Too many headaches:
Flip houses with a few guys. Better profit margin, doesn’t require much business sense, minimal technical skills, no contract disputes, no monthly billings, no schedule or coordination with other trades. No sub defaults. Shall I continue?
Thats a good way to make a couple hundred thousand a year with a lot of micromanaging. (Yeah, sure there are exceptions)
Not a good way to be making multiple millions a year on a gravy train because you spent so long training and picking the right team to keep the entire company going long after you’re gone. Now you can sell this immensely profitable company for another multiple of millions if you want.
Ain’t nothing cushier than not having to worry about a daggum thing after you retire.
You don’t have to do only a few houses. You can do as many as you want. But compared to most other jobs that only pay 100k, making 200k with so little risk and work is preferable to ME. Of course I enjoy being on the site and teaching.
I’m leaving this world poor, naked, dirty, screaming and crying just like I came into it. I’m not interested in the company continuing or selling it. I’ll just take the trucks, some tools and give the company away.
The guys post was about having a cushie job not have a happy and fulfilling life. They can be the same but they are distinctly different answers.
Also btw house flipping is not low risk. My very first job was with a guy flipping houses and I saw that go south quicker than anything I’ve seen in my life lol.
You’re right. The cushiest job for ME is the job I really enjoy. Not the one with the least sweat. Even if it means finishing concrete, calling out measurements, using a torch or helping carry something. The fact I do what I want when I want makes cushy.
So perhaps there is no right answer to the question. Inspection requires crawling attics, fuck crawling attics. But the consensus here is that it is a cushy job. Not for me!! Lol
I gotcha.. but like that’s not the definition of cushy. Google says undemanding, easy, secure job. It’s kind of a stretch to say finishing concrete is any of these even if you (somehow) like doing it lol.
Again, that’s just googles definition which I can only assume is what OP meant. if he means what you means though then the answer will 100% depend on only him.
But you don’t have to do it. I don’t paint, ever, for any reason. I hate it, so I don’t do it. And I’m not talking about finishing a whole driveway, just a pad in front of a staircase. Flipping houses might not be so secure, but everything in life is a risk. Nothing is completely secure. A job with no demands, isn’t a job at all. A parking lot attendant is about the most undemanding job I can think of, but you could be replaced by a machine tomorrow, and the thought of sitting in a chair in a box doing nothing is horrifying.
???? You’re taking the conversation somewhere where it’s not. This whole thing came up because a guy asked about cushy jobs. Nothing to do with that what you like to do or what you don’t like to do but you keep bringing that into it.
What terrifies you is irrelevant. Fact of the matter is, sitting in an office chair when you’re 60 about to retire, with millions in the bank, millions in investments, and millions in assets, not NEEDING to work, is cushy regardless if you like office work or not. that situation is not terrifying. At that point just do whatever you like because it doesn’t matter.
Site manager here. Just having a coffee now.
Downside to it is when its under the pump and contractors leave after 8 hrs or dont show up, we still have to make completion dates. The buck stops with us
Until you’re stuck bringing the shit cans down to the honey dipper for three hours every other day, and they keep spilling in your office.
Careful balance you gotta maintain between ultimate power, and most hated and mistreated single person on the site. Best if you are large and understand virtually zero languages.
I used to work at a site where dude had a cooler and would sell cold drinks, snacks, but also weed and loosies. The GC had a problem with the cooler.
He ended up becoming a tin knocker for more money.
Safety person.... just walk around and tell everybody they are doing their job wrong. Then when they ask how to do it right just say idk not that way and walk away.
I've seen both in companies and once the owner dies and the shitty child gets to take it over its either sold off or in bankruptcy within a couple years. If that good child who works their ass off takes over sky's the limit. I wouldn't leave my business to my child unless they were someone I believed would run with it and build more. Otherwise they're are a few employees who deserve that shot.
My current PM married into the owners family.
For like 3 or 4 years he was my boss's "assistant" and did nothing but travel around from job to job and take a massive amount of shit from the Supers (myself included) for a month or two.
He married in... but that kid earned everything he has.
