What types of construction projects have you worked in?

Ladies and Gents, What types of construction projects have you worked in (eg: residential, commercial (universities, hospitals, etc.) and what sort of experience you have gained by working in those projects.

I am currently working in an airport project as a quantity surveyor and I would like to know what sort of areas I should get myself exposed to so that I can gain good experience which is meaningful and grow in this career.

Your valuable feedback is much appreciated.

Arun,

I am not a professional tradesman, just an enthusiastic DIYer.  When finishing off my basement I learned an important lesson about power tools.  But first some background.

My basement has a 9’ ceiling, so as basements go, it is nice and tall.  The downside is that all my plumbing and even the electric for our septic was run under the joists instead of running through the joists.  This initially posed a problem for installing a ceiling.

My solution was to attach 2x2 strips under the joists and just skip a section where a pipe or electrical wire was in the way.  I ordered a bunch of 2x2s, cut to length and then used a pair of battery operated drills—one a drill for drilling a pilot hole and another impact driver for drilling in the actual screw to hold up the 2x2.

Here is where I learned my lesson.  I am prone to want the biggest, most powerful power tool on the market (or at least in my battery platform).  Worse, when I get the batteries for these tools I am never satisfied with a 2 amp hour battery, I want the 4-6 amp hour battery!  The bigger the better right?

It turns out not.  These tools were totally unsuited for screwing in 2x2s overhead.  They were far too overpowered and HEAVY in that overhead, awkward position.  After only putting up a couple 2x2s I realized how impractical my big 18 volt power tools were.  I went out to the local Home Depot and bought a set of Ridgid 12 volt drills—one drill and one impact driver with charger and 2 batteries—mostly on a spontaneous impulse.  They weigh about 1/3 the weight of the 18 volt hammer drill I was using prior.  These two little drills were just what I needed—a pair of small-but-powerful, lightweight tools that wouldn’t be too awkward using directly overhead while standing on a stepladder.

In the end I learned that bigger is not always better and you really want the right tool for the job.  These two little 12 volt drills are now my go-to drills for most of my around-the-house drilling tasks, I save the big drills for big jobs.

Eric

Hi Arun;
Unlike Eric I am in the professional commercial construction trades.
I have worked on bridges, huge dams, city solid waste plants , nuclear plants , nuclear remediation, oil refinery's, paper pulp mills and so much more.
I run heavy equipment , in particular I run large construction crane.
I have been  a member of the International union of operating engineers, for over 20 years.
I can highly recommend this as a rewarding / lucrative career .

Any of the building trades will give you a good job for life. It all depends on what you enjoy doing.

Hi Arun,   Welcome to permies!  First off, I have no idea what a "quantity surveyor" is. Best I can come up with is that you count the number of people in an airport and decide where to put the Starbucks for best traffic!  Pretty bad I know. Perhaps you could educate me?

Second, I added your thread to the Careers and Financial Strategy forums as it seemed relevant if that's OK with you? (I'm sure an airport has nothing to do with cob?)

I worked as a residential, commercial and industrial electrician for a few years.
Industrial work I found fascinating. Bending conduit is an art form using mathematics and the artisans eye. It has to look good and it had to be square, plumb and level. If you look at a panel I hung and piped you'd see all the connectors and all the supports lined up. After all the conduit is hung, then you have to pull wire. If the calculations, formulas and proper installation techniques have been maintained pulling wire is a breeze. If not, you're going to have issues. I worked a couple of large projects like the CoGen plant at the paper mill in Charleston, SC and a large cooling plant replacement (can't remember the name of the town).
Residential I didn't care for too much. I had to deal with people who were already stressed by the time I got the call. The one thing I learned to dislike the most was taking directions from people who knew the area. One woman was off by several miles after she told me a quarter mile. This was long before unscrambled GPS systems.
A side gig was mobile home installs. I took care of installing the meter pole, digging a trench and connecting the home. After inspection I covered the trench and the electric company hooked up the power. Along with electrical I installed water and sewer connections. Good money for a side gig.
Another side gig was troubleshooting new mobile home faulty electrical systems. Sometimes the home slipped through with issues I had to fix post install. It really is easy to figure out and repair. I considered those homes a challenge and fun to fix, but these were the stressed owners I mentioned earlier.
Commercial construction is just a basic, scaled down mix of industrial and residential with different requirements, but the work is rewarding.
Commercial and residential electricians are always busy. Industrial electricians are in demand when the economy is good and corporations have money to upgrade. It's relatively easy to acquire an electrical contractors license and go into business for yourself.
I always enjoyed working as an electrician, but computer networking was in my blood!

Hello,

I am Alex and I have worked a land surveyor, on civil and cadastral Projects. Working to accurately define and evaluate ownership of land to return it to aboriginal peoples, Large rail ways, Skyscrapers, Race tracks, Bridges, Mines, classified, harbour works, waste facilities, historic restoration, harbour works, Tidal surveys, erosion, GIS, Ecology, sewer, storm water, National level infrastructure, drones, lidar, Broad acres, Photogrammetry, monitoring, Work that is recorded for centuries, grave and body locating.

I learnt everything is an opportunity to learn!


I am highly skilled as strategy, innovation, analysis.

I am also a skilled engineer, mason, carpenter, poet, smith, landscaper, hunter, logician,

Will experience, in chemistry, astronomy, physics, biology, anatomy, plumbing, welding, electrical work, programming, phycology, survivalist, agronomy, forestry,

I am developing skills in business, leadership, communication,

I plan on leaving surveying to pursue something else, I want to work on creating a new industry of ethical system analysts, who can see how a system is discriminatory and make minor changes to significantly improve the system.

as well I would like to work on reducing animal fragmentation and denitrifying the desserts of Australia!

With my surveying experience, I have an extreme diversity of areas which I have seen, I do not believe that landslides should be happening, dust storms need not happen either, nor people dying of asthmatic attacks because of them, nor should animals be endangered because of lack of consideration of animal migration in human infrastructure, So many people can not get degrees because of discrimination, victimising practices, even next of kin, so a person who is a alone can not be employed because of a form, or aspects of consumer rights being overburdensome for the aggrieved person to use, Education, transport, employment, technology. If these aspects could be tweaked just a small amount to improve them, the effect on society would be exponential and benefit the 99.9% in some way direct or indirect.

I can not do it alone, I need support from other people and I need to network and develop, opportunities to start small and do one thing so I can grow and develop my skills in doing so.

I need to grow and learn and experience more so I can achieve it!

I am currently trying to work on one thing a day to grow and get to that level! as well as spending 4-6 hours each day learning, and trying to only take minor breaks from not working on something to do things like permies, or eating, I also spend 1 hour a day, improving my life efficiency so that I may achieve everything faster to get more time to develope myself and my Ideas!