What Can You Do with a Construction Management Degree?

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Grad­u­ates can work in var­i­ous roles with­in the con­struc­tion indus­try, includ­ing project man­age­ment, cost esti­ma­tion, and safe­ty man­age­ment.
• A con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree equips stu­dents with skills in project plan­ning, bud­get man­age­ment, and col­lab­o­ra­tion with dif­fer­ent con­struc­tion professionals.
• A degree in con­struc­tion man­age­ment can lead to rapid career advance­ment into senior roles due to the man­age­r­i­al and tech­ni­cal skills acquired.

In ancient Egypt, archi­tects and engi­neers were the devo­tees of the demi­urge Ptah and the god­dess Seshat, and they were giv­en the same sta­tus and respect as priests. That was a cul­ture that val­ued con­struc­tion. Mod­ern Amer­i­ca loves con­struc­tion too, and for con­struc­tion work­ers of all kinds, a step up into a con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree – well, it’s not quite a life of lux­u­ry, but it’s a liv­ing. What jobs can you get with a con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree? Con­struc­tion encom­pass­es numer­ous dis­ci­plines, activ­i­ties, indus­tries, and fields, so there is a lot of ver­sa­til­i­ty to the title along with plen­ty of room for growth and advancement.

What Is Construction Management? What Do Construction Managers Do?

Just as the name implies, con­struc­tion man­age­ment involves man­ag­ing con­struc­tion projects from start to fin­ish. Those man­age­ment duties can include any or all of the var­ied duties that come with con­struc­tion projects of any scope or scale. For exam­ple, a con­struc­tion man­ag­er may need to assist with plan­ning and coor­di­nate dif­fer­ent con­trac­tors or services.

The con­struc­tion man­ag­er may also have to deal with the bud­get and col­lab­o­rate with oth­er pro­fes­sion­als to keep the project on track and every­body on the same page.

Relat­ed:

• Best Engi­neer­ing Man­age­ment Degree Programs
• Afford­able Online Engi­neer­ing Degree Programs

The many duties a con­struc­tion man­ag­er can take on can lead some to ask is con­struc­tion man­age­ment stress­ful. While con­struc­tion man­age­ment can come with numer­ous chal­lenges, it is no more or less stress­ful than any oth­er chal­leng­ing but reward­ing career field.

But, is con­struc­tion man­age­ment a good job? Is a con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree worth it? Con­struc­tion man­age­ment is indeed a good field full of good jobs. In addi­tion, a con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree can put some­one in a good posi­tion to run his or her own con­struc­tion busi­ness or service.

Even with­out the degree, it is pos­si­ble to achieve con­struc­tion man­ag­er sta­tus from expe­ri­ence alone. How­ev­er, that path is reserved for peo­ple who start­ed in con­struc­tion ear­ly and built a busi­ness from their skills after many years of expe­ri­ence. Nev­er­the­less, the degree helps to open doors, estab­lish con­nec­tions, and find more work with employers.

In addi­tion, the degree pro­grams include real man­age­ment train­ing, which can help some­one ele­vate far faster and earn more mon­ey in the indus­try, even when just start­ing out. Jobs for con­struc­tion man­age­ment degrees are many. So, for those with a pas­sion for con­struc­tion, and even those already in the field, gain­ing the con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree only helps in every way.

How to Get Into Construction Management

For those who want to know how to get into con­struc­tion man­age­ment, the answer is edu­ca­tion. Jobs for con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree hold­ers favor those with both expe­ri­ence and edu­ca­tion. Many con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree pro­grams aim to place stu­dents imme­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing grad­u­a­tion. How­ev­er, stu­dents can also work in any of the numer­ous con­struc­tion trades even before grad­u­a­tion to rack up experience.

As stat­ed, it is pos­si­ble to find a way into con­struc­tion man­age­ment with­out a degree. Rather, that was true in the past, but these days, a bachelor’s degree is often expect­ed as a min­i­mum. Some avenues towards con­struc­tion man­age­ment also exist through the busi­ness route. Some­one with a busi­ness major and a con­struc­tion-relat­ed minor can often posi­tion them­selves into one aspect of con­struc­tion man­age­ment or anoth­er. The most effec­tive way though, is through a degree pro­gram and lat­er, through certifications.