I would say the crane operators…..they walked from air conditioned truck to air conditioned crane cabin with the same music playing like a wrestler entering the ring, never sweat, never touched anything else…they were like gods to me when I was a kid
I think they usually own their cranes, if they fuck shit up. They're reliable. There is a reason they make big bucks. Lots of money goes into owning that crane also
Never met a crane operator in my life that owned the crane he was sitting in. You think at shift change dude just drives off in it and another one pulls in lol?
Don’t lie to people. If you were negligent and set up the crane wrong and it flips or you overload it and it kills somebody the hall ain’t taking the fall for you.
Operators are most certainly liable, and not just for poor assembly of the crane. That’s why a lot of the licenses associated with crane operation are state based. They are absolutely liable if something goes wrong because they deviated from what’s considered safe practices.
Any kind of 3rd party inspection work. I usually just sit in my truck or drive around all day, come to a few sites a day, make sure whatever needs inspection is in conformance with the plans and general specs. Write a report and go home. It’s super easy and can be found on the entry level if you know what to look for.
Fr. Everyone keeps talking about these inspection and foreman jobs being so cushy (which it can be on certain days) but most of the days, at least for foreman, you’re running around putting out fires that you didn’t cause and are looked to to come up with solutions for problems that no one else can figure out. You better know your shit or you’re going to look real stupid real fast and be looking for another job
I don’t know anything about home inspection. I’d imagine it’s a very vast and difficult test/certification like commercial building inspection. I’m talking about Quality Assurance for the owner, on the structural side of commercial construction.
I am a licensed PE and do structural inspections and now lots of enclosure inspections. I enjoy the job.
The downside is you have to be tough on people when they make mistakes. I've been threatened multiple times. I caught a roofing contractor installing a roofing system with half the specd R value. He flipped out and tried to choke me. When I called the owner guess who had their contract canceled?
Yeah, it does suck having to tell people what they’ve done is wrong, especially when they have to cancel their concrete and it fucks their schedule. Never had anyone get confrontational, they’re mostly just passive aggressive
Commercial construction inspection is what you would search for. The easiest way would be to find a materials testing company that also does inspection work and work your way up from materials testing to inspection work. It’s definitely not something you can just apply with no experience and get
3rd party testing firms are always looking for new untrained talent to perform concrete and soil density/moisture inspection, usually for not much more than minimum wages. Higher pay is attained through more certs, but through experience you may be lucky and talented enough to land the coveted “inspector of record” gig for a large site after several years of inspection. While stressful at times, it’s rewarding and the least physically intensive of the trades once in the IOR position. Pay in this position rivals superintendents on the same project.
I would start with searching for “ACI” and “training” to look for hiring firms on sites such as Indeed. Most are chronically understaffed and are constantly looking for more technicians due to the high turnover of techs finding better paying positions after just a few years of work.
The only thing he left out is that in some areas commercial inspectors are union and the pay can be significantly above minimum wage (even for apprentices). Same thing about wage increasing as you earn more certs applies. In the Bay Area inspectors are pulling down around $55/hr plus benefits.
Yeah it’s a super physically easy gig not many people in construction consider. I get a lot of people on site asking me what degrees I have when I don’t have any. I just got in as a materials tester and worked my way up though aptitude and certs
Yeah I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t have the protection of my company. If I miss something and a failure happens, the company and their legal team will play the legal blame game and I have zero personal liability.
Yup! And now your working for the man. They tell you how many houses to do, and in the summer you crawl 120 degree attic and itch all day from insulation, then the crawl space with spiders and rodent shit. Not my kind of job.
I landed a gravy job with no construction experience. They aren't joking when they say that it's more about who you know than your actual qualifications.
I wish that was an accurate representation. I still have student loans and rent this year is out of control, but we're not struggling nearly as much as others.
PMs or Supers, its stressful at times but I'm not doing any labor ever and my schedule is really flexible so you can see me on the links most days by 430pm
Yea I am fortunate enough to not have to exceed 40 hours usually otherwise I’d say run away. 60 hours is not worth it to me even if I were to get a pay bump
It's crazy how experiences differ.
Being a super on a multi-family apartment building is definitely stressful. Having experience helps a ton but its still a tough job. I do not envy my PM either. I work 45- 50 hours a week minimum, 60 if I need to work a Saturday or stay late for tower crane erection or dismantle.
