iis interviews

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Feb 20, 2024

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Matthew Haworth Industry Interview Sessions INTRO TO THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 102 TABLE OF CONTENTS: PAGES KATE WALLEN- BARRICK 1-2 KEARA FLYNN 3-4 JORDAN MEEHAN 5-6 MARIE LANDSVERK 7-8 GREG FIEDER 9-10

Session Introduction Kate Wallen-Barrick is a senior project engineer at the major Corporation of Skanska. The topic discussed in the interview was how did she get into construction management. Executive summary Kate Graduated from WSU in 2016 with a degree in construction management, during her senior of college she got at internship at Skanska in the estimating department. Kate had no prior construction experience before attending school and she was one of the only people in her class to go into estimating during preconstruction. Kate’s job mostly focuses on the technology and software behind the models, one of her jobs is to create images on videos of the project for the client. Kate spends most her time in the office and not out in the field. The relationship between her job and the built environment is essential because she is the one in charge of designing what the project is going to look like, right down to the exact measurements. Kate job is essential for understanding how much construction materials cost and all the hassle and work it takes to order the right parts and have them delivered at the right time. Her job is to estimate all these costs and present these results to the climate and the projects can costs millions of dollars. One takeaway from this interview is that in construction it does not matter how little experience a person has at the beginning of their career because there is so much information that is gained on the job and people in the industry are willing to help newcomers. Another takeaway from this interview is that learning and understanding how to use building software is vital to the construction industry, because this can be a more efficient method of designing projects, but it takes skill to learn these software programs. Insights/Questions I found that Kate having no experience in the construction industry fascinated me because she has gone on to have a quite accomplished career and has risen through the ranks to become a senior preconstruction engineer.

Question 1: How was it adjusting to living in Tampa, Florida for six months away from your family? Did you like the experience of moving somewhere new and working with a new group of people? Another topic that was discussed in the interview that I thought was interesting was her involvement in the research of the software Assemble Systems. She hasn’t been out of college for long and she was working with a team of specialists to research this new software and ended up pitching the idea to several companies. Question 2: Has Kate always been a confident person? I wonder this because it takes a lot of effort to stand in a big group setting and hash out ideas that are open to criticism from all sides. A third insight I have was Kate must be particularly good at her job to rise quickly through the ranks and work on special research teams. She seems self-aware and she said, “it’s good to be confident, but not cocky.” I think this excellent advice because a person might come out of college thinking they know everything, but it turns out school can only get a person so far in life. Experience is essential in this field and there is no other way around it. I also think her mentioning the skill of reading a room is very useful in business but in real life as well because there is a guarantee a person is going to run into someone, and they don’t like what they have to say. Question 3: How did feel steeping in a new job right out of college? Where there any points in your career where the amount of work felt too overwhelming? I was wondering this because it must be a shock at first to go from a school environment to a professional one. There must be some time for adjustments, or do you just get thrown into the fire as soon as someone enters the field?

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Session Introduction Keara Flynn is a project manager for Absher construction. The topic we discussed was how she got into the CM program and how she ended up where she is now. Executive Summary Keara graduated from WSU with a degree in construction management and was hired by Absher Construction right out of college. She did not have any internships while in school, but her family has been involved in the built environment for several years. During the summer before her last year of school she volunteered to build a single-family home in Yakima, WA to get some construction experience. Keara has been working at Absher for almost ten years and has been a project engineer for five years. She has worked on seven projects during her time at the company and just recently finished a project in Seattle, WA. The project was a tenement improvement, which means they didn’t build the structure directly from the ground up. The project ended up costing $14 million and there were issues to go along with the project. There were multiple punch lists from several different entities for the project and each one would walk the building looking for different scopes of work. There were also issues on waiting for supply chains especially in our current time with bottle necks due to the Covid 19 pandemic. The delivery method of the project was what Keara called a “Private negotiated delivery method” which is the same as the CM at risk method we have talked about this semester. Keara is going back to working pre-construction for a community center, which is a CM at risk project that is working with the state of Washington which involves RCWs. This controls when and how designers select subcontracting bids. The project is expected to break ground this summer. Insights/ Questions Question 1: How are the employment benefits within the construction industry? I was wondering how sick leave and vacation pay work, I assume it must be exceedingly difficult to take days of in the middle of a project.

One major insight I found in this interview was there are so many diverse types of technical terms for delivery methods that we have not touched on in class yet. Like the example Keara gave in her interview. Question 2: Do you ever have to meet with attorneys if there are legal issues that produce the project, like environmental, lawsuits with worker accidents? Another major insight during this interview was that it seems that in the field of construction is that project managers and superintendents work on one specific project at a time instead of visiting multiple projects at once. This is a more efficient way of doing business because they do not want their resources stretched too thin. Question 3: When working the state of Washington, does it make the construction process for time consuming and do workers receive prevailing wage if they work on a state-run project? I thought it was interesting when Keara talked about all the specific requirements and regulations the state has for certain projects. Like RCWs and other documents she mentioned in her interview.