What Are the Best Construction Management Degree Schools or Programs?

When search­ing for a school, col­lege, uni­ver­si­ty, or pro­gram, the best way to fig­ure out which school will work best is to start with accred­i­ta­tion. The accred­i­ta­tion sta­tus of a school or pro­gram will tell an appli­cant a lot. When it comes to accred­i­ta­tion, appli­cants need to know about region­al accred­i­ta­tion as well as accred­i­ta­tion from the nation­al or spe­cial­ized accred­i­ta­tion groups.

Regional Accreditation

Region­al accred­i­ta­tion comes from the region­al accred­it­ing agen­cies the Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion rec­og­nizes for set­ting stan­dards that thou­sands of col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties adhere to. An insti­tu­tion with region­al accred­i­ta­tion will gen­er­al­ly have a good aca­d­e­m­ic pro­gram, and some­times even a pres­ti­gious one. How­ev­er, region­al accred­i­ta­tion alone is not always a good indi­ca­tor of if a par­tic­u­lar school is the right fit for an applicant.

Even though region­al accred­i­ta­tion is the most pop­u­lar type of accred­i­ta­tion, oth­er forms of accred­i­ta­tion exist as well. Region­al accred­i­ta­tion groups give insti­tu­tion­al accred­i­ta­tion, mean­ing the col­lege or uni­ver­si­ty as a whole meets qual­i­ty stan­dards. This does not nec­es­sar­i­ly mean the indi­vid­ual tracts or degree pro­grams with­in the school are all the best. For exam­ple, an excel­lent uni­ver­si­ty over­all may still have a some­what sub­par con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree program.

Stu­dents who receive cred­its from a region­al­ly accred­it­ed school can usu­al­ly trans­fer those cred­its to just about any oth­er school or pro­gram with­out a prob­lem. Anoth­er con­sid­er­a­tion is that many of the schools with region­al accred­i­ta­tion will typ­i­cal­ly have a more schol­ar­ly approach to aca­d­e­mics, rather than a prac­ti­cal or applied one.

That approach can ben­e­fit a stu­dent in cer­tain con­struc­tion fields, but the major­i­ty of the con­struc­tion indus­try appre­ci­ates prac­ti­cal knowl­edge over the­o­ret­i­cal knowl­edge. The aca­d­e­m­ic approach is not the same across the board.

Appli­cants should not shy away from a region­al­ly accred­it­ed school because they think it will not give them the tools to get out there and start work­ing imme­di­ate­ly. The Ivory Tow­er isn’t what it used to be, and many region­al uni­ver­si­ties are more focused on get­ting the peo­ple of their region into careers than on high-mind­ed the­o­ry. Appli­cants should always pay close atten­tion to the school or program’s cur­ricu­lum before mak­ing a decision.

Specialized Accreditations

Spe­cial­ized accred­i­ta­tion falls into the cat­e­go­ry of nation­al accred­i­ta­tion. This means the accred­it­ing agency over­sees stan­dards across the coun­try, and some­times even inter­na­tion­al­ly. In many cas­es, spe­cial­ized accred­i­ta­tions can trump region­al accred­i­ta­tions, depend­ing on the reach and make­up of the accred­it­ing group.

With spe­cial­ized accred­i­ta­tion, there is almost a guar­an­tee the pro­gram will have a heavy focus on prac­ti­cal course­work and skill devel­op­ment for the cur­rent state of the indus­try. Nation­al accred­it­ing agen­cies can also have offi­cial recog­ni­tion from the US Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion. That means they adhere to or exceed the stan­dards set by the DoE.

For con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree pro­grams, spe­cial­ized accred­i­ta­tion can come from one or more groups. The major accred­it­ing agen­cies for these pro­grams include:

• Accred­i­ta­tion Board for Engi­neer­ing and Tech­nol­o­gy (ABET)
• Amer­i­can Coun­cil for Con­struc­tion Edu­ca­tion (ACCE)
• Asso­ci­a­tion to Advance Col­le­giate Schools of Busi­ness (AACSB)
• Asso­ci­a­tion of Tech­nol­o­gy, Man­age­ment, and Applied Engi­neer­ing (ATMAE)

Oth­er accred­it­ing groups exist as well for con­struc­tion pro­grams. Nev­er­the­less, ABET accred­i­ta­tion is gen­er­al­ly regard­ed by many as the pre­em­i­nent accred­it­ing orga­ni­za­tion for con­struc­tion man­age­ment pro­grams. ABET accred­i­ta­tion has the recog­ni­tion of many large orga­ni­za­tions, gov­ern­ment enti­ties, and even state licens­ing boards. ACCE accred­i­ta­tion also receives some recognition.

