want to give yourself the time to learn it thoroughly. Mistakes here can be truly costly. Think of Malcom Gladwell’s 10,000 hour principle, that it takes this amount of time to become “expert” at something.
Be ambitious, be strategic, move first, move fast, persist.
Ty,
As a 30 year retired Contractor who has also been a Construction Project Manager I can tell you these two job titles are completely different and require totally different skill sets and experience.
If you're looking to get a degree that leads to a nice paying job (not REI), a four year Construction Management degree starts at 100k here in California.
If you get a degree in Architecture, you'd still have several years afterwards working for another architect before you can get licensed.
What do want to do with your life?
Simply choosing REI as your goal isn't enough.
You should take inventory of your skills and character. Are you an extroverted leader? Than get into Project Management and bark orders at people all day.
Like creating things and design? Go for architecture.
If you like building things (that's my passion and I have NO degrees) then become a talented carpenter, then contractor.
FYI, most Construction Project Managers do NOT work on small residential projects. These PMs are typically toolbelt belt-wearing skilled carpenters who can also lead people.
I hope this helps!
Kevin Beck
If you looking to be hands off, a degree is a good option. I like to be hands on, so a degree is not needed.
A degree is good for the commercial world, not really needed for Single family homes.
Commercial world jobs pay well but they are hard to get, I have had several over the years come work for me,they have a lot of student loan debt and cant get a job for the commercial outfits.
I'm not a fan of college myself, I think the school of hard knocks is a better option and cheaper but thats just my take.
I am not a fan of starting your career in construction or CM if you ultimately want to be a real estate developer. The two are definitely related, but those in the RED business from whom you'll seek RED jobs in the future don't see CM or field experience in that same light as being a PM on a development deal. Per @Kevin Keith Beck above, they are very different domains.
In your case, either degree would be fine, just look for your first job to be in RED. Your background in either degree would be fine for an APM job at a RED company. Also, think hard about internships in RED, they are perfect to build your resume while still in school, see below for other guidance on building your career in RED:
----
In my daily conversations and interactions online, I get the question almost daily of how to break into the real estate development business. Whether you are just deciding on your career, or are a seasoned veteran looking to make a move, this post was written to provide value in your efforts to build a career in the development business.
Get the right college degree
While there are many paths to a career in the real estate development business, one of the first things to do is focus on the right college degree. While being a developer does not require a degree, to get the right first job, does.
The following degrees are often in the background of those who have entered the business:
Civil Engineering
Architecture
Finance
Accounting
City and Urban Planning
Build your networks early
Build your networks early, either during college or once you enter the business. To build your networks, and facilitate choices for your first job (see below)
Your goal here is to meet as many people as you can, and gently let them know you are seeking a position with a real estate development company, and ask if they might know of anyone. A powerful way to approach anyone is the indirect approach: “Do you know of anyone who might be looking to hire or that is seeking an intern?”
Get the right first job
As a developer in training, you want a first job that exposes you to the maximum amount of the development cycle with the maximum possible learning velocity (time and speed). You will need to learn all of these components of a development deal: land acquisition, site selection and sourcing, zoning and entitlements, architectural design management, deal underwriting, financing, construction, leasing, property management, and sale or asset management.
I would suggest working for companies that already develop the types of projects that you are ambitious to build in the future. One word of caution, don't take a first job that is oriented around construction or construction management, I have found it very hard for folks to move from construction to development without some loss of career traction to do so.
For example, I come from a family of real estate developers, but I was ambitious to learn rapidly and work for others in the multi-family development domain, so I obtained my first job (asst. project manager) for a division of KB Home (Kaufman and Broad Multi-Housing) that developed in-house apartment projects. I started as a rookie assistant project manager, and left there as a seasoned senior project manager running the entire project myself from finding the land to putting the project into long term asset management phase. This gave me the exposure to all aspects of a development deal on multiple larger ground up development deals.
Your likely job title will be: assistant project manager, analyst, development associate. Whatever it is, you will be working for a more seasoned project manager or senior project manager.
To find companies, search in your local area:
Google search for news about company activities, company announcements, new projects, public hearings, phase releases (new units released to the market), new hires or promotions.
Google search and look for advertising for new projects selling or renting units and identify the developer.
Get a development internship
An alternative, if you are finding a job a challenge, offer yourself up as an intern for a small development company, with the express purpose of gaining development experience, or at least that's how you should communicate it to them. You may have to work for free or at low cost to the small company, as they will be very sensitive to cash flow and costs.
