Step 3: Earn a Bachelor's Degree. You can enter a bachelor's degree program in construction science, civil engineering or a relevant field to prepare for your management role. As a student in one of these programs, you may take coursework in architecture, business management, communication, engineering principles, project planning and surveying. A contractor can obtain a C-7 license by following the general rules to become a licensed contractor in California and passing a class āCā test for specialty contractors. You must be at least 18 years old and have at least four years' experience in the construction field.
I'd like to become a general contractor in the state of California as a second career. I've renovated homes in the past where I hired subs directly and managed them directly (acting as my own GC)My education and training will be good for 2 years of the required 4 years. I'm an engineer. I'm trying to figure out how to get the additional two years.
I'm not entirely sure what constitutes a journeyman. Completing an apprenticeship doesn't make sense. I'd have to take time off from my current job to do an apprenticeship, but I currently have high salary in my current career.
Seems like a bit of a catch-22.What ways can I get the additional 2 years of experience given my situation?Here is a link to California's requirements -Thanks!!. I forgot to mention that my objective is to work on houses I own initially.One thing I considered is paying a licensed contractor to oversee and guide work I do to get experience.
Basically, pay them for their time to give me some hands on instruction.My engineering background gives me a solid understanding of electrical system. I've done some work in my house (regular and low voltage) for example. I've taken some working classes for fun and pretty handy with power tools. So maybe framing would be an area where I can get experience.
I've hired contractor/engineering firms to build things like retaining walls and the experienced engineer was impressed with how much knowledge I picked up on my own to evaluate who to hire. He enjoyed working with me so he'd go through the engineering work with me. I actually found instances where we needed to make changes to deal with my municipal building code that were overlooked by our city planning dept.Anyway, I realize this might be an odd question but I'm really interested in this.