Appli­cants can also find pro­grams that have sev­er­al accred­i­ta­tions from var­i­ous con­struc­tion or con­struc­tion-relat­ed orga­ni­za­tions. Busi­ness school accred­i­ta­tion also exists, as the con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree also requires sev­er­al busi­ness class cred­its. Busi­ness school accred­i­ta­tion can work well for appli­cants who know they want to focus more on the busi­ness man­age­ment side of a con­struc­tion man­age­ment career.

What Are the Different Types of Construction Management Degrees?

Con­struc­tion man­age­ment is a very diverse field, which means a bachelor’s in con­struc­tion man­age­ment can come from numer­ous types of con­struc­tion pro­grams. For exam­ple, appli­cants can pur­sue a BS con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree through a busi­ness school pro­gram. Equal­ly, a BS con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree can come from an engi­neer­ing or applied sci­ences program.

As the con­struc­tion field is rife with spe­cial­iza­tions, many oth­er paths can lead to a con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree as well. Because of the diverse paths avail­able towards the con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree, it is impor­tant for appli­cants to put heavy con­sid­er­a­tion into what they plan to do once they achieve their degree.

Some­one who wants to devel­op a plot of land and some­one who wants to run an engi­neer­ing firm will need dif­fer­ent aca­d­e­m­ic paths, even though both those paths will still lead to a bachelor’s in con­struc­tion man­age­ment. Col­leges with con­struc­tion man­age­ment degrees can vary in their offerings.

Accred­i­ta­tion can help with this, as accred­it­ed pro­grams, col­leges, and uni­ver­si­ties must stick close­ly to the guide­lines, stan­dards, and aca­d­e­m­ic expec­ta­tions estab­lished by the accred­it­ing orga­ni­za­tion. The stan­dards set by the accred­it­ing orga­ni­za­tions typ­i­cal­ly pro­duce grad­u­ates ready for the cur­rent state of the con­struc­tion industry.

In this way, despite the types of con­struc­tion degrees, the grad­u­ate will still have the edu­ca­tion and knowl­edge to nav­i­gate whichev­er ver­ti­cal of the con­struc­tion man­age­ment field they choose. Still, appli­cants should pay atten­tion to the types of con­struc­tion degrees any par­tic­u­lar insti­tu­tion offers.

Col­leges with con­struc­tion man­age­ment degrees and con­struc­tion busi­ness man­age­ment cours­es can lead to spe­cial­iza­tions in spe­cif­ic areas of con­struc­tion. Spe­cial­iza­tions can include things like archi­tec­ture, engi­neer­ing, and even things like philosophy.

A note about engi­neer­ing: there is a dif­fer­ence between con­struc­tion engi­neer­ing vs civ­il engi­neer­ing. Col­leges with con­struc­tion man­age­ment degrees may have cours­es that over­lap between the dif­fer­ent types of engi­neer­ing, but it helps to under­stand the dif­fer­ences. Con­struc­tion engi­neer­ing is just anoth­er term for con­struc­tion management.

Con­struc­tion man­ag­er class­es aim to pro­duce a grad­u­ate who under­stands project man­age­ment, plan­ning, and design. In con­trast, a civ­il engi­neer will have an edu­ca­tion that helps them under­stand load-bear­ing struc­tures, build­ing codes, analy­sis, and the tech­ni­cal­i­ties of dif­fer­ent build­ing techniques.

If decid­ing between con­struc­tion engi­neer­ing vs civ­il engi­neer­ing, appli­cants will have to con­sid­er if they want con­struc­tion man­ag­er class­es that lead to a con­struc­tion man­age­ment bachelor’s, or if they would rather seek a bachelor’s in civ­il engi­neer­ing. The con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree cost is com­pa­ra­ble, so it all depends on the applicant’s goals.

