The scope of construction management duties is wide-ranging. It includes cost management, schedule management, safety management, quality control, and, when new employees join the team, training them—the workload is enormous.
As a result, construction managers tend to think, “If I’m a construction manager, I have to be able to do everything on my own.” However, I can say with certainty that this is a mistake.
I Used to Be a Good-for-Nothing Who Made Mistake After Mistake
I'm currently overseeing projects worth over 100 million.
At civil engineering construction sites, he has compiled a vast amount of documentation for public works projects, effectively managed a team of skilled workers, and achieved a track record that includes earning a project evaluation score of 85 or higher three times in a row.
However, when I was a new hire, I was such a failure that it’s hard to imagine looking at me now. Back then, I was in a dire state—I couldn’t even use a computer properly and knew almost nothing about Excel.
On the job site, I was scolded every day and made mistake after mistake. I lost confidence and thought, “I’m just not cut out for construction management.”
The Only CAD Program I Ever Liked
Even for someone like me, there was one task I actually enjoyed. That was CAD.
I hated computers, but for some reason, working with CAD was the one thing that didn’t feel like a chore, no matter how many hours I spent on it. Whenever I had free time, I would just keep working with CAD and studying it, and before I knew it, I had become more proficient at using it than anyone else.
Before long, I—who had always been scolded on the job site—started getting praised for my CAD work. Since I wasn’t used to being praised, my heart really leapt for joy (lol). It felt like I’d finally found my place in the construction industry through CAD.
From that point on, I decided, “I’m going to focus solely on creating drawings in CAD. I’ll make this my strength!”
Before long, I—someone who had never even been asked to do any work before—started receiving requests to draw up blueprints. The idea that asking me to draw blueprints would improve operational efficiency gradually took hold within the company.
Even though I could only do one thing…
You might be thinking, “Come on, you can’t handle construction management just by mastering CAD,” but as a result of mastering CAD, I somehow found myself gradually becoming capable of handling other tasks as well.
For example, since I can draw CAD drawings, I’ve become able to answer questions about the dimensions of structures on the job site right away. As a result, my communication with the craftsmen naturally increased, and eventually I developed the ability to “ask someone for help”—something I used to struggle with.
Just by acquiring that one weapon, everything started to fall into place.
――When you first start a job, people tend to think it’s important to be able to do everything on your own, but that’s definitely not the case. Above all, it’s important to find at least one thing—anything—that you’re good at or that plays to your strengths.
For example, maybe you’re good at organizing or creating safety documents, you’re the life of the party on site, you’re fast at preparing paperwork, you can use CAD, or you have more stamina than anyone else on site—anything at all will do. By identifying your strengths, you’ll be able to see the path you should take. You don’t have to be excellent at everything; just one thing is enough.
If you can convey to your company and the people around you that “I can do this!”, it can lead to being assigned work and spark new opportunities for communication. And as you tackle that work, you’ll gradually develop other skills as well.
I used to be a total mess, too. I think the skills I’ve acquired saved me from those days when nothing went right and life was just boring.
Above all, hone your skills and keep refining them. I really want young players to keep this in mind.