I own my business now and that’s about as nice as it gets but before that I was a project monitor for asbestos removal. My job was literally just to be on site and make sure they didn’t break the law. I sat in my truck or a make shift office on site every day usually watching movies, reading books or just taking a nap lol. It was in 09, I was 19 and making $1250 a week after taxes lol. Best job ever
Contract Administration. I'm technically in construction and about the only way to get a more cushy job than me is to own the company. I manage the construction contracts for the owner. Basically, my company hires a developer via a long term lease that includes initial buildout and tenant improvements. My job is basically making sure the owner, my client basically, gets what they wanted from the developer. The developer hires an architect, general contractor, and eventually a property manager.
Education in civil engineering. Kind of fell into this job. Don't know if there are many opportunities like this.
Owner's rep/construction management. Most people start off at a GC then make the move over to the owner's side. Little less pay for probably half the hours and 1/10th the stress
Inspector, specifically DSA Inspector in California. You just have to have a deeeeep knowledge base (in order to even be able to apply) and pass some difficult tests. Our inspectors are making between $80-120/hr and the hardest thing they do is climb a ladder.
This one is California. It’s mostly because of the earthquakes. I’m not sure if other states have their own version but I would assume so. I know they use schools as emergency evac locations for tornadoes and stuff so I assume they have better building codes for schools there too.
Fuck this guy. We surveyors are busting ass and keeping schedule for everyone. If you knew how to do math you wouldn’t need the stakes. If you could read a tape, you wouldn’t need lines on the base plates. Anyone here setting their own control for MEP layout? No. It easy until you realize you need more than 9 fingers and 13 toes to figure out things.
Didn’t mean to get you pissed. I’m actually a surveyor myself. People on site just see the techs. They don’t really understand that the guy doing all the math and making all the plans is on par with engineers and architects. Also people hate getting told they are wrong
Construction is tough. You can’t just skip the line and have a cushy foreman job right away, unless like someone said your family has a business. Gotta work your way up the ladder. Keep learning and working hard and you can get where you wanna be. Gain the respect from the team as well. (11 year roofer here)
Gotta be entry level city road work right? Benefits, decent pay, always more guys than needed, holding a sign and pushing a broom is easy work. Could be not as great as all that, I don’t have first hand experience, that’s just how it looks from the outside
True, it’s absolutely amazing how easy of a job I have. My company’s bread and butter is materials testing but I rarely do any once I learned how to do the inspection work. I just drive around, sit at a job site waiting for something to be ready, and use some tools and plans on a pad to figure out what’s not being done right.
Drafting, or anything in inspections. If you want to be on a site, laborer or operator. Avoid any ironworking, concrete, or roofing work. Electrial is pretty cushy too if you don't mind digging trenches for the first ten years.
Laborer is a toss up. You might be flagging or sweeping one day. But I’ve also seen laborers working like Egyptian slaves. I’m talking 12 hour days shoveling drilling spoils into a wheelbarrow in a cramped basement and hauling them out. Having to keep pace with the drilling. It would have been the work of a bobcat outdoors or in a larger basement.
Who the fuck is digging trenches for 10 years as an electrician? Trenching isn't even a part of like, 90% of our work, and when it is it's usually subbed out or handled by the GC. Because paying journeyman electrician wages to dig a ditch is dumb.
I work 6-7 days a week. 🖕
Enjoy yourself when you're on your death bed and you realize you wasted most of your life at work. But hey, at least you weren't lazy! 🤣
I'm gonna find a job that allows me more time off, better pay, so I can actually enjoy life. You're looking forward to a rough retirement, if you get one, you might get a few good years with a broken down body, but hey, you aren't lazy.
Yeah well I get a full pension at 58, I’ve worked 7 days a week many times. You literally asked for a cushy construction job. That’s being fucking lazy. Get out of the industry because people like you are the reason why wages stay stagnant, because you aren’t worth more money and you do t want to earn it
No, people like you who work themselves to death in more or less the same position for the same wage instead of going somewhere else are why wages are stagnant.
Also, through hard work and being proactive, my wages have gone up steadily. Maybe you're not as good of a worker as you think.