Anoth­er con­sid­er­a­tion for types of con­struc­tion man­age­ment degrees is the con­struc­tion man­age­ment cer­tifi­cate vs degree ques­tion. As this indus­try puts a pre­mi­um on expe­ri­ence, it is pos­si­ble for some­one with years of expe­ri­ence to gain a cer­tifi­cate only. Still, the indus­try in its cur­rent form favors those who hold a degree, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, and have expe­ri­ence. When it comes to a con­struc­tion man­age­ment cer­tifi­cate vs degree, appli­cants should make sure they have both.

In a con­struc­tion man­age­ment pro­gram, you will learn:

con­struc­tion estimating

con­struc­tion science

con­struc­tion process

con­struc­tion site development

con­struc­tion technology

A good pro­gram will also empha­size com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills, because work­ing with sub­con­trac­tors on a job site can make the dif­fer­ence between suc­cess­ful build­ing projects and failure.

Of course, con­struc­tion com­pa­nies will also want to know what con­struc­tion expe­ri­ence you have. If you haven’t worked in con­struc­tion, intern­ships with con­struc­tion firms can pro­vide con­nec­tions to get you there.

Earning a Construction Management Degree Online

Peo­ple who search for “con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree near me,” or “con­struc­tion man­age­ment class­es near me,” may find they are not close to any of the schools or pro­grams. Nev­er­the­less, it is pos­si­ble, and some­times advis­able, to pur­sue an online con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree.

Earn­ing a con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree online comes with all the same con­sid­er­a­tions as search­ing for a brick-and-mor­tar col­lege or uni­ver­si­ty. All the same rules apply. An online con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree pro­gram will still need appli­cants to vet the pro­gram and check the con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree online accred­it­ed status.

A ful­ly online pro­gram can still apply for and receive an accred­it­ed online con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree pro­gram sta­tus. An online con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree from an accred­it­ed pro­gram is equal in the indus­try to a degree from any­where else.

In some cas­es, a dis­tance learn­ing con­struc­tion man­age­ment pro­gram can help offer some flex­i­bil­i­ty that tra­di­tion­al col­lege or uni­ver­si­ty pro­grams can­not. Tak­ing a con­struc­tion man­age­ment course online can often fit around the student’s sched­ule, rather than the stu­dent sac­ri­fic­ing their work or respon­si­bil­i­ties to attend the course.

Because dis­tance learn­ing con­struc­tion man­age­ment pro­grams can offer flex­i­bil­i­ty, appli­cants need to make sure they under­stand the choice they make when they set­tle on tak­ing a con­struc­tion man­age­ment course online.

For exam­ple, an accel­er­at­ed online con­struc­tion man­age­ment pro­gram may seem ide­al, but the appli­cant may not have the time to put the effort into fin­ish­ing the course in the time frame. Flex­i­bil­i­ty comes with respon­si­bil­i­ty, and appli­cants need to remain aware of that.

The inter­net also comes with oth­er con­struc­tion man­age­ment learn­ing ben­e­fits. Appli­cants can find free con­struc­tion man­age­ment cours­es online. Find­ing con­struc­tion man­age­ment cours­es online free can help some­one brush up on their knowl­edge or see if they are ready for more advanced classes.

These free options rarely come with any kind of cred­it, but they do some­times offer a cer­tifi­cate. It nev­er hurts to have more cer­ti­fi­ca­tions. Appli­cants can also pur­sue a con­struc­tion man­age­ment cer­tifi­cate online from more rec­og­nized and pres­ti­gious orga­ni­za­tions, busi­ness, or vendors.

In fact, it is pos­si­ble to earn a con­struc­tion man­age­ment cer­tifi­cate online before, dur­ing, and after attend­ing a degree pro­gram. These free con­struc­tion man­age­ment cours­es online and cer­tifi­cate oppor­tu­ni­ties can add weight and val­ue to a resume or port­fo­lio. Find­ing con­struc­tion man­age­ment cours­es online free of charge is not difficult.

What are the Relevant Certifications and Licenses for Construction Management?

