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SMNTY Interviews: Yvenarde · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha, and welcome to stuff
0:07
Speaker 1: I've never told you production if I hurried you.
0:18
Speaker 2: And today, y'all, we are so excited because we have
0:21
Speaker 2: someone on who I know personally.
0:24
Speaker 3: Yeah that's right.
0:24
Speaker 2: I know so some cool people, and she and I
0:27
Speaker 2: are what we would call workout friends and of course friends,
0:30
Speaker 2: but also like she really pushes the boundaries for me
0:34
Speaker 2: because she is that good and I'm like, oh my god,
0:37
Speaker 2: how do I keep up with her?
0:38
Speaker 3: But that's the whole other story.
0:40
Speaker 2: But with that, during our times together, we recently started
0:43
Speaker 2: talking about our current work. And this is when she
0:46
Speaker 2: was telling me about her job and her work, and
0:48
Speaker 2: I had so many questions I did.
0:51
Speaker 3: I actually kind of chased.
0:52
Speaker 2: Her down because she was like, I gotta go, but
0:53
Speaker 2: I'm like, wait, but I have more questions. But anyway,
0:57
Speaker 2: with that, and since I get the privilege of being
1:00
Speaker 2: on a podcast, I thought, what better way to ask
1:03
Speaker 2: her all of these questions about her career, but do
1:06
Speaker 2: it on the podcast.
1:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, I will take advantage of the situation.
1:12
Speaker 2: So, first and foremost, welcome my friend Ivy.
1:17
Speaker 4: Hello.
1:17
Speaker 2: Hello, I'm so excited Ivy, so happy that you're on
1:22
Speaker 2: here can you tell our listeners about yourself and also
1:25
Speaker 2: about your work?
1:26
Speaker 4: All right? Hi, Hi, I'm Ivy otherwise known as Bernard.
1:31
Speaker 4: I am currently a construction project manager, and that basically
1:35
Speaker 4: means if you don't know that what it is. There
1:37
Speaker 4: are two sides of construction. There's residential and there's commercial construction.
1:42
Speaker 4: I am on the commercial construction side, meaning I build
1:46
Speaker 4: you know, office spaces, recreation buildings. Sometimes there can be
1:52
Speaker 4: some outdoor spaces like parks. It's a very very wide
1:57
Speaker 4: variety field. Specifically, I've like personally worked on hospital renovations
2:03
Speaker 4: ground up, which basically means you know, civil work, doing
2:07
Speaker 4: all the utilities underground, and then you build up from there.
2:10
Speaker 4: Higher education with colleges and universities, as well as governmental
2:16
Speaker 4: buildings in governmental spaces, and even within construction in and
2:21
Speaker 4: of itself. There are two sides of that. There's construction
2:23
Speaker 4: project management and then there's superintendent work. The construction project
2:27
Speaker 4: managers basically manage the budget documentation rifis, which means requests
2:32
Speaker 4: for information from the architect some middles, things like that
2:36
Speaker 4: the paperwork basically the paperwork that's required to make sure
2:40
Speaker 4: that the building the owner wants is going to get
2:42
Speaker 4: built per their specifications, per the architects drawings and specifications.
2:47
Speaker 4: And then superintendents, who are basically my partners in crime.
2:51
Speaker 4: They are out in the field. They're managing all of
2:53
Speaker 4: the workers and trades who are actually out there building
2:57
Speaker 4: the building, the plumbers, the electricians, civil any and all drywallers,
3:02
Speaker 4: paying millwork, every aspect of the people who are touching
3:06
Speaker 4: the building. Superintendents are basically in charge of overseeing the
3:11
Speaker 4: work in the field. And then I concurrently will be
3:16
Speaker 4: sometimes on a job site trailer or in my own
3:18
Speaker 4: office making sure that the work in place is tracking
3:22
Speaker 4: with how much I'm basically paying out the subcontractors, as
3:25
Speaker 4: well as the progress of work is aligning with what
3:28
Speaker 4: the owner is paying us and the progress they want
3:30
Speaker 4: to see throughout the lifetime of you know, the schedule
3:34
Speaker 4: from start to finish day.
3:37
Speaker 3: So you're like the backbone of these projects.
3:41
Speaker 2: I'm like, wow, the in depth level of what you
3:45
Speaker 2: do as well as what is going within construction because
3:48
Speaker 2: obviously it has to have a lot of moving parts
3:52
Speaker 2: in order to get this done, and the background, the
3:56
Speaker 2: behind the scene workers have so much responsibility making sure
4:00
Speaker 2: that it is done.
4:02
Speaker 3: But it is completed, it is finished, and that it
4:04
Speaker 3: is stable.
4:05
Speaker 2: Yes, So yeah, whether it's you know, providing making sure
4:10
Speaker 2: that people are getting paid, people are getting what they need,
4:13
Speaker 2: people are getting the information that they need, which I
4:16
Speaker 2: think people kind of forget about when you see something
4:19
Speaker 2: like a structure, like a like a hospital and you're like, oh, yeah,
4:22
Speaker 2: this is how oh this is how it gets done.
4:25
Speaker 2: And this is one of the reasons I wanted to
4:27
Speaker 2: talk to you, because I'm like, oh my god, I
4:29
Speaker 2: don't know. I don't think I know any women in
4:32
Speaker 2: the construction world. I'm trying to really think, like I
4:35
Speaker 2: thought about all the people that I've met throughout my lifetime,
4:38
Speaker 2: and I don't think I've met anyone who really was
4:43
Speaker 2: a part of that field. So you don't see what's
4:45
Speaker 2: happening behind the curtains at all.
4:47
Speaker 3: Like I don't know. I'm just like, oh, cool, that's
4:49
Speaker 3: a cool building.
4:50
Speaker 2: In the story, right, And before we start, I did
4:53
Speaker 2: want to start with some statistics because I think it's
4:55
Speaker 2: important to remember why conversations like this are important and
4:59
Speaker 2: why we should be asking questions from people who are
5:01
Speaker 2: within this industry. According to one site, laborfinders dot Com,
5:06
Speaker 2: they said in twenty twenty two, about one point three
5:09
Speaker 2: million women work in the construction industry, accounting for about
5:12
Speaker 2: ten point nine percent of this blue collar workforce. This
5:16
Speaker 2: statistic represents a fifty three percent increase in women working
5:20
Speaker 2: in construction over the last decade. Washington, DC has the
5:24
Speaker 2: highest concentration of female construction workers, making up seventeen point
5:28
Speaker 2: six of the workers in this field. States like Arizona
5:31
Speaker 2: and Florida also have a higher concentration of women working
5:34
Speaker 2: in construction, with fifteen point six and fourteen point five
5:37
Speaker 2: of their workforce, respectively, according to recent reports by The
5:42
Speaker 2: Washington Post. And I'm going to say recent reports maybe
5:44
Speaker 2: in the last couple of years as well. And if
5:47
Speaker 2: you are wondering, in Georgia alone, the percentage of women
5:51
Speaker 2: in the construction field make up eight point one percent,
5:55
Speaker 2: so quite a bit lowers the little the rest of
5:59
Speaker 2: the country. Yeah, So, I honestly was surprised by the
6:03
Speaker 2: numbers in Florida. I'm not gonna lie. I actually woul
6:05
Speaker 2: didn't expect Florida to be as high as it was
6:07
Speaker 2: because it exceeded the coverage. And again this is one
6:11
Speaker 2: of the reasons I was so fascinated by the fact
6:14
Speaker 2: that you are in this industry. Again, like I said,
6:18
Speaker 2: I don't know many women. I don't know any women
6:19
Speaker 2: in this field outside of you now, which I feel
6:22
Speaker 2: very privileged, thank you that is in this field. So
6:28
Speaker 2: let's just dive into this. How did you get started
6:32
Speaker 2: in this field?
6:33
Speaker 4: Well, I actually always wanted to be in construction. Surprisingly
6:37
Speaker 4: a lot of people are surprised to hear that, but
6:39
Speaker 4: I grew up in Haiti and I grew up in
6:42
Speaker 4: a house that was being constructed from the time I
6:44
Speaker 4: was born, So I was around so houses in Haiti
6:47
Speaker 4: are like ninety concrete or CMU, and so I grew
6:53
Speaker 4: up around workers like mixing concrete in my yard. I
6:56
Speaker 4: grew up around rebar and I just really really loved it.
6:59
Speaker 4: And also, growing up in an immigrant household, you know
7:01
Speaker 4: you have three options doctor, lawyer, engineer. So it was
7:05
Speaker 4: limiting in a sense that like that was the path
7:08
Speaker 4: that was expected of me. One of those three was
7:11
Speaker 4: expected of me. I initially was thinking about going into law,
7:16
Speaker 4: but I really fell in love with math in school.