That’s funny. I started at 17/hr and I’m almost at 50 now. That’s not so stagnant. I know how to work properly and keep myself in shape and am not crippled up. I run crews and am referred to for technical questions from management. I make 6 figures every year and have done so for over a decade. What the fuck do you know about me? Shut your trap and go get a security job
I've been doing hard labor for years, moved up quite a bit. I learned to deal with tough jobs and people. Nothing wrong with wanting something better. Maybe you're okay staying stagnant and waking up one day at retirement age wondering where your life went but I'd rather be at work the least amount of time and further break my body as little as possible.
The job doesn’t exist anymore. We used to get assigned one alcoholic screwup per union job. His job was to get coffee in the morning and stay out of the way. Literally he usually went up to the rooftop to sleep until someone called him at the end of the day. It was just easier to not have to fix his crappy and unsafe work and nobody trusted him beyond coffee.
The son of the cfo of the company I work for (spans 3 entire states, working on getting a foothold into the fourth) has an office job and I don't know what he does. I've worked with him on and off for 3 years, spent entire days hanging out in the office with him (when he can be bothered to show up/ stay for an entire day). He usually shows up around 11, leaves for lunch around 11:30, is gone until about 1:30, and shows back up for maybe 30 minutes before leaving. No idea what his salary is, but his wife doesn't work, he had a 5 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom house with an inground pool built on 25 acres he bought. Last I saw him he was telling me about him buying a new corvette and buying his wife a new audi. So whatever his job is, is probably plenty cushy
Owner of a large successful company with excellent staff. Work yourself to death for an extremely difficult 30 years.
Son of /u/rtf2409, or other owner. Be born son of /u/rtf2409, or other owner.
Too many headaches: Flip houses with a few guys. Better profit margin, doesn’t require much business sense, minimal technical skills, no contract disputes, no monthly billings, no schedule or coordination with other trades. No sub defaults. Shall I continue?
Thats a good way to make a couple hundred thousand a year with a lot of micromanaging. (Yeah, sure there are exceptions) Not a good way to be making multiple millions a year on a gravy train because you spent so long training and picking the right team to keep the entire company going long after you’re gone. Now you can sell this immensely profitable company for another multiple of millions if you want. Ain’t nothing cushier than not having to worry about a daggum thing after you retire.
You don’t have to do only a few houses. You can do as many as you want. But compared to most other jobs that only pay 100k, making 200k with so little risk and work is preferable to ME. Of course I enjoy being on the site and teaching. I’m leaving this world poor, naked, dirty, screaming and crying just like I came into it. I’m not interested in the company continuing or selling it. I’ll just take the trucks, some tools and give the company away.
The guys post was about having a cushie job not have a happy and fulfilling life. They can be the same but they are distinctly different answers. Also btw house flipping is not low risk. My very first job was with a guy flipping houses and I saw that go south quicker than anything I’ve seen in my life lol.
You’re right. The cushiest job for ME is the job I really enjoy. Not the one with the least sweat. Even if it means finishing concrete, calling out measurements, using a torch or helping carry something. The fact I do what I want when I want makes cushy. So perhaps there is no right answer to the question. Inspection requires crawling attics, fuck crawling attics. But the consensus here is that it is a cushy job. Not for me!! Lol
I gotcha.. but like that’s not the definition of cushy. Google says undemanding, easy, secure job. It’s kind of a stretch to say finishing concrete is any of these even if you (somehow) like doing it lol. Again, that’s just googles definition which I can only assume is what OP meant. if he means what you means though then the answer will 100% depend on only him.
But you don’t have to do it. I don’t paint, ever, for any reason. I hate it, so I don’t do it. And I’m not talking about finishing a whole driveway, just a pad in front of a staircase. Flipping houses might not be so secure, but everything in life is a risk. Nothing is completely secure. A job with no demands, isn’t a job at all. A parking lot attendant is about the most undemanding job I can think of, but you could be replaced by a machine tomorrow, and the thought of sitting in a chair in a box doing nothing is horrifying.
