Construction jobs and trades
Construction jobs are the roles that build the building an architect has designed, and they are the trades and the field roles that turn the drawings of the discipline of architecture into a standing structure. The work of construction runs in a fixed order on a site: the ground is prepared, the foundation is poured, the frame is raised, and the building is closed in, and each stage is done by a trade that the other trades depend on. This page defines the 6 core trades, the field roles that manage the site, the 3 entry points into the work, and the pay range across the construction field that builds the work of architecture.
The trades that build the structure
The trades that build the structure in construction jobs are the skilled roles that raise the building, and they are organized around the 3 systems of the structure, the ground, the frame and the close in. The concrete worker, also called the finisher, pours and levels the foundation and the slab, and the carpenter builds the frame of the floor, the wall and the roof, which is the trade that most of the body of a house is made of. The mason lays the brick and the block of the wall, and the ironworker or the steel erector sets the steel of a larger building, and the electrician, the plumber and the HVAC worker run the systems that make the building live. The 6 trades are the core of the construction site, and the order of the 6 is the order of the build, because the frame cannot go up before the foundation sets and the systems cannot run before the frame is closed. The discipline of architecture is the design that the 6 trades build from, and the construction job is the role that carries the design to the ground. A person who looks for Architecture jobs and careers on the design side of the same build will find the same 3 systems there, because the drawing and the build follow the same order.
The field roles that manage the site
The field roles that manage the site in construction jobs are the positions that run the trades and the schedule, and they sit between the design of the architect and the work of the trades. The construction laborer, the entry role on most sites, does the general work of the trade, the digging, the carrying and the cleanup, and it is the role that a person with no experience starts from. The foreman leads a crew of the laborer and the trades and is the first role of supervision, and the construction manager runs the whole site, the schedule and the budget, and answers for the building to the owner. The estimator reads the drawings of the building and prices the materials and the labor before the bid is in, and that role is where the cost of the construction is set. Urban Planning Jobs sit upstream of this work, because a plan that clears permits is what puts a building on a site and puts the trade to work. The field roles are the management of the build, and they are the bridge between the drawing of the discipline of architecture and the structure that the trades raise on the site.
Where the construction jobs come from
Where the construction jobs come from is the question of how a person enters the trade, and the 3 entry points are the apprenticeship, the laborer role and the direct hire. The apprenticeship, which is the standard route into the skilled trade, pairs a wage with a training program that runs for 4 to 5 years, and the apprentice works on a real site under the foreman and earns a certificate at the end of it. The construction laborer role is the entry that needs no experience, and a laborer who shows the work moves up to the skilled trade after a season on the site. The direct hire, which is what a company that is hiring does for a trade that is short, puts a person into the trade on the spot and trains them on the job. The 3 entry points are the source of the construction jobs, and the construction laborer jobs that a company is hiring for are usually the laborer and the apprentice, which are the 2 roles that take a person with no experience.
| Entry point | How it works | Time to the trade |
|---|---|---|
| Apprenticeship | A paid training program that runs on a real site under the foreman, with a certificate at the end | 4 to 5 years |
| Construction laborer | The entry role that needs no experience, with a move up to the skilled trade after a season on the site | 1 season |
| Direct hire | A company that is short a trade puts a person into the role and trains them on the job | On the spot |
The pay range across the field
The pay range across the construction field in construction jobs is set by the trade and the experience, and it moves from the laborer at the bottom to the skilled trade and the manager at the top. The construction laborer, the entry role, is paid at the lower end of the range, and the skilled trade, the carpenter, the electrician and the plumber, is paid in the middle, and the foreman and the construction manager are paid at the top, because they answer for the schedule and the cost of the building. The range is wider in a market that is hiring fast, and a city that is building, which is where the construction jobs hiring is concentrated, pays more for the same trade than a city that is not. The pay of the construction job is the wage for the role in the build, and it is the return for the trade that carries the design of the discipline of architecture from the drawing to the standing building. Architecture engineering is the study where the 3 systems the build raises are worked out in the drawing before the ground is broken, and Architecture books carry the discipline of architecture to a reader who has never stood on a site, so the person who pays for the build can read the design that the trade carries to the ground.