Month: May 2023

( fake name will be Jim )

Last year I was a mentor for a school program, and one of my mentees told me about a very interesting summer internship experience they had. They were working for a small to medium-sized general contractor in which they were promised an opportunity to learn valuable skills and get by the end be able to take on small change order projects needed on their sites. Jim was very excited and was telling everyone how he was finally going to get some real upper management skills, it was their whole summer plan.

On Jim’s first week they ran through an orientation which was normally pretty boring but once that was over Jim was expecting a very exciting summer. Jim got put into estimating, which is the backbone of the industry but not something he was interested in, he was told that it was only for the first week to learn the process. One week turned into 2 months, and the reason was that they were too busy to have Jim doing anything else, they were not making any time for Jim to join on the projects he was stuck in an office all summer. and last month his motivation was at an all-time low so he ended up leaving 4 weeks before the intended end week.

overall it was the lack of compensation that drove them away from this job and the industry as a whole, they ended up changing majors to general business and have stopped looking into construction jobs which is unfortunate.

This term I have been learning about Construction safety in one of my classes, you might think that safety is straight forward and once verbally communicated it’s all good, yet that could not be further from the truth. In reality, a construction site is a danger at all times, According to OSHA one out of 10 construction workers gets injured every year. This is why universities such as Oregon State have now been funding research on how to limit all known hazards from happening by designing and engineering products and job sites.
Training is a large majority of this, the thing about construction safety training is that it needs to be implemented early on before bad habits form, and needs to be enforced consistently to make sure no shortcuts are taken. An example is for instance the usage of ladders, there is consistent misusage of equipment on a construction site and the ladder is always one of them. Either using an A-frame as an extension ladder or placing the ladder in a bad location only for convenience. It is very important to keep training people, even those who have been around for a long time, if they are too confident on a ladder it can be very dangerous for them as well those around them.
Overall I have seen where good safety training prevents injury and where bad training can lead to more accidents, it is very important to follow the training and makes sure everyone knows it well because lives depend on it. As a future contractor, I will have an emphasis on saftey training.

Citation:

OSHA. (n.d.). OSHA Construction Safety Training. OSHA Education Center. https://www.oshaeducationcenter.com/osha-construction-safety-training/ 

In my experience, I have had the opportunity to talk to many companies typically Construction companies which are always actively looking for employees. The market for Construction Project Engineers is at a good level for us graduating I signed my job Offer about 6 months ago now with Turner Construction based in Portland! An interview is not only for the employer to get to know you but it is as well where you find out more about the company and the general job description you are applying for.

I have had many good and bad interviews yet the worst of them all was a construction company 2 years ago which did not let me speak my mind. It started like any other interview with introductions and a quick look into what their company is like, there were 7 of them dressed in business casual. I had just gotten out of a midterm and rushed to get to the interview, when I walked I said hello to everyone but only 2 of them responded kindly. In the next hour, I would be criticized for not wearing proper attire for an interview and many other things.

My best interview was with Turner, they were kind and genuinely wanted to know about my life story. It was a round-robin interview which gave me the chance to speak to 5 of their employees 1 on 1 for 20 minutes, it ended up not being enough time. there were some technical questions yet I never felt pressured to get it right, they just wanted to see my thought process and how well I can explain my actions. It was highly interactive and entertaining for both parties.

Overall I would recommend trying and getting to know each other as much as you can in 5 minutes haha, it’s very hard but it is doable if both the employer and candidates are open to talking with each other. It shouldn’t feel like a test but more of a laid-back assessment where skills can be shown. In the end, as the videos said it is important to be kind yet ask all the important questions needed. I would recommend to employers having a hard time getting the candidates they want to show off their company culture, many people look for that sort of thing and if it does not resonate with them that’s fine but it is still the best way for someone to know how your company runs the business.