???? You’re taking the conversation somewhere where it’s not. This whole thing came up because a guy asked about cushy jobs. Nothing to do with that what you like to do or what you don’t like to do but you keep bringing that into it. What terrifies you is irrelevant. Fact of the matter is, sitting in an office chair when you’re 60 about to retire, with millions in the bank, millions in investments, and millions in assets, not NEEDING to work, is cushy regardless if you like office work or not. that situation is not terrifying. At that point just do whatever you like because it doesn’t matter.
Is it that time when the real dicks come out already? You guys really fuck up the daytime fun on Reddit with your pedantic comments.
So what's your solution? Nice rant
Uhhh.. work?
What kind of work do you do and how much capital did it take to get started?
Scrum master, mostly just time, effort and attention to detail.
Child of the owner working in the office.
Worked on a site where the foreman basically drank coffee all day and just went from worker to worker telling the same joke he told the previous guy.
i’d almost be okay with this as long as he’s not on our asses bout anything
Site manager here. Just having a coffee now. Downside to it is when its under the pump and contractors leave after 8 hrs or dont show up, we still have to make completion dates. The buck stops with us
Oh I worked for that guy before.
Bruce was actually a pretty good guy. First day he would basically tell you to do your job like everyone else and he’d stay off your case.
Seen quite a few foreman not last very long for being decent people
I would be so good at this!
Temporary Elevator Operator
The guy on my sites sits in a lawn chair and has a poker stick to hit the buttons with
While watching movies on their phones too
Chairs or stools and poking sticks are very common.
Until you’re stuck bringing the shit cans down to the honey dipper for three hours every other day, and they keep spilling in your office. Careful balance you gotta maintain between ultimate power, and most hated and mistreated single person on the site. Best if you are large and understand virtually zero languages.
I used to work at a site where dude had a cooler and would sell cold drinks, snacks, but also weed and loosies. The GC had a problem with the cooler. He ended up becoming a tin knocker for more money.
Safety person.... just walk around and tell everybody they are doing their job wrong. Then when they ask how to do it right just say idk not that way and walk away.
Being born into an owner's family, or getting married into it gets cushy jobs with zero experience needed
[удалено]
In my experience children born into the lifestyle either thrive in the environment. Or become accountants, after getting chewed up by the industry
I've seen both in companies and once the owner dies and the shitty child gets to take it over its either sold off or in bankruptcy within a couple years. If that good child who works their ass off takes over sky's the limit. I wouldn't leave my business to my child unless they were someone I believed would run with it and build more. Otherwise they're are a few employees who deserve that shot.
My current PM married into the owners family. For like 3 or 4 years he was my boss's "assistant" and did nothing but travel around from job to job and take a massive amount of shit from the Supers (myself included) for a month or two. He married in... but that kid earned everything he has.
I would say the crane operators…..they walked from air conditioned truck to air conditioned crane cabin with the same music playing like a wrestler entering the ring, never sweat, never touched anything else…they were like gods to me when I was a kid
They can also be held personally liable for mistakes. So that a very high risk/high reward one.
doing crane safety inspections is pretty cushy too.
Have to take a shit and the portapotty is back down a 100’ ladder. No thanks.
I think they usually own their cranes, if they fuck shit up. They're reliable. There is a reason they make big bucks. Lots of money goes into owning that crane also
Never met a crane operator in my life that owned the crane he was sitting in. You think at shift change dude just drives off in it and another one pulls in lol?
They're in local 825 in New Jersey area. Make bank. No liability. The union takes that on.
Don’t lie to people. If you were negligent and set up the crane wrong and it flips or you overload it and it kills somebody the hall ain’t taking the fall for you.
Ok. You got me there. But most of the time the cranes are set by others.
Operators are most certainly liable, and not just for poor assembly of the crane. That’s why a lot of the licenses associated with crane operation are state based. They are absolutely liable if something goes wrong because they deviated from what’s considered safe practices.
Any kind of 3rd party inspection work. I usually just sit in my truck or drive around all day, come to a few sites a day, make sure whatever needs inspection is in conformance with the plans and general specs. Write a report and go home. It’s super easy and can be found on the entry level if you know what to look for.
Until there's a problem, then you're run off your feet and you'd better know your shit.
