project engineer

senior project engineer

project manager

carpenter

drywall hanger

Swinerton

The typical day started around 7:00am and usually began with a team review of the most critical items for the day and review of progress from the day before. My duties were different on each job I was on with my duties ranging from field support for the superintendents due to my strong knowledge of the construction process, to strictly focusing on procurement by dealing with the owner, architects, subcontractors, and suppliers. I was able to help in many aspects, such as compiling change orders to submit to the owner, estimating for our own scopes of work, and preparing and negotiating contracts, purchase agreements, rental agreements, and limited service agreements.
     While at Swinerton Builders, I learned a great deal about commercial construction, such as adapting to the fast pace of the work and dealing with problems, as well as preparing contracts, overall job budgets, and understanding many of the legal aspects of working on commercial construction projects.
     The management with Swinerton Builders could have been a little more involved with the projects in my opinion and listened to the concerns of the project teams better. Staffing on many of the projects was difficult at times, often leaving projects shorthanded on staff and often putting people on the projects for limited time and not letting 1 staff get used to workiing on the project, often causing the project to suffer.
     My experience with my coworkers was a good one in my eyes. I enjoyed working with everyone that I had the chance to work with and enjoyed becoming part of each team I was on. Everyone in my opinion was a valuable part and each person offered something different to the project. I learned much from the people I worked with and tried to help each person I worked with by sharing my construction knowledge and experience. I was also asked to start helping to mentor other engineers with less hands on experience as I have performed many of the scopes of work on the projects myself in past years.
     The hardest part of the job for me was adapting to the different ways each project manager would run their project, often differing from the last. I found that this became benificial eventually because I gave me the experience of working a project from different perspectives and helped with my overall knowledge of the construction industry.
     It is difficult for me to pick one favorite part of the job as I enjoy construction as a whole and look to remain in this industry for my working life. If I had to pick one, it would probably be working with the feild and superintendents since I have such a well rounded backround in self perform work.

Id say, if you arent searching for an advanced career or needing to earn a good living this may work for you. I am highly experienced and took the job because I was okay with taking a huge pay cut. This is a company you refer too, a well oiled machine. Highly departmentalized, so much so that working here is quite easy. Everyone does their job the same way so filling in for someone is easy. Management in the dept I worked in was outstanding. I really enjoyed my time here. But from one day to the next my dept was relocated to Concord, Ca. The worst part was how coniving and deceiving they were about it. Many knew while they left my dept out in the dark. For me it was awful but financially I was okay but others that depended on their job had it bad. This was a huge surprise, to get canned so suddenly. Looking back, the way they had us write SOP’s and had us to major clean up should have been a heads up, so many things leading up to the demise of the dept now make sense. What is disheartening was attending the usual team/company meetings and being told “this is your company, as a shareholder, its yours”. No truth behind that right? There were very few that got to stay though, and those are the ones I still call “the chosen ones”.  One thing about Swinerton is that if you are liked, preferred, a smoocher, just simply well taken by them, you will have a job. I still feel strongly about this preference. The fact is, if those preferred/chosen ones got to stay then all of the dept shouldve stayed. Pay is def low, and raises and very little. Work was great, an abundance. Though work was not distributed evenly. The chosen ones were praised and adored due to their accuracies and time efficiency because they were given a handful of projects while others incl myself handled over 100 projects. Swinerton will also keep unproductive workers, warm bodies, clueless soles taking up room for the sake of giving people an opportunity however its a hard pill to swallow when you apply yourself. To date the chosen ones continue working there in different depts.

Swinerton is an awesome company. A typical day for me would to be out on site doing safety inspections and promoting a positive safety culture. Ensuring both GC and Subcontractor compliance to all applicable Cal/Fed OSHA standards. Throughout my time at Swinerton I learned a tremendous amount  and enjoyed the people I worked with, the company truly has an awesome culture which can be seen in how successful the company has been. My immediate manager was always pushing me to be the best version of myself, he is an an incredible mentor and wealth of knowledge. Times at Swinerton weren't always rainbows and flowers, there were many occasions where my resolve would be tested. Making decisions that could really impact schedules was by far the most difficult part of my job. On the other hand when an employee working in the field takes the time to say thank you for being there to make those decisions it also becomes the best part of the job.

