Quantity Engineer,
Obviously I have a lot of time on my hands these days.
I am afraid this is what I wrote " I wasn't prepared for the questions on the GEK, probably because I wasn't familiar with the general project management information, since I didn't work in that sector of the industry. Unfortunately the workshop I attended didn't really help me, but I am sure that varies from chapter to chapter".
I didn't mention the trades attire. You can bash my background, but there is no reason to insult the trades that do the real work in this country.
Also,
Folks can learn new things after 20 years, or they would restrict the ages of the students in all of our universities and technical schools.
Timberline/Sage makes products for all sectors of the industry.
IMO:
If you are willing to work hard, like I did in my discipline, you can learn how to estimate a lot of different projects, with much larger scopes of work.
The crossover bidders you spoke about have to learn how to bid commercial projects, just like you did 35 years ago. They have the option to keep trying or they can do something else.
As far as the ASPE ethics you mentioned, I am sure you are referring to "bid peddling" as the biggest violation.
There are few project estimators/managers in residential work. Estimators in residential work have purchasing and scheduling duties too. But they usually are not considered project managers. Most housing builders do not have the budgets for separate purchasing agents, that do not take-off material/trade contractors or labor. The only true estimators/project managers in the residential sector are small builders that do all of the construction management functions for their businesses. Most of the time they use bid management before they present a price to a customer. The rely on the lumber supplier, mechanical material suppliers, or trades to do the detail work, rather then take-off the labor or material themselves.
I am quite familiar with how some residential builders do not follow the ASPE cannon of ethics. I worked for a larger residential company that had staff estimators. I performed hundreds of sales estimates during that time using Timberline software. I used both the DOS and Windows version of the software. I would spend a lot of time preparing lump sum bids. I would take-off every detail, obtain quotes for special requests, and supply endless option prices that customers requested. In most cases we would not get the work. It was usually 20-25% higher then the small builders that I was competing against. In most cases the smaller builders asked the customer to peddle the bid. They would instruct the customer to get our bid and they would create a cost plus contract. The bid would be at least 20% lower then mine. The plus percentage was usually 15%. I talked to a few of the customers that used the cost plus contractors. Most of them said they paid more then our original bid. So be careful about how you describe the folks that actually do the estimates in residential work. They really don't have a reason to work without ethics. It is usually the customer that takes your proposal price, and asks the smaller builders, for lower prices.
I never thought I had any mentality, that was particularly incorrect?
Mike