Does this look right to be a general contractor(college classes)

Brandon1 · 03-11-06, 12:31

I am in a community college trasnfer program right now with hopes of someday becoming a general or commercial contractor. I have hopes to go to NC state and take the construction mgmt. course which is what my advisors said was what I needed. I checked on it and it looks way out of my skill level and the classes dont hardly have anything to do with residential construction.

I am a little clueless about this as there isnt a "course" that offers "how to be a general contractor"

http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/students/cu...DF/CEMG036.pdf

anybody have any advice

Intel486 · 03-11-06, 08:05

A friend did construction mgt. Graduated over a year ago and works for a large construction company doing site prep (they prep the land and put the slab down then someone else comes in and builds the building).

It's going to be a lot of math and science. It's basically civil engineering with some differences, like you don't get an engineering degree or take the FE or PE. I looked at some of his senior year text books and it has stuff with finding the force on the head of a bolt in a beam, etc. Statics stuff. But he also learned managment and economics. Part of his projects he had to do was figuring out the cost of the supplies, how much supplies they needed, time it would take, etc.

They make you learn a lot of stuff you don't need. Basically teach you more than you need to know. I have to take a lot of stuff that I don't really need as a ChE. I have to take Statics, physical chemistry (horrible class) and Materials but it just gives you a better understanding of how stuff works. I end up watching shows with manufacturing processing and end up knowing why they do a lot of stuff or what they're doing.

I'm not sure what the requirements are for a general or commercial contractor though so I can't tell you if const mgmt is what you're looking for unless you give me more information.

ohh, and advisors give some pretty horrible advice sometimes. Take everything they say with a grain of salt and research it yourself.

the other pc · 03-12-06, 09:57

If you’re planning on building bridges, dams, power generating plants or the odd high-rise you’ll need this sort of thing. I don’t think any of the residential builders I’ve ever come across had a formal technical education like that (I think most have had high school/GED or two-year degrees, maybe four-year business or liberal arts degrees).

Check with your state’s license board to see what the requirements are for licensing. If there are any trade associations in the area you might be able to meet some builders face to face who can tell you what’s going on out there.

If you want to work for a big outfit doing big projects like Intel486’s friend it would probably be a major asset but I’m guessing that for small scale work it’s unnecessary (but would be beneficial).

PC.

truzoom · 03-12-06, 10:32

...plus they want your money!

It would be simple and easy to learn all the practical stuff that you need to be a contractor, but if you found yourself working on "up the ladder"(ohhh pun!), things may get advanced and those extra classes will come in handy.

That said, my economics degree doesn't require many non-releated-subject-matter classes outside of gened, so I can't complain...

Brandon1 · 03-12-06, 02:55

No, our state does not require any form of schooling, but I do need to know how to build a house. My father is a general contractor, but I dont feel comforatable learning from him.

I was going to email an NCSTATE advisor tommorow and see what he says. I just wanted to see if yall were seeing the same thing as me. Alot of work to learn how to build a house.