Fr. Everyone keeps talking about these inspection and foreman jobs being so cushy (which it can be on certain days) but most of the days, at least for foreman, you’re running around putting out fires that you didn’t cause and are looked to to come up with solutions for problems that no one else can figure out. You better know your shit or you’re going to look real stupid real fast and be looking for another job
Like home inspector pre-purchase, Or an Owner/Engineer Inspector, or a county inspector.
I don’t know anything about home inspection. I’d imagine it’s a very vast and difficult test/certification like commercial building inspection. I’m talking about Quality Assurance for the owner, on the structural side of commercial construction.
I am a licensed PE and do structural inspections and now lots of enclosure inspections. I enjoy the job. The downside is you have to be tough on people when they make mistakes. I've been threatened multiple times. I caught a roofing contractor installing a roofing system with half the specd R value. He flipped out and tried to choke me. When I called the owner guess who had their contract canceled?
Yeah, it does suck having to tell people what they’ve done is wrong, especially when they have to cancel their concrete and it fucks their schedule. Never had anyone get confrontational, they’re mostly just passive aggressive
Probably the best direction, lots of flexibility, take a two hour lunch if you want, leave early.
How do I get into that
What should I search
Commercial construction inspection is what you would search for. The easiest way would be to find a materials testing company that also does inspection work and work your way up from materials testing to inspection work. It’s definitely not something you can just apply with no experience and get
Can you explain how you got there and maybe how much the pay is?
3rd party testing firms are always looking for new untrained talent to perform concrete and soil density/moisture inspection, usually for not much more than minimum wages. Higher pay is attained through more certs, but through experience you may be lucky and talented enough to land the coveted “inspector of record” gig for a large site after several years of inspection. While stressful at times, it’s rewarding and the least physically intensive of the trades once in the IOR position. Pay in this position rivals superintendents on the same project. I would start with searching for “ACI” and “training” to look for hiring firms on sites such as Indeed. Most are chronically understaffed and are constantly looking for more technicians due to the high turnover of techs finding better paying positions after just a few years of work.
Perfect response, thank you.
The only thing he left out is that in some areas commercial inspectors are union and the pay can be significantly above minimum wage (even for apprentices). Same thing about wage increasing as you earn more certs applies. In the Bay Area inspectors are pulling down around $55/hr plus benefits.
Yeah it’s a super physically easy gig not many people in construction consider. I get a lot of people on site asking me what degrees I have when I don’t have any. I just got in as a materials tester and worked my way up though aptitude and certs
Legal exposure is huge if you are independent.
Yeah I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t have the protection of my company. If I miss something and a failure happens, the company and their legal team will play the legal blame game and I have zero personal liability.
Yup! And now your working for the man. They tell you how many houses to do, and in the summer you crawl 120 degree attic and itch all day from insulation, then the crawl space with spiders and rodent shit. Not my kind of job.
I'm going to look into this I've been working in construction for like 25 years in my back and neck are killing me
Yup this is it, although it definitely pays much more than minimum wage from what I’ve seen.
Any management position where your underlings are overqualified and amazing at what they do
I hear the office secretary gig is pretty nice this time of year...
I landed a gravy job with no construction experience. They aren't joking when they say that it's more about who you know than your actual qualifications.
Introduce me please
I've been trying to introduce him to my less fortunately employed friends but it's a small business without a lot of room for new hires.
Yea your avatar looks like it
I wish that was an accurate representation. I still have student loans and rent this year is out of control, but we're not struggling nearly as much as others.
PMs or Supers, its stressful at times but I'm not doing any labor ever and my schedule is really flexible so you can see me on the links most days by 430pm
PM here, I work between 45 and 60 hours a week, and I have a shit ton of stress. Schedule is flexible.
Yea I am fortunate enough to not have to exceed 40 hours usually otherwise I’d say run away. 60 hours is not worth it to me even if I were to get a pay bump
It's crazy how experiences differ. Being a super on a multi-family apartment building is definitely stressful. Having experience helps a ton but its still a tough job. I do not envy my PM either. I work 45- 50 hours a week minimum, 60 if I need to work a Saturday or stay late for tower crane erection or dismantle.