7:18
Speaker 4: I love I loved math, I loved physics, and so
7:21
Speaker 4: I just kind of started to steer towards engineering. Ended
7:24
Speaker 4: up majoring in civil engineering and then went into construction
7:28
Speaker 4: immediately after graduation, and knew that I wanted to go
7:33
Speaker 4: in the GC field. Basically, when you when you major
7:36
Speaker 4: in civil engineering, you have a chance to you have
7:38
Speaker 4: to take your fee which is fundamentals of engineering in
7:41
Speaker 4: school in preparation to get your to become a PE,
7:45
Speaker 4: which is a practicing engineer or practitional engineer, and you
7:49
Speaker 4: have to you know, work under an engineer for a
7:50
Speaker 4: couple of years depending on stage, to get your stamp
7:52
Speaker 4: and things like that. I didn't want to design. All
7:55
Speaker 4: that to say, I did not want the liability. To
7:57
Speaker 4: be honest with you, I didn't want to design. I
7:59
Speaker 4: wanted to be in the field, like in the dirt.
8:02
Speaker 4: I wanted to see and be part of the work
8:06
Speaker 4: and be part of you know, like construction in and
8:10
Speaker 4: of itself. People don't really think too deeply about but
8:13
Speaker 4: it is like one of the main building blocks of society.
8:16
Speaker 4: You cannot go to work, you cannot go shopping without
8:20
Speaker 4: having a road to drive on, without having a building
8:23
Speaker 4: to go into. People don't think about the fact that,
8:25
Speaker 4: like without ac things, the building is suffocating without running water,
8:30
Speaker 4: without the pipes that are underground and without that network,
8:34
Speaker 4: we really can't function as easily as we actually can.
8:38
Speaker 4: And so I love being part of an industry that is,
8:43
Speaker 4: you know, a part of building and renovating and maintaining
8:47
Speaker 4: society in and of itself. Is just it's that concrete
8:51
Speaker 4: result that I can always drive down the road and
8:54
Speaker 4: say I was part of that building. I know every
8:57
Speaker 4: nook and cranny of that building right there. So that's
9:01
Speaker 4: kind of what got me started. Like I love puzzles,
9:05
Speaker 4: I'm a very practical and logical person, and so with
9:09
Speaker 4: the math, with the physics, going into engineering civil engineering
9:12
Speaker 4: specifically really was an easy next step for me, And
9:17
Speaker 4: I mean it just I just went straight into general construction.
9:22
Speaker 4: I've been in the industry for about seven years, a
9:24
Speaker 4: little bit over seven years now since graduation. Started out
9:28
Speaker 4: as a PE, which is a project engineer than senior PE,
9:32
Speaker 4: and now I'm a project manager, where you know, pees
9:35
Speaker 4: are more focused on that documentation and making sure you're
9:38
Speaker 4: like every detail like soap dispensers. You don't think about
9:41
Speaker 4: toilet paper dispensers, like every meticulous little thing that is
9:46
Speaker 4: part of a building that makes each aspect fit next
9:50
Speaker 4: to them, like other whether it's you know, I don't know,
9:54
Speaker 4: a countertop that might be too wide, and it's natural stone.
9:57
Speaker 4: Natural stone cannot be cut to certain shapes sometimes, so
10:00
Speaker 4: it's like understanding that, oh, this thing can't actually be
10:04
Speaker 4: this magical shape that the architect might want, and having
10:07
Speaker 4: that practical knowledge and as well as you know, the
10:09
Speaker 4: owner is paying for has a budget, and it's paying
10:12
Speaker 4: for a certain building and a certain look. So it's
10:16
Speaker 4: kind of as I've gotten I've been in the industry
10:20
Speaker 4: longer and longer, it's less of okay, let me keep
10:24
Speaker 4: my head down and look at the details and trying
10:27
Speaker 4: to make sure everything fits in more of okay, let's
10:30
Speaker 4: have a conversation and make sure that what you have
10:32
Speaker 4: budgeted is practical and I can actually fulfill exactly what
10:36
Speaker 4: you want. So it's just it's an ever evolving role.
10:42
Speaker 4: It has been at least for me that I very
10:44
Speaker 4: much enjoyed, and you know, the higher I go, it's
10:46
Speaker 4: more of of course, office politics that you got to
10:50
Speaker 4: learn to manage relationships with your own teammates as well
10:54
Speaker 4: as with the owner and architects, because the owner and
10:57
Speaker 4: architects are the ones who are potentially going to give
10:59
Speaker 4: you your next job. You never know. It's you know,
11:02
Speaker 4: being able to maintain really really strong relationships. It's a
11:07
Speaker 4: small industry in Georgia. It's a small small industry in general.
11:10
Speaker 4: There are most most of us know each other or
11:13
Speaker 4: know of somebody in construction once you're in it, to
11:17
Speaker 4: be honest with you, so it's just I don't know.
11:19
Speaker 4: It's just something that i've I'm really deep in it
11:22
Speaker 4: at this point, and I've enjoyed. I've enjoyed every step
11:26
Speaker 4: of the way.
11:27
Speaker 3: I love that. So we've got two math nerds here,
11:40
Speaker 3: not me, it's you and any uh No, not me.
11:46
Speaker 2: I really wish it was me, because once upon a
11:48
Speaker 2: time I thought I was good at it, and then
11:49
Speaker 2: I got higher.
11:50
Speaker 3: And higher up. I'm like, not just kidding that that's
11:52
Speaker 3: not for me, never mind.
11:53
Speaker 4: But it gets fun. It gets fun. You get to
11:56
Speaker 4: COLT two and it's.
11:57
Speaker 2: Just now I don't try it gets fun. I can
12:05
Speaker 2: do the basic multiplier, and I know how to do
12:07
Speaker 2: the tip stuff that I got.
12:12
Speaker 3: But no, I love that.
12:13
Speaker 2: I love that conversation because I don't often think about
12:18
Speaker 2: what goes into preparing yourself for these types of occupations.
12:24
Speaker 2: And civil engineer could be stretched to so many different things.
12:28
Speaker 3: Uh, And I love that this is how you came through.
12:31
Speaker 2: I also loved mixing up concrete when I was younger,
12:35
Speaker 2: so I definitely feel you out. There was something satisfaction
12:38
Speaker 2: the sand, the gravel and then like zeeing it getting
12:41
Speaker 2: like get into like a clay formation.
12:42
Speaker 3: You're like, yeah, I made that.
12:44
Speaker 2: I don't know there was something satisfying about making concrete.
12:50
Speaker 3: But I love that you were able to go with
12:52
Speaker 3: that route. Annie.
12:54
Speaker 2: You've talked a lot about how you are prevented and
12:58
Speaker 2: loving math because they told you.
13:00
Speaker 3: You know, men are not going to like you. Teacher
13:02
Speaker 3: told me, yeah, I'm not gonna tell you your story.
13:05
Speaker 3: You could tell the story here.
13:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was really good at calculus, and there's this
13:12
Speaker 1: other boy in class who was really good at it,
13:15
Speaker 1: and he hated that I was better than him. And
13:17
Speaker 1: the teacher took me aside and said, look, boys are
13:20
Speaker 1: never gonna like you if you continue to be good
13:24
Speaker 1: at math. And unfortunately that meant a lot to me
13:28
Speaker 1: at the time, which is very funny now because now
13:30
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm good, but at the time it was like, oh, well,
13:35
Speaker 1: I guess I won't. And I actually ended up taking
13:39
Speaker 1: physics in secret, so no one knew I was doing it.
13:43
Speaker 1: But it's really sad to me looking back that I
13:46
Speaker 1: was so like turned away by a teacher.
13:50
Speaker 2: A teacher, yeah, my god, which I hope you never
13:54
Speaker 2: experienced that, but it sounds like even if you were,
13:56
Speaker 2: you're like, I don't notice.
13:57
Speaker 3: I love it.
13:57
Speaker 4: So yeah, kind of been a fairly independent thinker since
14:02
Speaker 4: I was young. So if I'm good at it and
14:03
Speaker 4: I'm doing well, I'm getting the grades, what else is there? Right? Yeah,
14:09
Speaker 4: I was very I was highly motivated by academics. I
14:11
Speaker 4: will say growing up, I was deterred from joining sports
14:15
Speaker 4: like I yes, yes, it was. It was this idea
14:20
Speaker 4: that you need to be a homemaker. My parents were
14:23
Speaker 4: very focused on academics. Of course, they didn't matter that
14:26
Speaker 4: there was math and physics and those were I guess
14:29
Speaker 4: more boy censored subjects. They didn't care. They were like
14:34
Speaker 4: ace everything, that's the expectation. But sports, no, like I Yeah,
14:40
Speaker 4: I wanted to join cheer, I wanted to join track.
