How Hard Was It To Get A Contractor's License

Well to be honest with you, it wasn't as hard as I thought. It's probably easier today to get your state contractors license than it was 20 years ago. When I took my test in 1986, there were plenty of people who didn't have much experience in the construction business, taking their test to become a general contractor. Quite frankly, I was surprised.

For example, there was a couple of women who were in the real estate business, another man who was in the insurance business and even someone who just wanted to get their general contractor's license, even though they weren't planning on doing anything with it. That man was just taking the test, to see how easy it was to get a general contractor's license.

20 years ago, I bought a cassette tapes and two books from one of the only contractors licensing schools in the area. As a matter of fact, one of the contractors who signed my application used the same school when he got his license 12 years before I got mine. To be honest with you, I don't think I got my money's worth.

I've memorized every question in the books and listened to the cassette tapes until I had memorized them, also. I was ready for the test, even though 90% of the questions that were on the test, didn't have anything to do with the questions I had memorized. Most of the questions weren't even close. I truly believe that I've passed the contractors test with the knowledge I had learned over the years, working in construction

The test took about four hours and I really didn't know if I passed it or not. They mailed me a letter telling me that I had failed, so I mailed them a letter back asking to double check, because there was no way that I could have failed that test with a 62% passing requirement.

This might sound a little odd to anyone in business, but maybe the United States government works a little bit different, because they mailed me back my new contractors license and said that I had passed the test. I often wonder, what would have happened, if I never mailed that letter back.

I got my general contractor's license and have had a successful construction company for over 23 years. I recommend that anyone who works in the construction industry gets their contractors license and starts working for themselves. It's a good way to make a living and we could always use a few more contractors.