Page 8 - Careers in Renewable Energy

construction companies. Listings of upcoming apprenticeships and
internships in the trades are often posted by the National Center for
Construction Education & Research.

Skills and Personality

Because many green construction managers start out in jobs in the
construction trades, they tend to enjoy and be good at working with
tools. It is also common for them to have a strong interest in creat-
ing new things from scratch. Extremely important for a candidate for
the job to have are a willingness to take charge of and lead others and
strong leadership skills.
In addition, the job features numerous weighty responsibilities
and rigorous challenges. To meet them, a construction manager must
have a great deal of initiative and be used to a lot of hard work and
long hours. He or she needs to be dependable as well. After all, on
a daily basis dozens, and in some cases hundreds, of workers rely on
him or her to be punctual and physically available to guide them in
their own duties.
Other skills and traits that are handy for a green construction
manager to possess include strong computer skills, including an abil-
ity to adapt quickly to new software programs; equally strong atten-
tion to detail; being adept at listening to the complaints, suggestions,
worries, and ideas of the workers he or she supervises; and displaying
the level of critical thinking necessary to sort through and act on the
worthiest of those suggestions and ideas.

On the Job

Employers

Green construction managers are typically hired by construction
companies of all sizes that have embraced the strategy of build-
ing highly energy-efficient structures powered by clean, renew-
able energy. In addition, sometimes towns and cities bring in green
construction managers to run their departments of public works or
infrastructure departments. Other municipalities contract with con-
struction companies with proven records, firms that already employ

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