14:43
Speaker 4: The coach even like came to me when I was
14:45
Speaker 4: I think in high school, like freshman year of high
14:47
Speaker 4: school even came to me because you know, you have
14:49
Speaker 4: like little tests and pe. She came to me and
14:55
Speaker 4: was like, I would love for you to join the
14:57
Speaker 4: track team. I think you would do very very well.
15:00
Speaker 4: My parents said, no, you're gonna You're gonna focus on academics.
15:03
Speaker 4: So then I think I joined culinary. I joined culinary
15:06
Speaker 4: for a couple of years. Did you so I did?
15:09
Speaker 3: We need to be a closer frontier.
15:10
Speaker 4: Yeah, I can throw down a little bit.
15:16
Speaker 3: That's so funny.
15:17
Speaker 2: I find that really interesting in our pathways, like being
15:21
Speaker 2: I was not like, I'm not from a typical like
15:23
Speaker 2: family because I think Asian family similar, like you need
15:26
Speaker 2: to be a doctor family, you know, you need doctor, lawyer,
15:29
Speaker 2: one of these big high paid jobs. And I'm like,
15:31
Speaker 2: I'm adopted, so my wife family Like yeah, college, congratulations.
15:36
Speaker 2: That was kind of the growth that I had. But
15:39
Speaker 2: it is fascinating because you definitely jumped into something that
15:43
Speaker 2: you loved with the civil engineering and coming into this field.
15:47
Speaker 2: When you started this field, what has since then, what has.
15:50
Speaker 3: Your experience been?
15:51
Speaker 2: Like you kind of already talked about how much you
15:52
Speaker 2: love it, but how has your experience been in this.
15:55
Speaker 4: Field Initially going into it, Like coming into it from college,
15:59
Speaker 4: it was me like it's I got very lucky in
16:03
Speaker 4: that I joined a company that was very mindful of
16:07
Speaker 4: making sure that they encouraged us to be in teams,
16:09
Speaker 4: and the teams that we were in, we stuck together,
16:12
Speaker 4: we grew together. So then it would just be an
16:15
Speaker 4: easier management of the project. You know, we know our strengths,
16:18
Speaker 4: we know each other's strengths and weaknesses, and so we
16:22
Speaker 4: would be able to supplement each other. And we did.
16:26
Speaker 4: We balanced each other very well. It was a team
16:28
Speaker 4: of four of us. A project manager, actually it was
16:32
Speaker 4: a young project manager. He had like moved from finance
16:35
Speaker 4: and had moved into the construction industry. And I think
16:38
Speaker 4: that was honestly a blessing more than anything, because he
16:41
Speaker 4: was humble. He was not hesitant to say there are
16:45
Speaker 4: some things that I don't know, and he said, I
16:47
Speaker 4: know you're in you and there's but there. I'm sure
16:49
Speaker 4: that your education has given you a bit more knowledge
16:53
Speaker 4: on how to do certain things, So don't hesitate to
16:56
Speaker 4: you know, come to me, and I will come to
16:58
Speaker 4: you and ask questions and we can lean on each other.
17:00
Speaker 4: We're a team. There was no ego in it. And
17:03
Speaker 4: as well as my superintendent was amazing like three decades
17:07
Speaker 4: of experience where he knew how to build a building
17:11
Speaker 4: from beginning to end, and he knew every detail to
17:13
Speaker 4: look out for. So even with myself and my manager
17:16
Speaker 4: when we were in new there are certain details that
17:19
Speaker 4: we didn't necessarily know how to look out for or
17:22
Speaker 4: what to look out for. And he would come to
17:25
Speaker 4: us and say, hey, FYI, in about six to eight weeks,
17:28
Speaker 4: these things are going to be happening. You should probably
17:31
Speaker 4: start to make sure that we have all the paperwork
17:33
Speaker 4: and all of our ducks in a row when this
17:36
Speaker 4: is coming. And so that was just like a really
17:39
Speaker 4: really great team that we worked in. As well as
17:43
Speaker 4: the foreman that I worked with, she was a woman
17:45
Speaker 4: as well, so then there was like a man and
17:46
Speaker 4: a woman in the office and a man and a
17:48
Speaker 4: woman in the field, and she was all hands on deck,
17:51
Speaker 4: ready to learn as much as possible, like she was
17:54
Speaker 4: a sponge learning everything. And so it was the most
17:56
Speaker 4: amazing team. So I was with them for about four
17:59
Speaker 4: years in my first company, h and that was great
18:04
Speaker 4: until the very end. Being in construction, you know, I
18:08
Speaker 4: mean not even in construction, but being a woman, being
18:10
Speaker 4: a black woman. On top of that, pay people you guys,
18:13
Speaker 4: it's like pulling teeth. It's it's literally worse than pulling teeth.
18:18
Speaker 4: It has been the bane of my existence and my
18:21
Speaker 4: professional experience, honestly, just trying to be compensated for what
18:27
Speaker 4: I know I can do and my worst, just to
18:30
Speaker 4: be just not even above and beyond, but like my
18:32
Speaker 4: actual worth is kind of a struggle. So that was
18:36
Speaker 4: the reason I left my first company, and then I
18:41
Speaker 4: moved on to the second construction company, and from there
18:44
Speaker 4: I was a senior project engineer and then I actually
18:47
Speaker 4: got promoted to a project manager. You would think that
18:49
Speaker 4: having been promoted within a company that it's, oh my gosh,
18:53
Speaker 4: it's even better than the first. You know, they poured
18:55
Speaker 4: into me and all these things. No, no, like my
18:59
Speaker 4: I was in that company for about three and a
19:02
Speaker 4: half years, and I want to say seventy percent of
19:06
Speaker 4: that was just like absolute, like hardship. It was a
19:11
Speaker 4: struggle every step of the way. Even my promotion was
19:14
Speaker 4: not one where you know, they poured into me and
19:16
Speaker 4: they said, okay, you know, we feel that after all
19:20
Speaker 4: of these things, you're ready to move on to project management.
19:23
Speaker 4: It was just kind of like thrust it onto me.
19:27
Speaker 4: And because I was, honestly, I was going to be
19:29
Speaker 4: leaving that company because I felt like what we had
19:31
Speaker 4: talked about when I initially went into the interview was, Hey,
19:34
Speaker 4: I'm ready to transition to the next position, and I
19:37
Speaker 4: want to know and feel confident that you guys are
19:40
Speaker 4: going to pour into me to teach me to become
19:43
Speaker 4: the best project manager I can be. They said, yess,
19:45
Speaker 4: says of course, and then a year in, still nothing,
19:49
Speaker 4: and so I was going to leave when I When
19:51
Speaker 4: that happened, they lots of scrambling. They ended up promoting
19:56
Speaker 4: me and I stayed. And so from that promotion, it
19:59
Speaker 4: was they kind of threw me from project to project,
20:04
Speaker 4: and it was a lot of office politics. The people
20:08
Speaker 4: who I felt like should have been I would have
20:10
Speaker 4: liked them to be more of allies. They would say
20:13
Speaker 4: their allies, but then the actions didn't really follow suit.
20:18
Speaker 4: So I will say the last four years of my
20:21
Speaker 4: career three and a half years, it's it's been good.
20:26
Speaker 4: I love I still love construction, I still love building,
20:29
Speaker 4: but it's the office politics. It's the politics and realizing
20:33
Speaker 4: that now it's not about my competence so much as
20:36
Speaker 4: trying to navigate, you know, the industry, the people. This
20:42
Speaker 4: is Georgia. The good old boy mindset is very much alive.
20:48
Speaker 4: It's who you know, it's how you can connect and
20:51
Speaker 4: make sure that you know, hey, I shake your hand
20:55
Speaker 4: with this person and make sure that you get this
20:58
Speaker 4: done for me. And I still, like, I'm aware of that.
21:04
Speaker 4: I just have difficulty being able to thrive in that environment.
21:08
Speaker 4: I'm still transitioning into. Like from let me make sure
21:12
Speaker 4: all of my eyes are dotted and all of my
21:14
Speaker 4: t's are crossed to let me make sure that I
21:18
Speaker 4: actually network accordingly and I make the right I have
21:21
Speaker 4: the right conversations with the right people internally as well
21:26
Speaker 4: as externally. And that's that's a critique for myself, to
21:30
Speaker 4: be completely honest, Like I have been aware of it
21:33
Speaker 4: even as I was transitioning to a senior project engineer.
