New(ish) PE at GC Company, Advise Wanted - Need Help Connecting Dots
Hey All,
I made a career change into construction management about a year ago and landed a PE role at a well-regarded GC. Genuinely, it's been one of the best decisions I've made, I love the work, the environment, and the day-to-day. But I'll be honest: something isn't fully clicking yet and I want to fix it.
Here is where i am struggling-
- RFI & Submittals - Process after submitting - I am submitting them and closing them but its the foggy part starts after submitting. I'm not sure if I'm not fully comprehending what I'm submitting as well as I think I am, but right now after I submit, my PM usually runs with it and I want to change that ASAP. I want to own that process start to finish.
- MDL - This is a big one for me. I have a hard time fully grasping it, and honestly I'm not sure if I may have set it up incorrectly early on when I was first opening submittals. I feel like once this clicks, a lot of other things will fall into place but I'm not sure if I'm just looking at it the wrong way. I've watched a ton of videos and they all seem to fall just a little short of the "aha" moment. The piece I'm really missing is connecting the MDL to the schedule those wires just aren't connecting yet.
- Schedule - I need to understand this better overall. I look at it, but I'm not really *using* it the way I should be. Things change so fast and I feel like I'm always a step behind rather than ahead of it.
A note on tools - we use Procore.
I like Procore but still new, but I think the UI is adding to my confusion rather than helping. Simple things like understanding the difference between Received Date, Sent Date, and Returned Date trip me up more than they probably should, and I think that's been quietly contributing to some of the fog.
A little about how I work: I'm a visual learner. I like to print drawings, physically mark them up, and I usually need to read something a couple of times before it sticks. I'm not someone who absorbs things instantly on a screen, I need to hold the information somehow. Part of my problem might just be that I haven't built a system that actually fits how my brain works.
I'm not looking for someone to hand me a magic answer, I know this is a figure-it-out industry and I'm committed to doing that. I just think I'm missing some foundational process or habit that experienced PEs and PMs take for granted, and I'd love a nudge in the right direction.
Thanks in advance, any advice, resources, or just "here's what worked for me" stories are hugely appreciated.
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