Chapter 42 — Further Reading

Career decisions are made with current information, so almost everything below is a source you should go to directly rather than a book to read once. Compensation, licensing, and credential requirements change; verify at the primary source and note the date you checked.

1. Your state's contractor licensing board — the single most important item on this list. Every U.S. state handles contractor licensing differently: some license by trade, some by contract value threshold, some barely at all, and electrical, plumbing, mechanical, and elevator licensing is close to universal. The board's own site is the only reliable source for whether a license is required to hold a contract, what qualifying experience and examinations are demanded, whether financial statements or a license bond are required, and what reciprocity exists. Check the city and county too — municipal business licensing is separate. For anyone who may ever hold a contract, and for everyone considering self-employment.

2. NCEES and your state engineering licensure board — for the PE. NCEES administers the Fundamentals of Engineering and Professional Engineer examinations; the license itself is issued by a state board, and the education, experience, and examination requirements vary by state. Go to both. For heavy civil, structural, and industrial builders, for anyone who may need to seal engineering documents including temporary works, and for students deciding whether to sit for the FE while the coursework is fresh.

3. CMAA — the Construction Management Association of America. CMAA publishes the professional practice framework for construction management, runs the CCM certification through its certification institute, maintains an owner's-guide literature that is genuinely useful for understanding the owner's view, and sponsors compensation research for its membership. For anyone considering owner-side, agency CM, or program management work, and for anyone weighing the CCM.

4. AACE International — for project controls, estimating, and claims. AACE maintains the credential family used across the controls world — the Planning and Scheduling Professional and the cost engineering and forensic credentials — and publishes the recommended practices that structure the discipline, including the widely cited recommended practice on forensic schedule analysis (RP 29R-03) referenced in Chapter 33. For schedulers, cost engineers, and anyone drawn to claims and expert work.

5. BCSP — the Board of Certified Safety Professionals. BCSP administers the accredited safety certifications, including the CHST and the CSP with the ASP as a common step toward it, and publishes the eligibility and examination requirements. For anyone considering the safety track, which is a genuine executive path in serious contractors.

6. PMI and the AIC — the two general credentialing bodies. The Project Management Institute administers the PMP and publishes the general project management body of knowledge; the American Institute of Constructors administers the Associate Constructor and Certified Professional Constructor. Read both bodies' eligibility requirements before assuming a credential fits your track. For students (the AC), and for anyone whose future may include owners, agencies, or work outside construction (the PMP).

7. OSHA's Outreach Training Program, and OSHA 29 CFR Part 1926. OSHA publishes what the 10- and 30-hour construction courses are, who may deliver them, and what they are and are not. The construction standards in Part 1926 are the substance behind them. For everyone, immediately — the 30-hour course is a baseline, not an achievement.

8. AGC of America and ABC — the two large contractor associations. Both maintain local chapters that are, in a fragmented industry, closer to the actual labor market than any job board; both run training, safety, and workforce-development programs, and both publish or sponsor compensation and workforce research. Both now also publish mental-health and suicide-prevention resources aimed specifically at construction, because the need in this industry is well documented — find the ones your association maintains and know where they are before somebody on your job needs them (Chapter 41 and §42.8). Their local chapters are where §42.9.3's advice actually gets executed. For everybody on the contractor side; pick the one your market's contractors actually belong to.

9. DBIA and NAWIC. The Design-Build Institute of America publishes design-build best practice and offers a design-build credential; the National Association of Women in Construction runs chapters, mentoring, and scholarship programs. DBIA for anyone whose market is moving toward design-build; NAWIC for women entering or advancing in the industry, and for anyone responsible for building a team that reflects the workforce.

10. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — occupational wage statistics and the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Free, methodologically serious wage data for construction managers, cost estimators, and the trades, broken out by metropolitan area, plus employment projections. It lags a fast-moving market slightly, which is itself worth knowing. For anyone comparing markets, and for every student who has been told a number by somebody with an incentive.

11. Engineering News-Record (ENR). The industry's trade press: market conditions, the annual contractor and design-firm rankings, cost indices, and regular reporting on industry compensation. Reading it weekly is the cheapest way to develop the market awareness that §42.7 argues a career depends on. For everyone, starting now.

12. CFMA and the SBA surety bond guarantee program — the two references for going out on your own. CFMA publishes the long-running annual financial survey of construction companies, which is the standard reference for construction industry financial benchmarks — balance-sheet ratios, working capital, and profitability by company size and sector. It is the source to consult before you believe anything anyone tells you about what a contractor's financials should look like. For anyone going out on their own, and for any project manager who wants to understand the company behind the job — the companion to Chapter 34.

Alongside it, the U.S. Small Business Administration's surety bond guarantee program — a federal program that guarantees surety bonds for small and emerging contractors that would not otherwise qualify for a surety's own program. It does not remove the working-capital problem in §42.6.8 — nothing does except capital — but it is a real route past the first gate, and it is worth understanding before you conclude that bonded work is closed to you. For new and small contractors, and for anyone advising one.