21:35
Speaker 4: I you know, I have eyes, I have ears, and
21:38
Speaker 4: so I could see it the action of you know,
21:42
Speaker 4: transitioning to an adult to a certain extent, because even
21:46
Speaker 4: even outside of professionalism, it's you know, building your network.
21:50
Speaker 4: It's making sure that you are making the right connections
21:53
Speaker 4: in life so that it really comes to fruition or
21:58
Speaker 4: it really just pours back into to you, you pour
22:00
Speaker 4: into others, they pour back into you, and it's just
22:03
Speaker 4: an overall positive experience that is part of adulting and
22:08
Speaker 4: I completely acknowledge that. So it's like that, and you know,
22:13
Speaker 4: professional in your professional industry as well. So that's what
22:16
Speaker 4: I'm still working on, honestly, like I want to. I'm
22:20
Speaker 4: trying to find what my niches and what my flow
22:23
Speaker 4: is when it comes to making those connections and making
22:29
Speaker 4: them last with the owners, with architects as well as
22:31
Speaker 4: with my internal team, so that I don't know, that
22:36
Speaker 4: may have sounded really really sad, but like, honestly, it's
22:42
Speaker 4: not even the field. Like the field people you would think.
22:46
Speaker 4: This is what everyone tells me majority of the time
22:48
Speaker 4: when they hear that I'm a construction project manager, is
22:51
Speaker 4: oh my gosh, it must be so hard to get
22:54
Speaker 4: like the men to listen to you and for them
22:56
Speaker 4: to do their for them to do their jobs. No, actually,
22:59
Speaker 4: they're the easiest part of my job because I am competent.
23:02
Speaker 4: Like so they come to me with the problems that
23:05
Speaker 4: they see in the field or with payments and things
23:08
Speaker 4: like that. They're they're trying to just get their job
23:11
Speaker 4: done so they can go home to their families. They
23:13
Speaker 4: want to be safe, and I want to make sure
23:15
Speaker 4: that they are safe. I want to make sure they're fed.
23:17
Speaker 4: I want to make sure they're happy and they're healthy
23:19
Speaker 4: and hydrated out in the field. So that is my
23:21
Speaker 4: main priority. There's nothing else to it. And they once
23:25
Speaker 4: we have that understanding, of course, you know, there's ego sometimes,
23:29
Speaker 4: but once we have that understanding, it has not been
23:34
Speaker 4: an issue whatsoever. So I think my biggest struggle or
23:40
Speaker 4: hurdle has been navigating you know, the office, the office
23:46
Speaker 4: politics and relationships and things like that, right.
23:51
Speaker 2: I mean, that makes perfect sense in so many in
23:54
Speaker 2: so many industries. I think it's part of the question
23:56
Speaker 2: is who is more likely to be welcomed into a
23:59
Speaker 2: now work versus who isn't, who is automatically have to
24:02
Speaker 2: work the extra mile versus those who are just easily
24:06
Speaker 2: invited in, And that often has a lot to do
24:09
Speaker 2: with who is expect who they expect to see maybe
24:13
Speaker 2: or even like who have been ushered in through other
24:16
Speaker 2: people that they know, like literally like the son of
24:18
Speaker 2: somebody or the daughter or somebody here, you know, like
24:21
Speaker 2: different things, and then being able to come in easily
24:24
Speaker 2: in a field like it's It's quite funny because we
24:27
Speaker 2: talk about in the podcasting industry that the majority of
24:30
Speaker 2: people who listen are women, Like they out rank men
24:34
Speaker 2: in the amount of people who listen and what types
24:37
Speaker 2: of podcasts that listen, But the most podcast hosts or
24:40
Speaker 2: people in podcasts are men. The people who are making
24:42
Speaker 2: the most money are men, even though the chunk at
24:46
Speaker 2: least think it would be more even if nothing else,
24:49
Speaker 2: and it's not. It is quite shocking because you're like,
24:52
Speaker 2: but why does it have to be like this? Why
24:55
Speaker 2: can't it my work just be my work and you
24:57
Speaker 2: appreciate my work?
24:59
Speaker 3: Like why do I have to be nice to you
25:01
Speaker 3: if I don't like you?
25:03
Speaker 4: Right? Make it makes sense? We are here to do
25:06
Speaker 4: our job, so home, Like what is this? I mean?
25:10
Speaker 2: We understand politics is a part of it. We understand
25:13
Speaker 2: networking is a part of it, but doesn't mean it
25:15
Speaker 2: should be not in everything, right, Like, there's so many
25:22
Speaker 2: times of like frustration and knowing that your work, if
25:24
Speaker 2: it was just about your work, it would stand on
25:27
Speaker 2: its own and you should and you should be paid
25:30
Speaker 2: based on that.
25:31
Speaker 3: Like if it truly was about that.
25:33
Speaker 2: And given the same opportunities, the equity and where you
25:37
Speaker 2: started the amount of pay you get and the amount
25:40
Speaker 2: of opportunities you get. We're all the same across the board. Fantastic,
25:45
Speaker 2: you know, like you would feel more confident because you
25:47
Speaker 2: know I did that. Yeah, I'm good at this, let's go.
25:50
Speaker 2: But the politics of it all really like some people,
25:53
Speaker 2: some especially the marginals communities, have to do the extra effort,
25:57
Speaker 2: especially younger. Surprisingly, I think, especially in a field like that,
26:00
Speaker 2: I'm assuming. Don't you tell me that you have to
26:04
Speaker 2: prove yourself even more than those who just are known
26:07
Speaker 2: by name because they've been around for so long.
26:10
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, but surprising. So construction is going through a
26:14
Speaker 4: shift where there are the older generation who are retiring
26:20
Speaker 4: and it's it's kind of becoming difficult where a lot
26:24
Speaker 4: of times they didn't teach like there was there weren't
26:27
Speaker 4: systems in place to make sure that the younger generations
26:30
Speaker 4: were being taught. You know, the standardized way of what
26:34
Speaker 4: a company is, how a company is supposed to be
26:36
Speaker 4: building a building and run a project. It's been you know,
26:40
Speaker 4: I don't know if you I don't know exactly what
26:42
Speaker 4: the saying is. But like construction has been one of
26:44
Speaker 4: the industries that's the slowest to innovate. And so with that,
26:48
Speaker 4: what a lot of companies I believe have leaned on
26:52
Speaker 4: is every individual, older individual, they are leaning on them
26:56
Speaker 4: to actually teach the younger generation within the project, within
27:01
Speaker 4: the team that they're in, and in actuality, it hasn't
27:04
Speaker 4: been they haven't been doing that. And then the older
27:07
Speaker 4: generation has been retiring. So it's not even that, oh,
27:11
Speaker 4: the younger generation is having a more difficult time because
27:14
Speaker 4: they need us where the ones left. The older generation
27:17
Speaker 4: is leaving, but there's not really enough people to teach
27:22
Speaker 4: as well as to build the buildings. You got to
27:25
Speaker 4: pick one or the other. If you have someone who's
27:27
Speaker 4: actually capable, you want to have that capable person out
27:30
Speaker 4: in the field to make sure everything is done as
27:32
Speaker 4: safely as possible. So then there are less bodies and
27:35
Speaker 4: there are less minds to actually pour into the youth.
27:38
Speaker 4: And so there's kind of, at least what I've seen,
27:41
Speaker 4: there's been a struggle in that transition. It's not necessarily
27:46
Speaker 4: that younger people are having a more difficult time being
27:49
Speaker 4: able to move up or anything like that. No, they're
27:52
Speaker 4: able to. If you're able to sell yourself well enough,
27:54
Speaker 4: if you're able to speak well or like do the
27:57
Speaker 4: right things that you know others will be looking toward
28:01
Speaker 4: and will be able to you can check off certain
28:04
Speaker 4: things that will allow you to move up. Then sometimes
28:08
Speaker 4: it's really not that hard. It's just it's a little
28:12
Speaker 4: bit more discombobulated.
28:20
Speaker 2: The word discombobulating, it's such a great words, like a.
28:24
Speaker 3: Cut way of saying chaos.
28:27
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm in it so like I'm trying to
28:30
Speaker 4: be a hard change, you know, I'm trying to be
28:34
Speaker 4: standardized and trying to write as much as I can
28:37
Speaker 4: and teach the youth as much as I can as
28:39
Speaker 4: I go. But yeah, it's I mean, that's construction in
28:42
Speaker 4: and of itself. Like it's just it moves at a
28:46
Speaker 4: different pace than everything else.
