Finance major to construction engineer and manager: Summer internship 2018

The purpose of this article is to give insight into the knowledge, or lack thereof, that an undergraduate of finance has when matriculating into a master's degree in construction engineering and management. On the surface, there would seem to be a large gap in the knowledge that a finance student has versus what they will be required to know in order to enter into the construction management field. However, there are many advantages that a finance student can bring to a construction engineering and management program. Finance students are taught to think critically and analyze every detail of a company in order to determine its value both in the short term and the long term. A construction project is managed much like a company. By the end of the project, the goal is to build a product on schedule, on budget, and per contract. Finance students are trained to identify how and where profit can be made through critical analysis of financial statements. A large portion of the work a construction manager does has to do with budgeting and forecasting the future. Extrapolating data and understanding what the data means is a key factor to how finance students study and work. This thought process is valuable to the construction industry.