Construction Project Mgmt interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your background and the jobs you've run.
2. Tell me about a project you ran from preconstruction through closeout.
3. Why commercial construction project management - and why the GC / CM side vs owner's-rep or design?
4. Why this building type or market - office / healthcare / data centre / TI / education?
5. Why the firm?
6. What's your read on our project portfolio and recent work?
7. Tell me what you understand about how we deliver projects - precon, self-perform, LEAN, technology.
8. Walk me through a schedule recovery - a job that fell behind and what you did.

Technical concepts to master

• Cost management + GMP discipline

  Budget vs commitment vs cost vs forecast · GMP (Guaranteed Maximum Price) · Contingency layers · Buyout · Pay application + retention + lien waivers

• Schedule + critical path discipline

  Critical path + float management · Pull planning + Last Planner System · Look-ahead + weekly work plan · Recovery schedule + acceleration · Time-Impact Analysis (TIA) + fragnet

• RFIs, submittals, change orders

  RFI (Request for Information) · Submittal (shop drawing + product data) · ASI / SI (Architect's / Supplemental Instructions) · Change Order (CO) lifecycle · Daily reports + photo log

• Safety + closeout

  JHA / pre-task plan + stop-work authority · OSHA recordable + reportable framework · Substantial completion + punch list · Final pay app + retention release + lien waivers · O&M manuals, training, warranty period

Practical drills

• You inherited a $48M GMP CM-at-risk office tower mid-buyout. The structural steel package estimated at $7.2M came in at three bids: $7.8M, $8.1M, $7.5M. Drywall estimated at $3.4M came in at $3.0M, $3.1M, $3.2M. MEP estimated at $11M came in at $10.6M, $10.8M, $11.4M. Walk me through the buyout decision and what this means for your GMP and contingency.
• Six months into a 14-month $90M healthcare project, structural steel erection is 18 working days behind the baseline schedule. The owner has a contractually binding move-in date with $25k/day liquidated damages. The architect has issued 47 RFIs in the past 8 weeks on the curtain wall design. Walk through your recovery plan.
• Excavation on a $30M mixed-use podium project hits unsuitable soil at 8 feet across about 40% of the building footprint - geotechnical report showed clean material to 14 feet. Over-excavation + engineered fill will cost approximately $850k and add 22 working days. The owner is pushing back and saying it should be a contractor risk. Walk through how you handle this.

Smart-question anchors

• Project mix + recent / signature jobs by building type
• Delivery model posture - GMP CM-at-risk vs design-build vs lump-sum + typical contract form
• Preconstruction + buyout - when precon engages, target value design, LEAN posture
• Self-perform scope - concrete / steel / drywall / MEP self-perform vs pure management
• Safety record - EMR + TRIR + recent OSHA citations + safety culture posture

Sourced from

AIA Contract Documents (A101 / A102 / A133 / A201 / A141 / G702-G707) + ConsensusDocs · AACE International Recommended Practices (52R-06 Time Impact Analysis, 29R-03 Forensic Schedule Analysis) · Lean Construction Institute + Last Planner System materials · OSHA 29 CFR 1926 (Construction) + OSHA recordkeeping standard · ENR (Engineering News-Record) Top 400 Contractors + Top 100 CM-at-Risk firms