28:48
Speaker 2: That's so fascinating because I haven't thought of like techniques
28:52
Speaker 2: when it comes to construction, although I should, like you
28:54
Speaker 2: would think, I guess my assumption would have been that
28:57
Speaker 2: they are. They would be at the forefront of making
29:01
Speaker 2: sure the newest types of technology, the newest types of
29:04
Speaker 2: like materials are being used, especially if it's thurdier or
29:07
Speaker 2: better or I know, like with my house, I know
29:10
Speaker 2: it's completely different. I was told because it was built
29:12
Speaker 2: in like the seventies some things that are like, don't
29:16
Speaker 2: replace that. If you replace that, now you're you're gonna
29:19
Speaker 2: mess yourself up, because that is the best thing that
29:21
Speaker 2: they could have done, and unfortunately it's no longer in
29:24
Speaker 2: existence and all that. So that's interesting to hear, Like,
29:28
Speaker 2: I guess it makes both sense and also kind of
29:32
Speaker 2: baffling that they haven't moved forward in innovations.
29:36
Speaker 3: Why do you think that is?
29:37
Speaker 4: I don't have a great answer to that question. Honestly.
29:41
Speaker 4: I think honestly the old way of doing things was
29:46
Speaker 4: somewhat better because now the new way of doing things
29:49
Speaker 4: with innovation, Innovation doesn't necessarily mean that it's actually like safer,
29:55
Speaker 4: that it's actually more sturdy, that it's actually like for
29:59
Speaker 4: them better of you know, the building of the people
30:04
Speaker 4: for the long run. Innovation. I think nowadays what's unsaid
30:09
Speaker 4: is that it's easier to produce. It gives it provides
30:13
Speaker 4: that profit margin like a lot more quickly to those
30:17
Speaker 4: that it matters to, you know, so you don't want
30:20
Speaker 4: that in construction though, Like you don't want to have oh,
30:24
Speaker 4: innovative PBC, it's so lightweight and all this stuff like no,
30:29
Speaker 4: because you know, there's sanitary, there's fecal matter, there's like
30:33
Speaker 4: chemicals going through it. You don't want that to be innovative.
30:37
Speaker 4: You want it to be sturdy, and you want it
30:41
Speaker 4: to last basically forever, as long as forever can be,
30:44
Speaker 4: because what you don't want to do is what you
30:47
Speaker 4: see in Atlanta a lot of times lane closures and
30:51
Speaker 4: you sinkholes and things having to be maintained, and then
30:54
Speaker 4: your daily commute is interrupted, Like you don't want that.
30:58
Speaker 4: So to a certain extent, the slow pace is a
31:01
Speaker 4: blessing and a curse because the slower it's moving, the
31:08
Speaker 4: less like profit margins were really focused on, Like construction.
31:14
Speaker 4: I don't know if you have any data on this,
31:16
Speaker 4: and I don't have any data on this, but there's
31:18
Speaker 4: like a lot of construction waste. Construction yields some of
31:22
Speaker 4: the highest waste in general, and use of concrete has
31:27
Speaker 4: very very high emissions. And so of course there are
31:31
Speaker 4: we have lead, which is sustainability and trying to make
31:34
Speaker 4: a building healthier and utilizing better, more innovative options, and
31:40
Speaker 4: to be honest with you, sometimes using those innovative options
31:43
Speaker 4: are more of a pain than just going the traditional route.
31:48
Speaker 4: So it's just it's a more difficult problem to solve
31:53
Speaker 4: in construction because technically being innovative doesn't Sometimes causes are
32:00
Speaker 4: issues than solutions, and it causes people to cut corners
32:05
Speaker 4: where you should not be cutting corners when it comes
32:07
Speaker 4: to infrastructure.
32:09
Speaker 5: Right, Oh, I did a bad thing and went to
32:20
Speaker 5: look at the statistics since you asked, no.
32:25
Speaker 4: We probably should not hear this. Oh my gosh, this
32:28
Speaker 4: is no.
32:31
Speaker 2: We're like all they we're not always positive sad tacks
32:34
Speaker 2: over here. So according to Big Rents dot Com and
32:37
Speaker 2: I have no idea who they are, but this is
32:38
Speaker 2: their statistics they got from the Transparency Market Research. Annual
32:42
Speaker 2: construction waste is expected to reach two point two billion
32:45
Speaker 2: tons globally by twenty twenty five. It generates over six
32:49
Speaker 2: million tons of construction related waste, and that was in
32:52
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen. According to the EPA and C and D,
32:55
Speaker 2: waste generation in the US increased by three hundred and
32:58
Speaker 2: forty two percent from nineteen ninety to twenty eighteen. Yeah
33:02
Speaker 2: uh so.
33:04
Speaker 4: It's not great. Yeah no, and that's it's not It's
33:09
Speaker 4: not like that's been the driving factor for innovation and
33:12
Speaker 4: construction specifically. It's trying to reduce the waste in general period.
33:16
Speaker 4: And that's kind of like what one of the biggest
33:21
Speaker 4: tackle points I guess for lead and and that you know,
33:24
Speaker 4: we're diverting the waste. We we have separate dumpsters for wood,
33:28
Speaker 4: for metal, for miscellaneous items, so then less less things
33:33
Speaker 4: go to landfill and go to recycling facilities. So yeah,
33:36
Speaker 4: like there there are many many ways to try and
33:42
Speaker 4: reduce the general waste that can be caused from construction period.
33:46
Speaker 4: But at the same time, it's just it's still it's
33:50
Speaker 4: still something you gotta do. You imagine trying to build
33:52
Speaker 4: a table. You're not gonna get exactly the length of
33:56
Speaker 4: two by fours that you're gonna need. You're gonna buy
33:59
Speaker 4: more than you need because you're gonna have to cut angles,
34:01
Speaker 4: you're gonna mess up a little bit and then and
34:03
Speaker 4: so you always have to get a little bit more
34:06
Speaker 4: than you actually than the exact amount needed to build
34:09
Speaker 4: that picnic table. So that like that's the analogy I
34:13
Speaker 4: can think of, is it's not just a picnic table.
34:16
Speaker 4: It's layered. We have insulation, you have medical four metal framing,
34:19
Speaker 4: you have jip, you have paint. So it's layered to
34:22
Speaker 4: make sure the building stays warm, to make sure the
34:24
Speaker 4: building stays dry, to make sure that like it is
34:28
Speaker 4: a sustainable building for people to live, reside sometimes or
34:32
Speaker 4: work in and it be a healthy environment. So it
34:36
Speaker 4: just takes a lot and sometimes you gotta cut twice,
34:40
Speaker 4: measure three times four times, and we're trying to be
34:43
Speaker 4: better at it, absolutely. That's that's definitely something that everyone
34:48
Speaker 4: in construction is aware of and we're actively trying to
34:50
Speaker 4: be better at as well as we do. A lot
34:53
Speaker 4: of companies are implementing BIM coordination VDC coordination, which is
34:57
Speaker 4: like virtual buildings, and so you'll have an engineer go
35:01
Speaker 4: and literally design the building with every component, sprinklers, with steel,
35:07
Speaker 4: with drywall, and build it ventually so then we don't
35:11
Speaker 4: have to cut you know, three, four or five times,
35:13
Speaker 4: and we can lessen the amount of waste that is
35:16
Speaker 4: produced that way. So there are plenty of things that
35:21
Speaker 4: companies will implement to try to limit that waste. But yeah,
35:24
Speaker 4: it's still something that we generate a lot of.
35:27
Speaker 2: Well, it's encouraging to hear that they are actually making
35:30
Speaker 2: efforts and technology is helped a little bit and creating
35:33
Speaker 2: a way to not create as much waste which is
35:36
Speaker 2: because in the end, we need buildings. These construction projects
35:41
Speaker 2: give jobs. We need stable hospitals that will do will
35:45
Speaker 2: provide the electricity in a manner that everybody can use
35:49
Speaker 2: it as needed, whether it's like a machine for you know,
35:52
Speaker 2: keeping someone alive, any of those things.
35:54
Speaker 3: So these are such an important conversation because we need it.
35:57
Speaker 2: But at the same time, like try to do best
36:00
Speaker 2: to be stewards in the environment because we know that
36:03
Speaker 2: the impact can be great. But it's just such a
36:05
Speaker 2: back and forth of like what do we do, how
36:07
Speaker 2: do we do this and also not cost millions of
36:09
Speaker 2: dollars for taxpayers and all the other people as well.
36:13
Speaker 2: So it's a big conversation. I know this, especially when
36:16
Speaker 2: you're in this field. Like but but it's not all
36:19
Speaker 2: bad hype rob us when you're trying to do your
36:22
Speaker 2: job something that you did love and you do love.