Session Introduction Jordan Meehan is a superintendent at the Howard S. Wright construction company. This topic discussed in the interview was how his college experience was and he became a superintendent. Executive Summary Jordan grew up in a construction family and started in the architecture program at WSU, then transitioned to CM when he realized that was a better fit for his skill set. He enjoyed the scheduling class took at WSU and did two years of estimating as a senior engineer. During his time at university, he participated in the ASC competitions and got to travel around the country. Jordan joined Howard S. Wright right of school and the reason he has stayed there so long was he said, “I liked the vibe of the people there.” Jordan has been with the company for over nine years. Howard S. Wright does self-performing work meaning that the company and superintendent go out and hire the workforce themselves and they manage the subcontractor on the job site. The job was challenging for him at first because there is so much in the construction a person learns through experience, but he likes where he is currently working because Jordan made his own path through the company and gravitated towards a certain group of people that worked there. Jordan’s main responsibility is to ensure the safety and the productivity of the workforce. Jordan has been an outlier of the industry because has become a superintendent in a short amount of time and has stayed with the same company during his career in the industry. He is currently working on a project at the Microsoft campus in Bellevue, WA. Jordan is up and at the construction site at 5 am, he walks the site every day to make sure everything is ready to go for that day’s work. Jordan must coordinate with several people on a daily basis just keep the project organized and on schedule, for this project Jordan is responsible for the exterior enclosure for four of the main buildings. Insights/Questions One insight I noticed was how Jordan has an extremely specific schedule, and he has so many responsibilities to manage all at one.

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Question 1: Do you have any assistants to help you organize all the plans and specs and work scope? Another insight I saw during the interview was how detailed the maps in his office were. They were color coded a zone into specific sections. Question 2: Jordan, how do you become superintendent in a short amount of time, Do you think doing competitions in college helped prepare you for the real world industry? Question 3: Why do you think the job market increased on the past few years, was it the amount people retiring in the field? I found it interesting how humble Jordan is being a superintendent and being at the top of his field. Jordan must have a major drive to be successful. It’s interesting that he still looks back on the projects from the CM program and compares it to what he does in his current scope of work.

Session Introduction Marie Landsverk is a senior project engineer for Exxel Pacific, the topic being discussed in this interview was how her college experience in the CM program was and how she got to where she is working currently. Executive Summary Marie Landsverk is a first-generation college student who graduated from WSU on the construction management program. She has a family background in construction, both her parents and brother build homes in Snohomish County. During her time at WSU, she became the treasurer of ASCM, she enjoyed this experience because it was a close-knit group of people, they also got to do fun activities like student competitions and travelled around the country. Marie is happy working with Exxel and she is currently working on a project right next to the University of Washington, this project is accommodate more housing for students at UW. A day- to-day job for Marie is learning construction documents like specific plans and specifications, she is also required to become an expert the scope of work she is tasked on the project. Marie’s work scope includes windows, walls, waterproofing, and roofing for the building. She also helps write subcontracts problem solve and manage the mechanical and electrical subcontractors. Marie also talks about when starting out as a project engineer it is important to be a sponge and learn all the scopes. She also talks about the importance of building strong relationships in the industry. People should also be accountable for their jobs and as the PE one should make sure they are doing it efferently and correctly. The industry is about building people up making sure that they are successful so that you can be successful as well. Insights/Questions Question 1: Did having the family background help you navigate through the industry, did your parents or brother give you any helpful tips or tricks?

Question 2: How do you account for the workspace a project might have such a vehicle parking are getting cranes or large machinery to a job site in the city? Question 3: Are there any points in your career where you felt overwhelmed with the work scope or the project? If you did was there someone at the company to talk to if a person is struggling in a situation? One insight I saw was how interesting the architecture is for the building she is currently working on in Seattle and how many different scopes she has to account for must be mind boggling at first, but she has seemed to adapt her circumstances quickly. Another insight I noticed was how important safety is for Marie and other workers because they are working on a tall building, and with one wrong slip, without the proper equipment a person could easily lose their life.

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Session Introduction Greg Fieder is an operations manager of the special projects team for McKinstry. This interview session topic was about Greg’s experience in college and how he got to where he is in the industry today. Executive Summary Greg went to WSU wanting to be apart of the built environment, he joined the CM program and graduated in 2012. When he graduated, Greg ended up working for Mortenson Construction and worked there for six years and was working towards becoming a superintendent. He spent most of his time working up and down the I-5 corridor, many of his projects were working in the wastewater industry. Greg has also worked on projects located at Western Washington University and south lake union. Eventually, Greg decided to move back to eastern Washington, McKinstry out of Spokane gave him a job offer and he has now been there for three years. McKinstry is one of the largest mechanical contractors in the northwest. One of his jobs is taking part in helping self-preforming concrete teams. Greg oversees several diverse types of works copes and he oversees understanding project specifications and making sure subcontractors get their submittals in on time. Greg is on the specialty contract side and his company is major players in sheet metal, HVAC, plumbing and piping. This type of work forces a person to have a deep understanding of how critical each phase of the project. It is the operations manager’s job to not only manage the project and schedule, but also, it is understanding all the details that will financially be the best outcome. Self-performing is a core part of the business because there are so many people one must create relationships so that it is an efficient process for everyone involved. Greg also works in tentative improvement which includes retrofit work which helps repair dilapidated buildings. Insights/Questions Question 1: Is there anything that you miss about living in western Washington? Which side of the state has a more booming industry?

Question 2: Do you still want to pursue becoming a superintendent? Question 3: Do you have any interesting jobs you have worked on being the operations manager of the special projects team? One insight I have was that Greg must have a very diverse and in depth knowledge of uncommon construction parts and terminology since he works with the special projects team. There must be some material that can be hard to get right now because of the pandemic and if it is an extremely specific thing that must really throw a wrench in the project cycle. Another insight I had was about the retrofit working. That must be a very popular industry because there are thousands of old budlings just sitting around to be fixed but there must be very specific equipment the teams must use because of the outdated material the building were made of.

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