Career Toolbox

Ed Brady, CEO of the Home Builders Institute, joins Fernando Pages Ruiz to talk about training, education, job placement, and giving back to the community.

"When you have a person who is certified or licensed in a variety of things, it carries a certain marketing weight to it. It gives the customer a certain degree of confidence. And I think that when you're in those types of conversations with a potential employer or even with your current employer, you can say to them, "I'm not bringing just my expertise to the table, but there's actually an inherent value in having these titles around my name." And I think it's a way that you could approach it that would be healthy." —CJ Stunkard, G. Fedale Roofing and Siding

When you know how difficult it is to frame a complex roof, you design fewer complex roofs. This week we are joined by Steve Mickley, Executive Director of the American Institute of Building Design who talks about his career path from carpenter to building designer—without ever taking a drafting class!

Protecting yourself and those around you shows respect and responsibility. In this episode, Fernando is joined by Rob Matuga, Assistant Vice President for Health, Safety, and Jobsite regulations at the National Association of Home Builders.

Engineer Jay Crandel explains how picking up a hammer and driving nails early in his career helps to bring experience to calculations, acting like a gut-check for load distributions. He thinks more engineers should know carpentry, and more carpenters should know flashing details.

Communicate as if People Are Adults by ProTradeCraft

Two twenty-somethings with an amazing career trajectory in construction talk about their very different paths and their similar outlook for the future.

Building codes are not sharp knives inspectors use to chop off the heads of contractors, they are books full of options for constructing safe and efficient buildings.

Low-hanging fruit is a sustainable way to boosting productivity in a small crew or a large corporation. This episode's guest, Kristy Wolf teaches construction management at Bradlee University in Illinois. Improving productivity boils down to getting buy-in from others that improvement is possible and preferable to the status quo.

“Integrity is not like being tall or blonde. It's a job that you try to do every day, nail by nail, relationship by relationship.”

Our first episode of this new podcast series was with Eliot Eisenberg, chief economist with the National Association of Home Builders, who described a rosy picture looking forward through the economic lens of the time. That lens changed pretty drastically in March, 2020. So we invited Eliot back to update his economic predictions and give your carpenters and contractors some economic advice for navigating the coming recession. Buckle up, buttercup. You'll want to listen to this.

Should you forgo college to enter the trades? According to Elliot Eisenberg, former economist for the National Association of Home Builders, in this economy, the answer is yes.

To go out on your own, take it slow. Don't quit your day job yet, and cut down on the outgo. Prepare for a couple of lean years and know that in the long run, your dreams will come true.

How to Get A Raise WithoutEven Asking by ProTradeCraft

Some contractors confuse profit with take-home pay, which is why many if not most contractors run nonprofit operations without even knowing it. El Jefe, Fernando Pages Ruiz, walks the audience through what gross and net profit are, how to increase them, and why it should matter to employees if the company they work for is profitable.