If you’re good at overseeing large projects and keeping all the details and milestones moving along, earning a construction management degree will definitely excite you. Construction management is a major and a service, representing numerous potential career paths. Here’s an explainer of the field!

What is construction management?

Construction management as a discipline involves managing a construction project through its entirety. It requires handling a budget, overseeing personnel, ensuring the quality of the results and keeping the project on schedule. Being successful in construction management requires the ability to think strategically. It also takes a combination of technical construction skills, good communication, supervision, coordination and organizational skills. 

In any quality construction management degree program, you’ll learn about a variety of topics, including: 

• Project management
• Estimating and budgeting
• Blueprint reading
• Construction technology
• Building codes and safety regulations

What can you do with a construction management degree? 

Construction management is a field and a degree, with many people who study construction management becoming construction managers, who are also called general contractors or project managers. They collaborate with engineers and architects and may work in commercial or residential construction, government infrastructure, property development or engineering. 

That being said, just because you study construction management doesn’t necessarily mean you have to work as a construction manager. The skills you learn in construction management can be applied to numerous high-paying, in-demand jobs, such as:

• Project engineer
• Facilities manager
• Cost estimator
• Construction scheduler
• Quality assurance/quality control specialist

What is the career outlook for construction managers?

Earn your construction management degree through the University of Northern Iowa

The path to working in construction management starts with finding the right program that will allow you to enter the working world well-equipped. At the University of Northern Iowa, the construction management major allows you to experience hands-on challenges that bring classroom principles to life, all in the newly renovated Applied Engineering Building, which features numerous high-tech labs for student use. Opportunities like the Construction Management Club will give you real exposure to contractors and jobsites with networking events a plenty! The student group also competes in national competitions, which are fantastic learning opportunities and resume builders.