When considering a career path, many people wonder why someone would choose to work in the construction field.
My answer is simply one word: Family.
I was completing my senior year in college. Like most seniors, I had my whole life ahead of me and the question of what to do with my life. I went to many interviews with companies at college job fairs, but nothing really made me say, “This is what I want to do and I’ll love doing it!”
During summers and days off, I worked part-time in construction and enjoyed all of the facets of building something, working on a project important both to myself and the end user.
Having a father who worked in construction his entire life and having a brother who is an architect, I woke up and it hit home; construction was what I wanted to do!
I have found that working in the construction field is like being with family. One reason could be because of the way a team has to collaborate and work together on a project of such a large scale, which requires everyone to be communicating and working hard mentally and physically together to complete the job. Another could be because I grew up with two people in my family who worked in construction and I just fit right into the atmosphere. One of the best work experiences I’ve had is working for a family-owned construction company.
If you really measure it, full-time workers spend just as much time around their co-workers as they do with their actual home families, if not more.
This is one of the reasons why it is so important to be spending one’s time around other great people who have good character, integrity, and care about their contribution each day.
The values learned working with your co-workers on the job are those that are carried out to your own family once you marry and have children. Your interactions each day with your “construction family” becomes a part of your life and many of the stories and lessons learned are carried over to your actual family’s dinner table.
The sense of pride and accomplishment you receive once a project is completed by you and your co-workers is something you cannot learn in school or put a dollar value on.
Going to work and feeling like family is being treated with love, respect and having that same guidance, support, and group mentality as a family. If you can find that in your career, it is a truly rewarding experience. Not only do I get to feel accomplished at my job, but I also get to feel like I’m a part of a group of real people who support each other every day.
Having a good work atmosphere with great co-workers is like your “daytime family” in addition to your actual “nighttime family” back at home. Maintaining the balance between these two is the key to both a great work and home life.
Going to work every day loving what I do because of the support both in an office and in the field is why I choose construction as my occupation. If I could turn back time to my college senior year, I would absolutely choose the same path again. The people I met and continue to meet along the way and interacted with are truly considered family to me.
Article by Thomas Easse, Project Manager at 365体育平台
365体育平台, Best Places to work in NJ, 2018
