project engineer

project manager

maintenance technician

construction project manager

housekeeper

Gilbane

Gilbane as my first job was a challenge. I wasn't sure what to expect or how I would adapt to the company. As a construction company I wasn't sure I'd actually fit into their daily routine, but as a company they helped me understand the many tasks performed and who to contact in the event something went wrong. As an intern my first project was to coordinate The Annual Golf Tournament. It took countless hours of preparation, meetings, understanding and contacting companies who would be joining us at our event. I also performed general office duties such as printing, labels/labeling, making outlines, preparation for Gilbane University classes etc. I learned the many preparations for various job-sites and contacting subs and preparing contracts and proposals to attract other companies. I also had experience in the Marketing & Sales Management Services. The branding of a company isn't always easy and its just as important as the hard work the company provides for the public. I worked with an extremely supportive group of individuals. They were open to my ideas as a young adult and they gave me a lot of responsibility in which they held me accountable for any mistakes and helped me to correct them. Overall, it was an amazing experience, took a lot of time management, team work, hard work and intelligence. I don't regret not one moment of it, at each moment I learned something new.

The people of Gilbane truly follow the company's mission statement, and reward personnel for exhibiting behaviors in line with that doctrine to positively reinforce the culture of providing ethical, safety oriented execution of client objectives within budget and schedule parameters.  They have a mandatory learning requirement each year, and have outlined both the internal education requirements and on site experience each person should have to be promoted.  They Senior PMs, Direct Managers, and Project Executives all help streamline your experience and tasks in accordance with your stated work goals so you don't stagnate.  You are always leaning, always improving, and every person's suggestions for improving the ways they efficiently and effectively do business are welcome.  Overall it's an awesome family oriented company and they have very little turnover assuming the area/region has further work when your project ends, and even then relocation is always an option.  Many people have 20+ years under their belts, which isn't always possible in the construction industry, it shows a definite desire and policy of retaining talent and promotion from within.

A typical day would begin with a department meeting and then retreat to cubicle for remainder of the day without any communication.  
I learned that only executive level has any power to impact change, good or bad, and that this management is not open to change.
The workplace culture is different among the departments but within finance, it’s known to be stressful and “every person for themselves” with every little support.

When there is plenty of work everything is great everyone is busy. As soon as work dries up or you don't have a job to go to - you have to use your PTO time until its gone - and then you are furloughed. A multibillion company should not be laying off six figure supers, PMs, even office managers, because there is not a job to bill hours to - especially as every one of those people will have worked 80 hour weeks for 40 hours of pay to make Gilbane rich, when the jobs were busy and the company needed THEM. The work life balance is poor. Weekend and evening work is expected in construction but it is not well managed, evenly distributed or compensated in Gilbane. Long days are expected as well but they should not be mandatory. If the day starts at 6am people should not expect you to attend meetings at 8pm - and still answer emails at 10pm, and on the weekends you are not working - and while on vacation. Gilbane has a big overhead and to pay for it they use 3 workers to do the job of 5. It takes a toll. On the upside they train their staff. Benefits are excellent. 401K is great. PTO is very good. Pay is better than average. 

Many of the supers, engineers, and upper managers provide no support for the overall safety culture of the company. The company espouses an image of core values with little or no real cultural infrastructure to support it. In other words, Gilbane is all smoke and mirrors on many aspects in the way they conduct business.  Human Resource personnel are inexperienced and do NOT genuinely care about their employees, or how to retain good talent, nor do they know how to handle sensitive cases involving work place harassment  and hostility between employees and between the trades and Gilbane. Many of the supers I have worked with also don't care how their own team members get treated by the trades. Furthermore, Gilbane is a far cry from being a premier builder. They are a 3rd rate company with a support staff that doesn't have enough knowledge, skill, and experience to compete with the blockbuster builders in a city like New York, such as  Tishman and Turner to name a few. They continue to run projects in NYC with lower bid contractors and non union companies.

My typical workday was always full of chaos. I was not a good fit with the Gilbane Team because I am organized and like order in the workplace and unfortunately the people I worked with were not knowledgeable of the work flow of the Capital Construction Dept. 
As an office manager, and being part of their team, I was constantly interrupted on a day to day bases.
I always had to stop in the middle of a task to do other tasks and had to then pick up where I left off.  And once I attempted to pick up where I left off I was then interrupted again.  This is expected sometimes in an office environment but interruptions should not be to that magnitude. Half of the time, I don't even think my boss was aware of my tasks/and or duties. The cons were: Having to grammatically correct Payment rejection letters that a co-worker would type and then ask me to mail out on her behalf. She made lots of errors on these letters and rather than to continue pointing out her errors I simply made the corrections before mailing the letters.
 I don't approve or disapprove of Gilbane's CEO

Gilbane is a great company to work for. They are a bit smaller than some of the other general contractors so you get the sense of family and belonging. There are a ton of groups within the company that have their own events, trips, outings, etc. that help you make real friends within the company. Upper management are people you see on a daily basis and not just names you hear of, and they are very friendly and take the time to get to know you. Gilbane however does still take on very big and ambitious projects so you will be part of some pretty big things. As a lower level employee it can be difficult to climb the ladder if you are not part of the "MCAP" program. 

On most days I will work on a project assigned to me. Working mostly by myself, but occasionally working with others to help with issues. I've learned a lot about coding web applications in the back-end and front-end. 

My supervisor kept me up to date on progress I was making and also made clear to explain what I needed to work on. My co-workers work with me many times to help with any issues and to share ideas on how to improve the web application projects I am working on.

The hardest part of the job was learning SQL and mixing it with C# and Visual Basic languages, a skill I was not taught previously. I have taken that challenge full on and work each day to improve on the aspects that I fall on.

The best part of the job is finishing a web application is seeing all of the work that went into it, and watching the final product produce the results expected.

Responsible for overall home office oversight of the project management and operations from planning through successful completion. The primary contact with the owner/architect/consultants and able to make decisions for the company. Additional duties include creating/updating the CPM schedule, material procurement, subcontract administration, cost control, quality control, employee management/growth and safety. Manage and directly involved with conflict resolution, requests for proposals, monthly payment requests, revision control, job scheduling, coordinate scope of work with subcontractors/suppliers/inspectors/government officials, negotiations and field supervision. Conduct meetings with PM, QC manager and field superintendent as well as attend monthly forecast meeting with upper management.

Gilbane as a whole provides great benefits and fair salary compensation.  They also have nice other perks like reimbursing for gym membership/equipment and insurance rate discounts for wellness testing.  The federal division (where I worked) has some real hardships.  Upper management has changed hands a few times.  The project executives do not provide much support and there is no consistency or structure.  The pro is you have free reign to manage a job however you wish.  The con is if you make a wrong move, prepare to be hammered.  Overall, I learned a lot over my years at Gilbane.  The work was easy but the politics was getting harder and harder each year.  Give them a try and in 2 years when the honeymoon phase ends, re-evaluate.  Many of the federal contractors act in similar manner so it's really about finding a work environment/culture you enjoy.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Project engineer 15 salaries reported	$90,787 per year
Project manager 2 salaries reported	$139,500 per year
Maintenance technician 3 salaries reported	$26.00 per hour
Construction project manager 1 salary reported	$135,000 per year
Housekeeper 2 salaries reported	$38,150 per year

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