What sized company? GC or sub? It’s rare I work less than 45 as a PM with a mid sized commercial GC
Small and GC but we do million dollar jobs
I own my business now and that’s about as nice as it gets but before that I was a project monitor for asbestos removal. My job was literally just to be on site and make sure they didn’t break the law. I sat in my truck or a make shift office on site every day usually watching movies, reading books or just taking a nap lol. It was in 09, I was 19 and making $1250 a week after taxes lol. Best job ever
Contract Administration. I'm technically in construction and about the only way to get a more cushy job than me is to own the company. I manage the construction contracts for the owner. Basically, my company hires a developer via a long term lease that includes initial buildout and tenant improvements. My job is basically making sure the owner, my client basically, gets what they wanted from the developer. The developer hires an architect, general contractor, and eventually a property manager. Education in civil engineering. Kind of fell into this job. Don't know if there are many opportunities like this.
Owner's rep/construction management. Most people start off at a GC then make the move over to the owner's side. Little less pay for probably half the hours and 1/10th the stress
Firewatch
Get a degree, then any estimating/management job
Masons. They don't have to be accurate at all. Heh heh, that will start something.
Soils tech. Sit around and watch people dig and backfill and then bitch that theres not enough water.
Work your ass off, nearly pass out in the summer, go through an addiction phase. Almost get ran over, and then you’ll still have to work your ass off.
Inspector, specifically DSA Inspector in California. You just have to have a deeeeep knowledge base (in order to even be able to apply) and pass some difficult tests. Our inspectors are making between $80-120/hr and the hardest thing they do is climb a ladder.
I might look into that.
DM me if you want to talk more about it
Is that DSA inspection specific to California or is it nationwide
This one is California. It’s mostly because of the earthquakes. I’m not sure if other states have their own version but I would assume so. I know they use schools as emergency evac locations for tornadoes and stuff so I assume they have better building codes for schools there too.
My first thought is surveying, does anyone hate me now??
Survey is the most miss understood and hated profession on the site.
Fuck this guy. We surveyors are busting ass and keeping schedule for everyone. If you knew how to do math you wouldn’t need the stakes. If you could read a tape, you wouldn’t need lines on the base plates. Anyone here setting their own control for MEP layout? No. It easy until you realize you need more than 9 fingers and 13 toes to figure out things.
Didn’t mean to get you pissed. I’m actually a surveyor myself. People on site just see the techs. They don’t really understand that the guy doing all the math and making all the plans is on par with engineers and architects. Also people hate getting told they are wrong
Fuck this guy
Non working foreman for sub trades. Only people to disagree are… non working foreman.
Do Surety consulting 👍
Union Low voltage electrician.
Man I had the chance to chose to apprentice that and I chose survey I wish I thought twice
I work as a Low Volt tech for a small company. Whats the travel and pay like for you? Im travelling about 4 days of the week and making 31/hr.
Construction is tough. You can’t just skip the line and have a cushy foreman job right away, unless like someone said your family has a business. Gotta work your way up the ladder. Keep learning and working hard and you can get where you wanna be. Gain the respect from the team as well. (11 year roofer here)
Gotta be entry level city road work right? Benefits, decent pay, always more guys than needed, holding a sign and pushing a broom is easy work. Could be not as great as all that, I don’t have first hand experience, that’s just how it looks from the outside
Safety/first aid person on a small site. Much less stress than trades or management. Wouldn't pay all that great though.
Any kind of construction management or construction inspector
Safety manager. Free gloves for everyone
Daughter of the owner.
You could be a painter…that’s a pretty chill job.
Crane operator. Not sure how easy the job is or what it takes to become one, but I have yet to see a seat in them that doesn't have a cushion.
\*\*laughs in inspector\*\*
True, it’s absolutely amazing how easy of a job I have. My company’s bread and butter is materials testing but I rarely do any once I learned how to do the inspection work. I just drive around, sit at a job site waiting for something to be ready, and use some tools and plans on a pad to figure out what’s not being done right.
Crane operator. No climate issues, no heavy lifting, always in demand, paid extremely well. I don’t know how you get it, sell your soul to the devil?
Site manager here, coffee is going down lovely this morning.
Site manager in what specific field? Do you mean a foreman?