Con­struc­tion man­age­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tion is impor­tant. More now than ever, the indus­try wants its con­struc­tion man­agers to hold notable cer­ti­fi­ca­tions. Numer­ous types of cer­ti­fi­ca­tions exist in con­struc­tion. For con­struc­tion man­agers specif­i­cal­ly, there are a few cer­ti­fi­ca­tions that stand out above the rest. A few of the rel­e­vant cer­ti­fi­ca­tions include:

• CMAA cer­ti­fi­ca­tion (CMTI and CCM)
• OSHA con­struc­tion safe­ty certifications
• Project Man­age­ment Pro­fes­sion­al cer­ti­fi­ca­tion (PMP)

Grad­u­ates will find there is a pos­si­ble cer­ti­fi­ca­tion avail­able for every type of job, tool, piece of tech­nol­o­gy, and soft­ware pro­gram they uti­lize. Con­struc­tion man­age­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of var­i­ous types can help a grad­u­ate be more com­pet­i­tive and edge out the com­pe­ti­tion. The CMAA cer­ti­fi­ca­tion is a gold stan­dard in the indus­try, so pur­su­ing at least that cer­ti­fi­ca­tion should rep­re­sent a priority.

Appli­cants can find cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­grams at schools and oth­er facil­i­ties, but it is just as pos­si­ble to pur­sue con­struc­tion cer­ti­fi­ca­tions online. Many free con­struc­tion cer­ti­fi­ca­tions online exist as well, typ­i­cal­ly through free con­struc­tion man­age­ment courses.

Although free con­struc­tion cer­ti­fi­ca­tions online can have some ben­e­fit, appli­cants should real­ly look out for those cer­ti­fi­ca­tions that will give them their best chance, such as the con­struc­tion safe­ty cer­ti­fi­ca­tions. Options for con­struc­tion man­age­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tion online can help those who are not close to schools or uni­ver­si­ties with the need­ed cer­ti­fi­ca­tion courses.

When it comes to licens­ing, the laws vary by state, job type, and whether the work occurs on pub­lic or pri­vate prop­er­ty. With so many fac­tors involved, appli­cants should always make them­selves aware of the licens­ing laws for con­struc­tion projects where they plan to work.

What Are the Different Careers in Construction Management?

Are you won­der­ing, “What can I do with a con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree?” As a very diverse field, careers in con­struc­tion man­age­ment and jobs with a con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree can vary wide­ly. To start with, the con­struc­tion man­ag­er job descrip­tion itself is rather open. In many cas­es, the con­struc­tion man­ag­er job descrip­tion is writ­ten by the con­struc­tion manager.

Gen­er­al­ly speak­ing, con­struc­tion man­age­ment roles can entail:

• Gen­er­al contracting
• Project coor­di­na­tion
• Project man­age­ment
• Resource man­age­ment
• Build­ing construction

A job in con­struc­tion man­age­ment can include all these things, just some, or even just one of them. Even while serv­ing those con­struc­tion man­age­ment roles, a con­struc­tion man­ag­er does not always have to ful­ly take on all the duties.

For exam­ple, resource man­age­ment can include mate­r­i­al costs, labor costs, sched­ul­ing, and many oth­er duties. How­ev­er, it is just as pos­si­ble for a con­struc­tion man­ag­er to only han­dle some of those or only play the point per­son for direct­ing oth­ers to han­dle those duties.

The more the con­struc­tion man­ag­er does and can do, the more valu­able that per­son becomes. A job in con­struc­tion man­age­ment can mean any of a num­ber of things, and careers in con­struc­tion man­age­ment can trans­form over time.

Some con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree jobs and career paths can include:

• Build­ing Surveyor
• Build­ing ser­vices engineer
• Con­struc­tion manager
• Envi­ron­men­tal engineer
• Facil­i­ties manager
• Project engi­neer
• Project man­ag­er
• Site engi­neer
• Sus­tain­abil­i­ty consultant
• Town plan­ner
• Urban design­er
• Cost esti­ma­tors
• Con­struc­tion project manager

For con­struc­tion man­age­ment jobs entry-lev­el posi­tions can also vary. Depend­ing on loca­tion, job seek­ers may find numer­ous man­age­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties open to them as con­struc­tion man­age­ment jobs entry-lev­el posi­tions. Else­where, the entry-lev­el con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree jobs will look more like oper­a­tions spe­cial­ists, assis­tant posi­tions, prop­er­ty inspec­tors, and low­er-tier technicians.

