Office Manager For A Construction Company
Career review from a person working in the job
How I Got The Job
My Education: high school diploma
My Prior Experience: I have worked in the construction business for the past three decades.
My Job Profile
My Company: Construction of public contracts
Job/Career Overview: I am solely responsible for my company's bookkeeping: its accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, and accounting procedures. I also assemble all the paperwork for bid proposals and contracts and do the follow-up on bids and on jobs still in progress.
On a typical day, I record our invoices, pay the ones that have just become due, and answer and transfer the phone calls we receive. My firm only bids on public construction projects -- meaning government-funded construction projects -- and these always involve a tremendous amount of paperwork: reams and reams of payroll information about hours worked and hourly wage rates and all kinds of other things. And then you've got to "certify" that you're complying with the terms of the contract. It's all a nightmare.
Love It? Hate It?
I rate this career 8 out of 10.
What I Love or Hate
The best part of my job is the variety of duties I've been given. I'm always busy doing many different things. The worst part of my job is getting everything together at the bid deadline. We work with many sub-contractors and in order to put your proposal together you've got to get a bid from every one of them. All public bids are awarded on a low bid basis, so people's prices for the work they mean do can either make you or break you.
My Career Tips
You must be organized with all your paperwork and at any given time you could have 5-6 project going and all will need the same type of paperwork.
You must be able to deal with deadlines and show a willingness to pursue your subcontractors.
You must like to work with people.