 Coordinated, scheduled and planned meetings; maintain and update evaluation database, reported documentation; monitor, maintain, and order office supplies for production and department.
 Prepared routine correspondence compose and/or edit letters, memos, reports and procedures related to the work of the department; prepare, edit, and finalize documents (RFI’s Submittals. Change Orders). Prepared transmit and maintained RFI and Submittals and Logs
 Created PowerPoint Proposals, birthday and anniversary slideshows
 Provided administrative support including travel arrangements and conference room reservations, Answering/Screen phone calls and direct call as appropriate.
 Maintained incoming/outgoing mail, and file management; process invoices; maintain office area.
 Maintained confidential and sensitive files
 Interview candidates/provide input on hiring decisions
 Assist in compiling billing, lien releases and certified payrolls and expense Report

Swinerton Builders, a employee owned company, is a most remarkable place to work.  I have been in mostly jobsite positions rather than corporate office; but workforce development is the same.

A much attributable review of Swinerton from an employee viewpoint would be most accurately stated in the Corporate Social Responsibility Philosophy.  Much has to be said for the company that goes to such lengths to promote such a working  lifestyle for the betterment of "giving back" to its employees and communities.  Indeed the main safety slogan of Swinerton, "YFNY, Your Family Needs You", reflects immediately how much they believe in a work-life balance which I have yet to see in other like-sized corporations.

Personally in my accounting position I have learned much in team management, network file strategy, and work-life balance.  And I have made a lot of friends that will carry with me even after I am no longer working in this culture.

Swinerton was a great place to work for. The people and teams are amazing. 

A typical day of work is what you make it. 

It's a very corporate structure with many politics. You must either know someone well or be an A player. Requires a lot of hard work. Otherwise, they will leave you out to dry. 

I learned to speak up is important. Hard work alone doesn't cut it. Otherwise you will be left to dry, like I was. If you aren't happy with something, then speak up. Hard work alone isn't enough.

Management cares more about making a profit on the projects than they do their employees. 

The hardest part of the job is really loving what you do because you will spend many hours building projects. 

The pay and the benefits are fair to good. More worth it as you have more influence in the company.

During my time with the company, consistently heard that promotions and raises were based on meeting clear qualifications and performance standards. However, I witnessed several instances where those standards were bypassed, and opportunities were given to individuals who did not meet the requirements. In some cases, it appeared that decisions were influenced by favoritism — and potentially race — which was incredibly disheartening.

Additionally, the current manager fosters a toxic work environment. I have not encountered a single employee who speaks positively about his leadership. His behavior toward staff is consistently disrespectful, and morale has suffered as a result.

I joined this company with high hopes, but looking back, I now realize that the culture and values I expected simply weren’t there.”

What is the best part of working at the company?
Nothing. They constantly told me to be more of an a hole to my subordinates. Said they would mold me into what they wanted. Put me in charge of a job without telling me my entire scope or budget. Gave me inadequate employees to run. When I brought in my own help they took that person for other work then put that person in charge of the next phase and used them to get rid of me. Working for Swinerton was a terrible experience.  

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Being thrown into a failing project with no support and minimal resources. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Backstabbers, users, and liars

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Working my heart out; behind schedule, and not appreciated

Worked with them for a whole year, when hired I was promised a raise after 6 months if growth was noticeable thru the company. After a whole year and 4 requests of compensation, they just dragged me and paid nothing more than &15/hr. I started as a laborer and soon after I was carpenter assistant and lastly a assistant project manager. No money raise eventhough I saved them thousands of dollars throughout the whole time I was there. They don’t care about you. Best advice is, learn take advantage of the perks and just be ready to walk away. Charlotte has a competitive market. They complaint they need a lot more workers but they’re not ready to pay good money to keep employees. 



Swinerton was a fantastic place to work, lots of great and well-meaning coworkers, challenging projects with ALL the resources you need to succeed and thrive.  Quite frankly I do regret leaving Swinerton, should have stayed. It's very corporate with lots of meetings at times and lots of red tape and some upper management folks who may of may not care about your concerns or feedback but that's literally standard everywhere however the upper management people I dealt with were all fantastic.  I learned a ton there and the experience gained was invaluable, hands down the safest construction company I've ever worked for.  They truly take care of their employees.  I should have stayed, hindsight is always 20/20, as they say.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Project engineer 16 salaries reported	$78,474 per year
Senior project engineer 6 salaries reported	$100,954 per year
Project manager 7 salaries reported	$150,857 per year
Carpenter 8 salaries reported	$26.63 per hour
Drywall hanger 8 salaries reported	$23.44 per hour

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