36:26
Speaker 2: But coming back to as we were talking about earlier
36:30
Speaker 2: and just talking about you know, growing in the industry
36:32
Speaker 2: and yeah, being a marginalized person, being a black woman
36:35
Speaker 2: in the industry and having to really speak for yourself
36:37
Speaker 2: and making sure you're getting paid what is what you're
36:39
Speaker 2: worth because oftentimes in no industry I don't think in
36:43
Speaker 2: one unless arc CEO or the person of like they
36:47
Speaker 2: own the company, and even then it's still harder to
36:50
Speaker 2: get what you're worth.
36:51
Speaker 3: Like it's just in general.
36:53
Speaker 2: Do you think you would recommend this type of job,
36:57
Speaker 2: these types of jobs in this field to other women
36:59
Speaker 2: or marginals people?
37:01
Speaker 4: Yes?
37:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, Why.
37:04
Speaker 4: Because as every every aspect of life is hard, you know,
37:10
Speaker 4: if you're marginalized in being a woman, like if honestly
37:15
Speaker 4: pick your poison to a certain extent. But for construction itself,
37:20
Speaker 4: I would recommend it because, like I, like I previously stated,
37:23
Speaker 4: to see a building get built from the ground up
37:27
Speaker 4: is something that's very very rewarding. And being in the
37:30
Speaker 4: field in and of itself, as long as you're able
37:33
Speaker 4: to show your competence, it's a very A plus B
37:37
Speaker 4: equals C equation. When you are out in the field,
37:40
Speaker 4: you show that you know what you're talking about or
37:43
Speaker 4: you're willing to learn and ask the questions to make
37:46
Speaker 4: sure that everyone's life is well in the workplace and
37:51
Speaker 4: on the job site. Then there are not very many,
37:55
Speaker 4: you know, hurdles or put there's not a whole lot
37:59
Speaker 4: of pushback that you're to get. I really like I've
38:02
Speaker 4: said before, I really haven't had a lot of issues
38:04
Speaker 4: with trade partners and subcontractors. I have not hesitated in
38:09
Speaker 4: asking them questions because at the end of the day,
38:11
Speaker 4: we're all here, we're all contracted. At the end of
38:14
Speaker 4: the day, we all signed up, and we are contracted
38:17
Speaker 4: to finish this building on time, safely, and on schedule
38:21
Speaker 4: as closely as possible, so we all have the same
38:23
Speaker 4: end goal. As long as that is the general understanding,
38:28
Speaker 4: I have not had issues in this industry. So with
38:33
Speaker 4: that thought process and with that experience in mind, I
38:36
Speaker 4: would absolutely recommend it. It can be you know, I
38:40
Speaker 4: don't know. When you're just looking at it, Oh my gosh, construction,
38:43
Speaker 4: it's just full of men and all this stuff. Yes,
38:47
Speaker 4: but they're really really nice. They're sweethearts. They all have families,
38:50
Speaker 4: they have children like they are not terrible people. They're
38:54
Speaker 4: human beings, and at the end of the day, we
38:58
Speaker 4: all just want to get home safely. We want to
39:00
Speaker 4: make sure that we get a good day's work worth
39:04
Speaker 4: of work done and then just go home and enjoy
39:07
Speaker 4: our lives. It can be long hours. I will say
39:10
Speaker 4: that long hours weekends. Sometimes if you are near the
39:17
Speaker 4: end of a project like, I'm not gonna sugarcoat that part.
39:21
Speaker 4: So if you're trying to look for you know, oh yeah,
39:24
Speaker 4: three day work week. No, not at least not in
39:29
Speaker 4: not in project management. Not when you are part of
39:33
Speaker 4: like the daily work that's being done on site. You
39:38
Speaker 4: got to make sure that you're there when the owner
39:40
Speaker 4: needs you. Sometimes they just walk depending on the size
39:43
Speaker 4: of the project, right you can you sometimes have a
39:46
Speaker 4: job site trailer. You rent out a trailer and you're
39:48
Speaker 4: there so they will walk in and out ask for updates,
39:51
Speaker 4: and so you want to make sure you're readily available
39:53
Speaker 4: for that. So I will say caveat long hours, but
39:57
Speaker 4: otherwise I would I would just being realistic as to
40:02
Speaker 4: what to expect as long as you know that's clear
40:08
Speaker 4: and there's that general understanding. Otherwise I would absolutely recommend it.
40:16
Speaker 1: Why do you think or do you think you can
40:19
Speaker 1: tell me I'm wrong that it's important to have more
40:24
Speaker 1: women in marginalized people in the industry.
40:27
Speaker 4: I think it's important for women more than anything else.
40:31
Speaker 4: I think that we as women sometimes internalize these messages
40:35
Speaker 4: that are broadcasted about what is what we're supposed to do,
40:39
Speaker 4: what a woman's role is. But in actuality. What really
40:43
Speaker 4: matters is what do you want to do? What are
40:45
Speaker 4: you really good at? Are you good at robotics? Are
40:47
Speaker 4: you good at building things with your hands? Are you
40:50
Speaker 4: really athletic? Then go towards that, Like it really doesn't
40:54
Speaker 4: matter what society says, because you're going to be judged,
40:59
Speaker 4: like no matter how nice you are, no matter how
41:01
Speaker 4: much you try to be you know, loved or accepted, like,
41:04
Speaker 4: unfortunately you can't get everyone to like you. So why try?
41:09
Speaker 4: Why try to like fit into a box, into a
41:11
Speaker 4: mold that doesn't actually fulfill you and pour into you.
41:15
Speaker 4: And so I would encourage women in marginalized communities to
41:20
Speaker 4: go into this field or any field that they may
41:23
Speaker 4: feel a bit uncomfortable getting into, because the more you
41:28
Speaker 4: have the guts to like to go into it, the
41:31
Speaker 4: more other younger generational people will see you and feel
41:35
Speaker 4: encouraged and see, wow, I can do it, and you can.
41:39
Speaker 4: You can kind of set an example. I want to
41:41
Speaker 4: be that example.
41:43
Speaker 1: You mentioned earlier that you were in this kind of
41:46
Speaker 1: the industry is kind of transition and having younger people
41:51
Speaker 1: not have these standards, and you were like trying to
41:54
Speaker 1: teach younger people and writing these standards. How has that
42:00
Speaker 1: process ben and why do you think that is so important?
42:06
Speaker 4: So I have never been officially assigned like a mentor,
42:11
Speaker 4: like as a mentor or a teacher to anyone younger
42:14
Speaker 4: of the younger generation, but I do say that it is.
42:17
Speaker 4: It's been impactful and it's been important because honestly, the
42:24
Speaker 4: younger generation, they're so they're always curious. I feel like
42:27
Speaker 4: that's something that never fails about them. They will always
42:30
Speaker 4: ask questions. Sometimes they don't know the right question to ask,
42:33
Speaker 4: but they'll find a way to get it out some way.
42:35
Speaker 4: And as long as they have like a listening ear,
42:38
Speaker 4: they will just babble babble babble on with all the
42:41
Speaker 4: questions and things that they want. So I personally really
42:43
Speaker 4: enjoy speaking with and connecting with with the younger generation
42:47
Speaker 4: just to figure out, like what what do you like
42:49
Speaker 4: to do? What what aspect of this entire thing calls
42:54
Speaker 4: to you? And then additionally, like making sure that they
42:58
Speaker 4: have the building blocks, the foundation of construction in and
43:03
Speaker 4: of itself, which is simply being able to read drawings.
43:08
Speaker 4: A drawing set could be three hundred four hundred pages,
43:12
Speaker 4: and so it can be a lot to absorb. You
43:16
Speaker 4: have plumbing drawings, you have mechanical drawings, you have civil,
43:19
Speaker 4: you have landscape, architectural, and so it's being able to
43:23
Speaker 4: look at Okay, the architectural says this, if I flip
43:26
Speaker 4: it to the mechanical, it's going to show me what
43:28
Speaker 4: the duct work in each room is supposed to look like.
43:31
Speaker 4: You need to understand what the layout of each room
43:34
Speaker 4: is going to look like and kind of like visually
43:36
Speaker 4: created in your mind however it is. And sometimes BIM
43:39
Speaker 4: and VDC helps with that a lot nowadays. But it's
43:46
Speaker 4: really just asking questions. I really enjoy having them ask
43:50
Speaker 4: me questions, and then I can dig into their heads
43:52
Speaker 4: and figure out exactly what aspect of construction calls them
43:57
Speaker 4: and what do they want to do, whether it's to
43:59
Speaker 4: build it physically or be part of more management and
44:04
Speaker 4: budgeting and things like that, or actually design it virtually.
