A foreman or construction superintendent is an experienced construction worker who is responsible for supervising a team on a construction site.
In this role, you will have direct line management for several construction workers and you’ll need great people skills as well as an excellent understanding of health and safety, building regulations and legal requirements.
This is not a starting point for a career in construction – it’s a role requiring experience, confidence and skill.
A foreman needs to be able to demonstrate exceptional organization; the mainstay of the role is to ensure that the construction project is finished on time and within budget.
You’ll need budget management experience, the ability to motivate a team, good IT skills and a knowledge of project management software.
Confident communication skills are a must too as you’ll be liaising with architects, surveyors, delivery workers and your team.
Construction sites have the potential to be dangerous places, so you’re going to need appropriate qualifications to be considered for the role of Foreman. This might include civil engineering certifications and up to date health and safety qualifications.
The natural starting point for a future Foreman is in construction work, so if you’ve been in the trade for a while and can demonstrate great leadership potential, it might be time for you to step up.
Median Pay
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2019 the median paper construction managers and superintendents was just over $92,370 dollars per year.
Career questionnaire website pay scale.com, has put that media bigger slightly lower at just over $76,000 dollars per year for 2019. Discrepancies can be attributed to different polling methods, different areas, in different construction industries.
Overall construction managers have it a little bit better than construction workers and that they’re predominantly salary based workers, as opposed to hourly workers.
This helps out because construction work isn’t always continue throughout the years of having a annual salary is a nice benefit.
Foreman Salary Statistics 2019
| 2019 Median Pay | $91,370 per year $43.93 per hour |
| Typical Entry-Level Education | Bachelor's Degree |
| Work Experience in a Related Occupation | Not Required |
| On-the-job Training? | Moderate-term on-the-job training |
| Number of Jobs 2016 | 373,200 |
| Job Outlook 2014-20124 | +5% |
| Employment Change 2014-2024 | 17,800 |
Industry Forecast
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics job outlook is relatively peachy at around 5% annuallyFrom 2014 through 2024. This is about average for all industries combined and there traits.
Construction workers and their managers always be needed is on its economy is growingAnd construction activity continues to expand across the country.
There’re combination of private investment that is building new offices and businesses, and public investment that is building highways, roads, bridges, hospitals and schools. There are really a lot of opportunities for growth within the construction industry that spread across all specialities.
Within ever-increasing focus on efficiency, companies are seeking to hire more more construction managers who can help accomplish projects on time and under budget.
A qualified construction manager who’s able to complete projects and timely manner into high quality standards are highly prized and remunerate accordingly.
Common Classifications of Foreman
There many different types of foreman ranging from “General Project Foreman” who oversee all activities on a job site, to more specific for types of foreman such as “Electrical Instruction Foreman, Cost Estimator, and a jack-of-all trades”Construction Project Managers (PMs)”.
Sometimes these positions overlapping sometimes a very distinct depending on the company.
Sorry even industry-specific foreman such as ranch for men who oversee large farming operations, our shop foreman who oversees shops in automotive, manufacturing and industrial industries.
At the end of the day before minutes for the buck stops on the job site and it his job to communicate orders and feedback from working teams and upper management.
Sample Resume Download (MS Word Format)
Below is a professionally written form and resume sample that you can use to model your own resume off of.
This is just a random sample guy, your resume should be unique to your working experiences, as there is no”one-size-fits-all” solution to resume writing.
How To Write Your Own
First of all, performance resumes should be limited to one page and it should be a very direct and informative document.
Rarely will Foreman’s resume ever exceed one page, as the job responsibilities for each project should be similar and thus too much time needn’t be taken when writing the bullet points for each experience section.
This isn’t to say though that you can rest earlier experience section when writing your foreman resume as each section should highlight unique process that you brought to individual projects and companies that you work for.
Don’t worry whether you were full timers on a contract basis just don’t want to list the employer, the dates, the location, and your primary duties.
Formal Styling
Don’t mess around with extra styling lines or borders, stick to the basics, that is a simple font like Times Roman, the appropriate size like 12 point, and regular bullet points.
There’s no need to get fancy with weird star bullet points, clip art, or colors on your resume.
When writing your foreman resume keep in mind that you want to project your leadership skills throughout the resume, not just in the cover letter and career objective section. You do this by quantifying your achievements and placing them into a correct format.
Use words like “lead”, “orchestrated”, “strategize”, and other keywords that HR systems like automated applicant tracking systems (ATS) will pick up when processing your resume.
Include Software/IT Knowledge
In addition to people skills, you’ll want to keep your resume updated and current by including more modern skill sets touches any specialized management software are you know how to use, IT knowledge, app usage, or any sort of surveying tools.
You be surprised how many old-timers don’t even know how to use Microsoft Word, so including more white collar” skills can help you stand out in the rest of the pack at the end of the day.
Finally you’re probably frowning because you don’t like sitting at a desk in writing all day, and that is fine, but your resume is a very important document that can be the difference between zero dollars and hundreds of thousands of dollars over years in paychecks.
So before send any old thing to a company make sure you send it to some friends first to read it over and give you feedback for improvement.
Also don’t forget to spell out abbreviations on your resume, as even though I other foreman and constructionExperience individuals will know what the abbreviations mean, if your client of the company, HR professionals May not be quite as knowledgeable about specifics as you.