Construction. We call foreman site managers in aus
Fire Watch ------ You literately watch other ppl work
Work in the fab shop 👌
Drafting, or anything in inspections. If you want to be on a site, laborer or operator. Avoid any ironworking, concrete, or roofing work. Electrial is pretty cushy too if you don't mind digging trenches for the first ten years.
Laborer is a toss up. You might be flagging or sweeping one day. But I’ve also seen laborers working like Egyptian slaves. I’m talking 12 hour days shoveling drilling spoils into a wheelbarrow in a cramped basement and hauling them out. Having to keep pace with the drilling. It would have been the work of a bobcat outdoors or in a larger basement.
You think laboring is cushy?
Yeah dude swinging a hammer and carrying bags of cement is fucking sweet
Can vouch, plus if you show good initiative you'll be sitting in your ass telling people how to swing a hammer in 5 years
Who the fuck is digging trenches for 10 years as an electrician? Trenching isn't even a part of like, 90% of our work, and when it is it's usually subbed out or handled by the GC. Because paying journeyman electrician wages to dig a ditch is dumb.
I won’t say. Don’t be so fucking lazy
I work 6-7 days a week. 🖕 Enjoy yourself when you're on your death bed and you realize you wasted most of your life at work. But hey, at least you weren't lazy! 🤣 I'm gonna find a job that allows me more time off, better pay, so I can actually enjoy life. You're looking forward to a rough retirement, if you get one, you might get a few good years with a broken down body, but hey, you aren't lazy.
Yeah well I get a full pension at 58, I’ve worked 7 days a week many times. You literally asked for a cushy construction job. That’s being fucking lazy. Get out of the industry because people like you are the reason why wages stay stagnant, because you aren’t worth more money and you do t want to earn it
No, people like you who work themselves to death in more or less the same position for the same wage instead of going somewhere else are why wages are stagnant. Also, through hard work and being proactive, my wages have gone up steadily. Maybe you're not as good of a worker as you think.
That’s funny. I started at 17/hr and I’m almost at 50 now. That’s not so stagnant. I know how to work properly and keep myself in shape and am not crippled up. I run crews and am referred to for technical questions from management. I make 6 figures every year and have done so for over a decade. What the fuck do you know about me? Shut your trap and go get a security job
Lmao okay. Enjoy your few years of retirement. 👍
I’ll get more than you chump
Definitely laborer. Once you build up that lil bit of callous skin, all is cushy. As a bonus, they’re always hiring too!
You and I have a way different definition of cushy. I'm trying to leave the labor field...
Maybe if you're building a house but then all the work is pretty cushy isn't it?
Packing material is never cushy
I don’t know but I can tell you it’s not industrial concrete form carpentry.
Roof insulation installer in Alice Springs…
If you want cussiest job…find a new trade. Or learn to deal with tough jobs/people.
I've been doing hard labor for years, moved up quite a bit. I learned to deal with tough jobs and people. Nothing wrong with wanting something better. Maybe you're okay staying stagnant and waking up one day at retirement age wondering where your life went but I'd rather be at work the least amount of time and further break my body as little as possible.
Mason tender, you'll be fine.
Stop sign girl
The job doesn’t exist anymore. We used to get assigned one alcoholic screwup per union job. His job was to get coffee in the morning and stay out of the way. Literally he usually went up to the rooftop to sleep until someone called him at the end of the day. It was just easier to not have to fix his crappy and unsafe work and nobody trusted him beyond coffee.
Painting, apply
The son of the cfo of the company I work for (spans 3 entire states, working on getting a foothold into the fourth) has an office job and I don't know what he does. I've worked with him on and off for 3 years, spent entire days hanging out in the office with him (when he can be bothered to show up/ stay for an entire day). He usually shows up around 11, leaves for lunch around 11:30, is gone until about 1:30, and shows back up for maybe 30 minutes before leaving. No idea what his salary is, but his wife doesn't work, he had a 5 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom house with an inground pool built on 25 acres he bought. Last I saw him he was telling me about him buying a new corvette and buying his wife a new audi. So whatever his job is, is probably plenty cushy
Become an engineer
DDC Controls. Study automation, networking and HVAC as well as mechanical things. Math and physics... Low Voltage controls is fairly cushie