If you don’t know what to do with a con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree, keep in mind that job titles in con­struc­tion man­age­ment have an impor­tant role. Con­struc­tion job title hier­ar­chy is a real thing, and the job titles in con­struc­tion man­age­ment can change depend­ing on the careers with a con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree the con­struc­tion man­ag­er takes on.

For exam­ple, the title of senior con­struc­tion man­ag­er can rep­re­sent the high­est tier in the con­struc­tion job title hier­ar­chy. Yet, a con­struc­tion man­ag­er with­out that senior des­ig­na­tion can sit at the mid­dle lev­el of the hierarchy.

These titles are impor­tant for a num­ber of rea­sons, and they can affect every part of the con­struc­tion manager’s duties. If the con­struc­tion man­ag­er plays the role of site man­ag­er for a par­tic­u­lar job, then the CM will be just a site man­ag­er, with all that entails.

What Are the Salary Expectations for Construction Managers?

Con­struc­tion man­ag­er salary, on aver­age, is around $77k accord­ing to the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics (BLS). The range of salaries stretch­es from around $50k to $120k. The BLS puts the aver­age pay rate at $93k across the coun­try. Despite these vari­a­tions on con­struc­tion man­ag­er salary, they all point to the posi­tion being a lucra­tive one that only earns grad­u­ates more over time and with increased experience.

Con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree salary will depend on sev­er­al fac­tors. Jobs in con­struc­tion man­age­ment salary will depend on loca­tion, expe­ri­ence, edu­ca­tion, cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, and the mar­ket for con­struc­tion projects in that par­tic­u­lar area. Con­struc­tion man­age­ment degree salary can also vary wide­ly even in the same loca­tions. Con­struc­tion man­age­ment vs civ­il engi­neer­ing salary shows that con­struc­tion man­age­ment edges ahead.

Still, jobs in con­struc­tion man­age­ment salary remain lucra­tive and are grow­ing. Spe­cial­iza­tions also help to grow the con­struc­tion man­age­ment salary. Con­struc­tion man­age­ment tech­nol­o­gy salary is also worth con­sid­er­ing. The tech­nol­o­gy used in the con­struc­tion fields con­tin­ues to grow just like the tech­nol­o­gy used every­where else.

This growth cre­ates a demand for con­struc­tion man­agers that are tech-savvy and under­stand how to apply tech­nol­o­gy to con­struc­tion prob­lems. For these rea­sons the con­struc­tion man­age­ment tech­nol­o­gy salary keeps in lock­step with the con­struc­tion indus­try in general.

Are There any Professional Organizations in Construction Management?

With an indus­try as encom­pass­ing and diverse as con­struc­tion, there are cer­tain­ly a tremen­dous num­ber of pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions. Some well-known con­struc­tion man­age­ment orga­ni­za­tions include:

• Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Constructors
• Asso­ci­at­ed Builders and Contractors
• Asso­ci­at­ed Gen­er­al Con­trac­tors of America
• Con­struc­tion Man­age­ment Asso­ci­a­tion of America

This is by no means an exhaus­tive list of con­struc­tion man­age­ment orga­ni­za­tions. The Con­struc­tion Man­age­ment Asso­ci­a­tion of Amer­i­ca (CMAA) is one of the more pop­u­lar of the con­struc­tion man­age­ment orga­ni­za­tions. It is worth not­ing that the CMAA is also the lead mem­ber soci­ety of the ABET. This means CMAA is direct­ly involved with craft­ing the cri­te­ria for pro­grams and stu­dents with ABET accreditation.

Oth­er con­struc­tion man­age­ment asso­ci­a­tions can exist at the local lev­el. Con­struc­tion man­age­ment grad­u­ates with spe­cial­ties can like­ly find pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions that cater to that par­tic­u­lar specialty.

Pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions can add a lot of val­ue to anyone’s con­struc­tion man­age­ment career. These orga­ni­za­tions tend to con­sist of pro­fes­sion­als at every lev­el of the indus­try. Through orga­ni­za­tions, it is pos­si­ble to net­work, find new oppor­tu­ni­ties, and get indus­try news first.

The net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties alone are worth the price of admis­sion. Pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions tend to know about career advance­ment and rel­e­vant job oppor­tu­ni­ties before any­one else. In fact, job cre­ators tend to make up the mem­ber­ship of many pro­fes­sion­al con­struc­tion man­age­ment organizations.