Careers in Construction 101 - Communications and Collaborations, the means for depending on one another

When fire was first discovered it was also discovered that many people, inaccessible to one another at roughly the same time in history, had found a source of warmth, utility and a pleasant environment for gathering of community. Since then people have typically found that activities like raising a barn or putting out a fire were easier completed by working with one another.

For many years whole communities would gather together on the appointed day of a barn raising. Although, some of those folks had already been busy many days ahead working together constructing and assembling components that were to be raised as walls and joined with gables, a ridge and rafters to create the framework of a barn.

These barn risings took communications and the sharing of experience that were key to ensuring the joinery would be a near perfect fit and with the right amount of breathing room. Otherwise, barn raising day would be fraught with peril and the “barn” in barn raising may become subject to being exchanged with another type of raising. Fortunately, this was likely to be a rare occasion because communities knew the importance of communications and collaborating with one another. After all doing so was the basis of early commerce.

In more modern days, construction companies were formed for the purpose of serving their community, in this much busier world, and exchanging their time as tradesmen for a fee. An industry had been born and that industry has grown to serve all levels of construction demand. Someone would have the idea of building a public place where they could sell produce and prepared foods for exchange of currency. Construction companies were there to accommodate and a restaurant would be built. Many careers came out of these types of efforts in a variety of trades.

Considering a career in construction could be seen to have roots in the demand for a multitude of other venues such as eateries, professional buildings, hospitals and so on.  

When considering a career in construction, keep your options open when entering the market and lead with your strengths and accumulated experience. You may have already proven yourself within your schooling as an effective event coordinator or team builder. Such skills can go a long way when entering into the workforce. You may also find that many roads lead to your desired destinations and some may even hone your understanding of what ultimately should be your occupational destination.

Take note, not all companies in the business of constructing things actual build buildings. Some companies develop into cadre's, such as the carpenters trade union who are dedicated to improving their trade through education and technology. In addition, commercial companies also engage in educational programs for the future and industry growth.

Many commercial companies rise up from these cadre's setting out to be sub-contractors, general contractors, and even supporting professional partners. Companies such as general contractors take control of all phases of building while specializing in various areas of competencies such as blueprints and architecture, project management and even component manufacturing such as pre-assembled gables, windows and doors.

Other types of companies branch out into the likes of logistics, providing timely delivery of materials and equipments to job sites. And still, others take on different ventures all together including accountants who build the framework of a companies books and ledgers, insurance companies who build a financial safety net for operating business, project management firms that build a plan and apply their expertise to seeing the plan through and even information firms that would come to build computerized infrastructure for managing data on insurance, financial, blueprints and tracking all types of jobs. One common theme resonates throughout all of industrial history. People working and cooperating together to build thing bigger, better, faster and smarter. These people communicate, collaborate and continually develop a workforce of competency.

Industry as we know it today was created though a vast pipeline of people collaborating. Just peering into the daily activities of a construction project manager will reveal the choreographing of a dance that is vital to the general contractor and many tradesmen who participate.

In fact, the author believes that it can be safely asserted that the decline of many industrial functions today can be traced back to communication failures. It can thus be surmised that when communication in any community fails, that community being found in an industry, neighborhood, state, country, continent or across the whole wide world, we can expect to see a decline in its productivity.

On the up side, let us not forget that communities collaborating though tight communications have always, and will continue to have, increase productiveness in profound ways. The American spirit brought lessons of communities in collaborative ventures straight off the boats when landing onto this western continent. It was born here, or at the very least raised here, out the simple and enduring principle that -to build a new, we need each other.

Charles A Feazell Sr.
Copyright © 2009

For the mariners traversing the great and tumultuous waters of Lake Michigan the lighthouses that dotted the coast were a God sent. The conditions under were these various structures needed to be built and the environment that need to be withstood by these working buildings - barn like structures actually - were and continue to be severe. Working together to provide safe passage for the ships of commerce wasn't even a second thought.