44:09
Speaker 4: So it's just you know, asking questions, being patient and
44:14
Speaker 4: waiting to see how they developed.
44:16
Speaker 3: Okay, so I know I couldn't do this job.
44:17
Speaker 2: The reading of the picture, I'm like, oh, the geometry, okay, yeah,
44:21
Speaker 2: I can't do that.
44:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, fair enough enough.
44:29
Speaker 2: Now I love this conversation because there's again knowing nothing
44:33
Speaker 2: about this field as much as like, obviously this is
44:36
Speaker 2: an everyday thing that we should be thinking about about
44:39
Speaker 2: how things are created and how things are made. Of course,
44:42
Speaker 2: you know, I love appreciating an unusual building. We went
44:45
Speaker 2: to the Seattle Library and I was like, whoa, this
44:48
Speaker 2: architecture is really interesting and how this got made and
44:51
Speaker 2: what they how they thought this through, like specifically of that,
44:55
Speaker 2: but to see to think about the background and the
44:57
Speaker 2: like the actual work it takes to even go start
45:01
Speaker 2: building something. It's it's phenomenal, Like it's such a phenomenal
45:07
Speaker 2: contact and it's existed forever. Building or creating something has
45:11
Speaker 2: existed since the beginning of man. Like, it's just an
45:14
Speaker 2: amazing thought. I'm having an existential moment. So with that,
45:18
Speaker 2: what is one of the best experiences that you've had.
45:20
Speaker 3: In this industry?
45:21
Speaker 4: I think just turning over a building. Yeah, yeah, and
45:26
Speaker 4: like being with the owner who was there every single day.
45:30
Speaker 4: So I did like a church renovation a couple of
45:34
Speaker 4: years back, and they literally demoed all of the seating
45:40
Speaker 4: in the sanctuary and they were trying to basically make
45:45
Speaker 4: it more of a like a I don't know I'm
45:48
Speaker 4: not very religious, so you know, like the broadcasting churches,
45:52
Speaker 4: it was like a traditional church. So they were trying
45:55
Speaker 4: to make it a little bit more high tech, like
45:57
Speaker 4: add more seats and just revamp it entirely. And so
46:02
Speaker 4: going into it, initially it was scanned incorrectly. And by
46:05
Speaker 4: scanned incorrectly, I mean that the surveyor who went into
46:09
Speaker 4: the space the walls were supposed to exist, but everything
46:13
Speaker 4: within it was supposed to be demoed. So when they
46:15
Speaker 4: scanned it, they like there were inches like two and
46:19
Speaker 4: a half inch layer of plaster that from renovation after
46:23
Speaker 4: renovation after renovation that was there that was supposed to
46:26
Speaker 4: be scraped off and we get it down to the
46:28
Speaker 4: block basically, So when they scanned it, they scanned it
46:31
Speaker 4: to the plaster and all of the dimensions for the seats,
46:34
Speaker 4: and we were supposed to build the seats inside of
46:36
Speaker 4: the space, so all of the dimensions, the overall dimension
46:41
Speaker 4: was scanned to be this, but in actuality was this.
46:45
Speaker 4: And then on top of that, it was a rotating
46:48
Speaker 4: amphitheater with diagonal sides that were not the same angle,
46:54
Speaker 4: And so can you imagine trying to like to just
46:57
Speaker 4: get see I mean yeah, I mean yeah, so we
47:02
Speaker 4: have to like life safety is something that you have
47:05
Speaker 4: to always think about. The end goal is making sure
47:07
Speaker 4: in case of an emergency, you have to have like
47:09
Speaker 4: three foot six wide core doors and staircases. Make sure
47:13
Speaker 4: there's doorways, make sure the doorways have like the space
47:16
Speaker 4: and egress required around it. If there's a da chairs,
47:19
Speaker 4: like you need to we need to make sure that
47:21
Speaker 4: like in and around that area is flat for the
47:24
Speaker 4: wheelchairs to sit on. So all of that was completely incorrect,
47:29
Speaker 4: and we were on this deadline and but like this
47:33
Speaker 4: was part of the team that was on earlier in
47:36
Speaker 4: my career with the superintendent with three decades of experience
47:39
Speaker 4: and myself and my project manager, and we were we
47:43
Speaker 4: were like, Okay, we got a problem and we're going
47:46
Speaker 4: to solve it. Like this is this is construction, Like
47:49
Speaker 4: every day there's a problem in construction every like that
47:53
Speaker 4: is something that I guess that's another thing that you
47:55
Speaker 4: have to consider if you do want to get into
47:56
Speaker 4: the field, that it is problem solving on a daily basis,
48:01
Speaker 4: because the drawings that are given to you do not
48:05
Speaker 4: account for what's in the real world. They're two D.
48:07
Speaker 4: The real world is more than that, it's so much
48:09
Speaker 4: more so. It's making sure and being being ready to
48:16
Speaker 4: go out there pick the brains of every every person
48:20
Speaker 4: and every expert you can find to help solving a problem.
48:23
Speaker 4: So all I have to say we started out with
48:27
Speaker 4: a huge problem. We we got with our structural engineers,
48:32
Speaker 4: we got with the architects, we got with the owner
48:34
Speaker 4: who was right there with us, and we said, ah,
48:38
Speaker 4: we're not starting off real strong as strong as we
48:40
Speaker 4: thought we were going to. We're gonna be truthful with
48:43
Speaker 4: you now, like it's not it's not it's not what
48:46
Speaker 4: we thought it was gonna be. But we're here, we're
48:48
Speaker 4: gonna fix it. We have. We have, you know, found
48:51
Speaker 4: the issue at least in the very beginning, which is
48:53
Speaker 4: always good, rather than you know, pushing through and then
48:58
Speaker 4: realizing that, oh my gosh, we've already released the steel.
49:01
Speaker 4: It's very hard to change steel after you've released it.
49:04
Speaker 4: We've already released the steel, and then we can't change it. No,
49:06
Speaker 4: this was the head of the steel being approved and
49:09
Speaker 4: everything like that. So we were able to get with
49:11
Speaker 4: the engineer and re scan, scrape, get extra workers to
49:14
Speaker 4: help scrape the walls, get it cleaned up, and then
49:17
Speaker 4: of course there were other issues that happened throughout the
49:19
Speaker 4: life of the project, but like the fact that, like
49:22
Speaker 4: it was all hands on deck and we all were
49:26
Speaker 4: very much focused on how do we solve this problem together.
49:30
Speaker 4: There was no finger pointing at all. We worked toward it,
49:34
Speaker 4: and we ended up actually finishing right. We ended up
49:38
Speaker 4: finishing right on time, We were not over budget, everyone
49:42
Speaker 4: was safe, we had no incidents, and it was an amazing,
49:46
Speaker 4: amazing project and the owner was ecstatic. I actually still
49:51
Speaker 4: have his number. So that's That's one of the best
49:55
Speaker 4: things about a project is you know, kind of similar
49:59
Speaker 4: to a Mary I want to I want to believe.
50:01
Speaker 4: I've never been married, so I'm gonna give that caveat,
50:04
Speaker 4: Like you go through things, like a successful marriage is
50:06
Speaker 4: not one where you know, we're running through the fields
50:09
Speaker 4: happy all the time. No, you go through some things
50:12
Speaker 4: and you come out the other side together and and
50:15
Speaker 4: even stronger and better than you were when you initially started.
50:18
Speaker 4: So that's that was probably one of the best projects
50:22
Speaker 4: I worked on.
50:24
Speaker 3: Oh I love it.
50:25
Speaker 2: So you what you mean to tell me is that
50:27
Speaker 2: you were the perfect project manager in this.
50:30
Speaker 4: We actually well, no, I was actually a product engineer then,
50:33
Speaker 4: but yes I was, I was engineer. Well, I mean, hey,
50:38
Speaker 4: I'm not like I said. I mean, I do not
50:40
Speaker 4: have an ego, so I'm not gonna I am not
50:43
Speaker 4: going to take I'll do it for you. Oh well,
50:46
Speaker 4: thank you, Samanthe.
50:50
Speaker 3: I love that.
50:51
Speaker 2: I love that that your favorite moment is literally coming
50:54
Speaker 2: together and problem solving and doing it in a professional
50:58
Speaker 2: manner where you just learn to respect each other. There
51:00
Speaker 2: more like, that's an amazing moment to have, Like, because
51:03
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie, I wouldn't have expected a possible
51:06
Speaker 2: mistake future mistake to be the like your favorite moment,
51:10
Speaker 2: but being able to resolve it in a manner that
51:14
Speaker 2: was satisfying for everyone and then also having a very
51:17
Speaker 2: happy client was your moment. That's so much about you
51:21
Speaker 2: in general life.
