Every day I strive to be better than I was the previous day and it is this mindset that drives my career in a positive direction. My ultimate goal is to facilitate profitable construction projects for my company by accurately predicting costs for every aspect of a job.My current role is to work with other colleagues in the estimating department to analyze projects during the bidding process using historical company data to create cost estimates based on labor, equipment, materials, subcontractor, and overhead costs. We specialize in public projects concerning construction and rehabilitation of bridges, dams, concrete structures, and road work. Each project brings specific requirements which include prequalifications, permitting, insurance, risks, construction methods, schedules and more. The majority of the projects we assess are design-bid-build projects so plans and specifications have already been created by a third party engineer. Our primary goal as estimators is to create accurate estimates to install the specified structure. Once we are awarded a project, estimating meets with the project management and operations teams to explain how we bid the project, what specification requirements we must adhere to, and what budgets we have assigned.This job requires thorough knowledge of construction both in general and for company specific operations. The engineer’s designed methods are not always feasible given our internal operations so one of my jobs is to assess the means and methods we will use to construct the designed project. If the engineer has left out information, it is my responsibility to communicate with the owners and engineers to ensure clarifications are issued so all bidders are on a level playing field. When beginning an estimate, the first step is understanding the full scope of work, then determining which portions of work will likely require quotes from vendors or suppliers. I often contact these companies and get them started on giving us a quote by discussing inclusions, exclusions, scope, materials, terms, and job specific difficulties to ensure both parties are on the same page and that no cost is either left out of the estimate or accounted for twice. Next is assessing crews for specific tasks, estimating man hours, required equipment, and methods of construction. Strict deadlines and tight timeframes are a common occurrence in our company (as they are in every part of the construction industry). This mandatory adherence to a bidding schedule provided by owners has allowed me to grow as a manager of organization and time.