Sample Bullet Points
Below are a collection of professionally written bullet points that we selected specifically because they are useful for management and foreman type resumes. You can selectively pick ones that apply to you and customize others so they have that they reflect your personal experiences.
Sample Foreman Bullet Points
| Task |
|---|
| Review processing schedules or production orders to make decisions concerning inventory requirements, staffing requirements, work procedures, or duty assignments, considering budgetary limitations and time constraints. |
| Direct or coordinate production, processing, distribution, or marketing activities of industrial organizations. |
| Develop or implement production tracking or quality control systems, analyzing production, quality control, maintenance, or other operational reports, to detect production problems. |
| Review operations and confer with technical or administrative staff to resolve production or processing problems. |
| Hire, train, evaluate, or discharge staff or resolve personnel grievances. |
| Prepare and maintain production reports or personnel records. |
| Set and monitor product standards, examining samples of raw products or directing testing during processing, to ensure finished products are of prescribed quality. |
| Develop budgets or approve expenditures for supplies, materials, or human resources, ensuring that materials, labor, or equipment are used efficiently to meet production targets. |
| Initiate or coordinate inventory or cost control programs. |
| Coordinate or recommend procedures for facility or equipment maintenance or modification, including the replacement of machines. |
| Review plans and confer with research or support staff to develop new products or processes. |
| Institute employee suggestion or involvement programs. |
| Maintain current knowledge of the quality control field, relying on current literature pertaining to materials use, technological advances, or statistical studies. |
| Negotiate materials prices with suppliers. |
Career Objective Writing
You want to start your foreman resume with a simple career objective where you stay why you’re find the current job you are and why the company should hire you in just 2 to 3 sentences.
Don’t worry about trying to figure whole work experience in your career objective the purpose is only to get the interest of the reader as the whole rest of your resume will do this “hard selling”.
Definitely mention the years of of experience you have in construction management roles, specifically ones including the management of budgets, management of timelines/work calendars, and management of teams of people.
Additional Skills & Certifications
The additional skill section and certification sections of the resume are very important because they help you stand out from other candidates. Everyone should have very unique set of skill that are dependent on the types of jobs they worked in the past.
You can either combine the two sections if you are running out of space, as fitting cleaning to one page is a great goal. Conversely if your resume is a little bit short and you need to fill up the page you can split skills and certifications into two unique sections.
Additional skills want to include software knowledge as mentioned above, As well as industry-specific knowledge.
For example, if you’re working for a large contractor on publicly funded highway construction projects, including things like heavy equipment operating skills we’ll definitely be seen as a positive because even though you’ll be a foreman in directing people you may need to jump in and lend a hand once a while and the site.
For certifications, you’ll want to emphasize safety and include any sort of OSHA certification training you have, or any industry-specific certifications you have.
Job sites that are in hazardous areas, overseas, or located in adverse environments such as underwater, require a whole unique set of skills and certifications. Employers in these fields will be looking for these on your resume.
Don’t forget, try to write your resume as though you are seeing it through the eyes of the company that you are applying to.
Try to write in away where they feel like they must have to you, in a way that makes you seem as if you’re the perfect puzzle piece to their larger picture. You can do this by writing the desired skills and certifications listed in the job description in your own resume. Reflect back to them what they want to see!
If you don’t have desired skills, consider going to get them as you’re probably need them in the future if you ever look to transition careers again or simply advance higher within the company you’re already in.
Useful Skills to Include
We pulled out a few select skills that we think are particularly useful for foreman resumes and included them in the table below that you can use as a reference.
Don’t forget, if you’re including anything like soccer knowledge make sure it’s up today, same safety certifications and skills, there’s no point in listen something that’s outdated.
Useful Foreman Skills
| Skill | Skill Description |
|---|---|
| Speaking | Talking to others to convey information effectively. |
| Critical Thinking | Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems. |
| Monitoring | Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action. |
| Coordination | Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions. |
| Time Management | Managing one's own time and the time of others. |
| Reading Comprehension | Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents. |
| Active Listening | Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times. |
| Judgment and Decision Making | Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one. |
| Management of Personnel Resources | Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job. |
| Active Learning | Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making. |
| Learning Strategies | Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things. |
| Complex Problem Solving | Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions. |
| Systems Analysis | Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes. |
| Management of Material Resources | Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work. |
| Social Perceptiveness | Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do. |
| Persuasion | Persuading others to change their minds or behavior. |
| Instructing | Teaching others how to do something. |
| Quality Control Analysis | Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance. |
| Management of Financial Resources | Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures. |
| Writing | Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience. |
| Mathematics | Using mathematics to solve problems. |
| Negotiation | Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences. |
| Systems Evaluation | Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system. |
| Service Orientation | Actively looking for ways to help people. |
| Operation Monitoring | Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly. |
| Operations Analysis | Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design. |
| Operation and Control | Controlling operations of equipment or systems. |
| Troubleshooting | Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it. |
| Equipment Selection | Determining the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job. |
| Science | Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems. |
| Technology Design | Generating or adapting equipment and technology to serve user needs. |
| Equipment Maintenance | Performing routine maintenance on equipment and determining when and what kind of maintenance is needed. |
| Repairing | Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools. |
| Programming | Writing computer programs for various purposes. |
| Installation | Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or programs to meet specifications. |