51:24
Speaker 3: I'd love it.
51:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you already kind of talked about this a
51:40
Speaker 1: little bit, But what advice would you give to women
51:43
Speaker 1: who are wanting to get into this field?
51:46
Speaker 4: Come on in Honestly, I've worked with women who started
51:52
Speaker 4: out in architecture and they switched to construction. I have
51:56
Speaker 4: worked with nurses who came into construction cut like literally
52:02
Speaker 4: be ready to be ready and willing to learn, be
52:05
Speaker 4: ready and willing to, you know, be in and around
52:09
Speaker 4: a team of people who are there to support you,
52:13
Speaker 4: to make sure that we have a goal in mind,
52:17
Speaker 4: and be ready and willing to know that you will
52:19
Speaker 4: be surrounded by men who will have, you know, vulgar jokes.
52:23
Speaker 4: Sometimes it's not going to be always PC. That is
52:27
Speaker 4: the true, honest truth of it all. But as long
52:30
Speaker 4: as there's that expectation, and I think, come on, come on,
52:38
Speaker 4: and it's it's not it's really not as hard or
52:42
Speaker 4: as misogynistic as assumed. I think if you can find
52:51
Speaker 4: the right company, find the right team, because I can't
52:54
Speaker 4: speak for everyone. Once you find the right fit, then
52:59
Speaker 4: it's it's really how much you're willing to put in
53:04
Speaker 4: to yield what you want out of it at the
53:06
Speaker 4: end of the day, because construction, like one of the
53:10
Speaker 4: beauties and hardships of it is, you can't you can't
53:14
Speaker 4: put in very little and expect a lot back. So
53:20
Speaker 4: as long as you're ready and willing to put in
53:22
Speaker 4: the work to learn as much as you possibly can,
53:25
Speaker 4: because there is a lot to learn, get your head
53:28
Speaker 4: in that logical mindset, it's really green light.
53:33
Speaker 2: What would you say to those who are getting ready
53:36
Speaker 2: to go to college, getting ready to go prepare for
53:37
Speaker 2: their studies, that want to be in civil engineering, what
53:40
Speaker 2: would you tell them and how would you encourage them
53:44
Speaker 2: to go into those fields?
53:45
Speaker 4: I don't know if it would be encouragement, But get
53:47
Speaker 4: ready for a lot of math, Like it's a lot
53:50
Speaker 4: of math, and then on, once you get past all
53:53
Speaker 4: the maths, all the diffy cues in all the things,
53:57
Speaker 4: then it's just you start to go into the movement
54:00
Speaker 4: and understanding movement and understanding like stationary what actual live
54:06
Speaker 4: loads are versus dead loads, and like understanding aspects of infrastructure.
54:12
Speaker 4: So how would I encourage the younger generation. I don't know.
54:20
Speaker 4: I don't know how I would encourage them. It's just
54:23
Speaker 4: don't don't let anything outside of an inability to understand
54:29
Speaker 4: math hold you back, because, to be honest, that's the
54:33
Speaker 4: only thing. Like if it's society, if it's friends, if
54:37
Speaker 4: it's teachers telling you certain things because of their own assumptions,
54:42
Speaker 4: because of their own you know, undealt whatever, that's not
54:46
Speaker 4: something for you to carry. If you know for yourself
54:49
Speaker 4: that you like physics, Like wait a minute, I like magnetism,
54:53
Speaker 4: I like physics. I like chemistry because you do have
54:55
Speaker 4: to do a little bit of chmistry. I like math
54:59
Speaker 4: like it's speaks to me. I understand it, I get it.
55:02
Speaker 4: Then there's don't let anything else hold you back. Just
55:06
Speaker 4: go towards what actually speaks to you and you can
55:09
Speaker 4: comprehend and you feel like you can succeed in Find
55:14
Speaker 4: find advocates, because sometimes you know you can't. It's a
55:19
Speaker 4: little bit harder to go through life alone. So make
55:22
Speaker 4: sure to find friends, find a support system, find advocates
55:26
Speaker 4: within the faculty so then you can lean on them
55:30
Speaker 4: if you do have certain difficulties. Because you know, those
55:32
Speaker 4: math classes are not easy. I'll say that much. I
55:34
Speaker 4: acknowledge it, like they're not easy for me. CALC three
55:38
Speaker 4: killed me, like I was not okay. I was in
55:42
Speaker 4: that tha's office every day, but I realized I was like,
55:47
Speaker 4: I know, I'm good at this, but this, this specific
55:49
Speaker 4: class itself is really not doing me, like it is questioning,
55:55
Speaker 4: making me question my intelligence. To be honest with you,
55:58
Speaker 4: I really went through a whole excess central crisis in
56:01
Speaker 4: that class. And physics too terrible. But yeah, those two,
56:06
Speaker 4: those two classes really made me question myself. So I
56:09
Speaker 4: really I that's when I leaned on my support system,
56:12
Speaker 4: on my classmates, on classmates who have taken the class
56:14
Speaker 4: as the previous semester, and and just keep going towards
56:19
Speaker 4: what make what feels right. That's all I can really say.
56:25
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you well, thank you so much for
56:29
Speaker 1: joining us today. It's been a delight to have you.
56:34
Speaker 1: Where can the good listeners find you?
56:36
Speaker 4: I have been trying to I've been working towards having
56:39
Speaker 4: a content creator social media presence, and I created the
56:46
Speaker 4: user name Torn Thoughts, and it's Torn Period Thoughts where
56:51
Speaker 4: it's going to be an account based on being human. Basically,
56:58
Speaker 4: the best way I can explain it is accepting that
57:01
Speaker 4: I may have an opinion about something one day, but
57:04
Speaker 4: as life progresses, I may come onto some additional information
57:09
Speaker 4: A friend or some other source of information will come
57:14
Speaker 4: to me where the opinion that I may have stated
57:17
Speaker 4: the previous day is completely debunked. And it's accepting the
57:22
Speaker 4: fact that that's part of humanity. That's part of maturing
57:27
Speaker 4: is understanding that I don't know everything, and so it's
57:31
Speaker 4: trying to vocalize and voice who I am. Things that
57:34
Speaker 4: I like to do, opinions that I have about certain things,
57:38
Speaker 4: but also being ready and willing to debunk any and
57:43
Speaker 4: all things that may have been wrong in a previous post.
57:46
Speaker 4: So that's kind of the channel that I really want
57:51
Speaker 4: to that I'm planning on creating. Those user names are there.
57:56
Speaker 4: Thus far, only TikTok has any kind of content, which
58:00
Speaker 4: fitness and it's like body progress. I do plan on
58:04
Speaker 4: starting to record in zoomba class maybe a part of it,
58:08
Speaker 4: maybe maybe your leg maybe maybe. Yeah, So I want
58:18
Speaker 4: to I want to, you know, record and post my
58:21
Speaker 4: fitness journey, nutrition epiphanies, meditation, the highs and lows of meditation.
58:29
Speaker 4: I feel like a lot of people will try to
58:31
Speaker 4: talk about, oh my gosh, yeah, just do ten minutes
58:34
Speaker 4: a day and it's been so rewarding. Well I've been
58:36
Speaker 4: doing twenty minutes a day and I still don't feel anything. So, hey, world,
58:41
Speaker 4: what am I doing wrong? Help me out, you know,
58:44
Speaker 4: and accepting that I don't. I just I don't know.
58:47
Speaker 4: I want to create a place online that is just
58:50
Speaker 4: humanity and reality of being an adult, adulting, trying to
58:55
Speaker 4: adult in this world realistically, without trying to sell like
58:58
Speaker 4: a solution, just acknowledging, you know, lives, highs and lows.
59:04
Speaker 2: Torn Dot thoughts, and that's on both Instagram and.
59:07
Speaker 4: TikTok Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
59:10
Speaker 1: Well that's awesome, that's really exciting. Uh so, listeners definitely
59:13
Speaker 1: go check that out. See Samantha's leg perhaps in a cameo.
59:21
Speaker 1: Oh well, thank you so much for coming on IVY.
59:24
Speaker 1: This has been a great conversation. Uh there's so much
59:27
Speaker 1: more we could talk about, so you're welcome back anytime.
59:32
Speaker 1: But yeah, thank you so much.
59:33
Speaker 4: Thank y'all, Thank you, Samantha, thank you Annie. I appreciate
59:36
Speaker 4: you all so much.
59:37
Speaker 1: And listeners, if you would like to contact us, you can.
59:39
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59:41
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59:45
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59:48
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59:50
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59:56
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