Get a mentor
This is the single most important part of the advice in this article. A mentor could be someone you work for at a company, a senior project manager or VP of development. It could be someone you intern for, or just an individual that you have met and attracted into your network.
Know this: that person is worth their weight in gold, and can be the primary person that you run things past or ask questions as you move through your day. They can help you move up rapidly, and avoid pitfalls in your career. Development is a complicated business, the more knowledge you can acquire with more velocity improves your ability to increase your income.
Personally, my best days were when I would be tasked with managing a project (or part of it) and could at the end of the day ask a TON of questions about how to do it, what happened, what went wrong, what could be done better, and what could be done better than anyone else. I used to carpool home with a very seasoned PM, and we would be in the car together for 1-2 hours each day, and that poor guy got squeezed dry like a sponge by me for knowledge and information. He and I still laugh about it today, but that was the best learning I ever did. I have made a point over my career to ask questions all the time, to everyone I can. You’ll learn to ask them professionally as you hone this practice. Be open to learning for your entire career, the speed of change in all markets today demand constant and never ending learning.
Give yourself plenty of time to build your career
One caveat, building your career will take some time. Development as I said before is a complicated and a risky business; there are many facets to what we do daily, and you want to give yourself the time to learn it thoroughly. Mistakes here can be truly costly. Think of Malcom Gladwell’s 10,000 hour principle, that it takes this amount of time to become “expert” at something.
Be ambitious, be strategic, move first, move fast, persist.
You stated you are in drafting and design classes assuming this is an Associate Degree program. If this is true this path will not get you to being a licensed architect. I speak from experience, I have an drafting associate degree. I went back to school to get my BA and Masters of Architecture and now licensed. You will need an accredited degree from a 5 yr or 6 yr program. www.ncarb.com has the requirements of becoming licensed.
A lot of good info mentioned above. A lot of contractors have drafters to re-draw buildings during construction for like formwork and other items. Drafting, architecture, CM are good skill sets that can be used in RE development. It really depends on what you want to do. If you get into construction its very likely you could be working from a job trailer and not in an office.
@Jim Adrian @Kevin Keith Beck @Tim Johnson @Scott Choppin thanks for your responses and all the great info! The only thing keeping me from pursuing an architecture degree is the student loan debt honestly. I’m thinking that as a drafter, I could work under an architect to learn and sharpen my skills and once I learn enough To be able to come up with my own functional designs, partner up with an engineer and town planner to stamp my plans and get them approved. Then from there focus on land acquisition, the construction process and sales after completion. My goal is to start small, buying an acre or 2 and building one house at a time on it, learning/making all the mistakes and what to’s and what not to do’s early on and then gradually evolve into developing entire subdivisions.
Ty,
Not sure about your state, but here in California a Home Designer (not a licensed Architect) can submit plans for habitats under 3 floors.
I have several friends who discovered they never needed to become architects to be good designers with great plans.
Just a thought
@Kevin Keith Beck I’m in Missouri and I believe it’s no less than 2 unit dwellings (duplex) without an architect license...my question is how did they get their foot in the door?
Ty,
Like most business relationships, it starts with relationships.
Network whenever you can with various crowds. There are plenty of people out there willing to go with a Home Designer over an architect if they have the knowledge and integrity to deliver.
I started my own company doing drafting and design, I never studied architecture a day in my life, but now spend my days designing buildings of all shapes and sizes. There's tons of options out there in the architecture and design industry for people that don't have architecture degrees. My advice is to learn Revit inside and out, and you will never be hurting for a job, people will hire you without caring one lick that you're not licensed.
If you want to be a developer a degree in Civil Engineering or eve Construction Engineering would be a lot better than CM or Architect. You want to be hiring those guys.
For big-time GCs, you see many young project managers to have a bachelor or even a master degree in Construction Management. The construction world is trying to get more "modern" so there is a demand for younger folks who are more comfortable with technology. But I would at least try to intern for a large GC to see what it is like. It's a stressful job and the construction world can be a rough place.
Architect degree wise, I'm not sure what determines success. While I do know a few architects that are incredibly successful, I also know many seasoned architects who would be happy if they could reliably make six figures a year. It's similar to salaries for lawyers or really any other professional --- some make bank but many make under six figures. It is what it is.
I do agree with @Greg Dickerson that some kind of engineering degree would be more valuable than the other two degrees. But engineering is also not for everyone.
Disclaimer: While I’m an attorney licensed to practice in PA, I’m not your attorney. What I wrote above does not create an attorney/client relationship between us. I wrote the above for informational purposes. Do not rely on it for legal advice. Always consult with your attorney before you rely on the above information.