Starting Out
Your first day on site, the jargon, your pay and your rights, then what it really takes to go out on your own - the stuff nobody tells you when you start.
13 guides in this section
Guides in this section
Your first day on site: what to expect and what to ask
What actually happens on a first day on a US construction site, who is who from the GC down to your foreman, what to bring, and the eight questions worth asking before lunch.
What nobody tells you before you start in construction
The honest version of a first year in the US trades: the physical reality, why the first year pays least, why nobody teaches you yet, where the culture line legally sits, and the slow damage nobody warns you about.
Construction jargon explained: site terms in plain English
The vocabulary of a US construction site, grouped by people, paperwork, money, the building, trade shorthand and safety, with the terms that cost you money if you do not know them flagged.
Tools and PPE: what you buy and what the employer provides
The OSHA rule that makes required safety gear your employer's cost, the two narrow exceptions, and the trade custom that decides which tools you turn up with.
Site orientation and safety training: what you must be told
What a real site orientation covers, why an OSHA 10 card is not the same as being trained for your job, how to read a two-minute induction, and the protection that covers you for asking.
When something goes wrong on site: what to do and who is responsible
The order to follow after an incident on a US site, why the small unreported injuries cause the real trouble later, the OSHA reporting clocks, and who is responsible on a shared site.
Your first paycheck explained: gross, net, and every line on the stub
Why the first check is smaller than the rate times the hours, what FICA and W-4 withholding actually take, the three lines to check, and what it means if no tax was withheld at all.
Your rights in the first months on the job
What a new US construction worker is owed from the first shift, why at-will employment means there is no probation cliff, the reasons an employer may never use, and the deadlines that are shorter than you think.
What does it really take to start out on your own?
Going out on your own takes three things, in this order: work you can count on, enough cash to survive the gap before that work pays you, and a short stack...
Going from employee to running your own show
The hardest part of going out on your own is not the trade, it is everything your old boss was quietly doing that now lands on you: finding the work, pricing...
Going out on your own: your first steps
Going out on your own comes down to a short, cheap checklist you can knock out in a week: pick a simple structure, get your free federal tax ID, register...
Your first jobs and your first 90 days on your own
Your first 90 days are about landing a handful of good jobs, doing them properly, and getting paid, without wrecking your prices or your reputation to do it....
The mistakes that sink new contractors
Most first-year trade businesses that fail do not fail for lack of work. They fail because the owner was good with the tools and lost money on the business...