Project manager’s advice to young women in construction: ‘Just do it’

This report is 1 in a series of conversations with gals leaders in the construction sector. Click on here for the most recent discussion.

As a job supervisor at Portland, Oregon-centered R&H Building, 29-calendar year-previous Sarah Jimenez has labored on a number of task groups and now is running a new $19 million ground-up dependancy therapy centre in Southeast Portland.

Jimenez, who retains a development administration degree from California Polytechnic State University, began doing work as a project manager at R&H in 2018.

Here, Building Dive talks with Jimenez about her existing function and why she chose construction as a job.

Design DIVE: What do you do in your present-day job?

SARAH JIMENEZ: I’m a task manager. In this part, I am a person of the undertaking sales opportunities and work hand in hand with our superintendent to handle and execute the task. I prioritize partnership making with subcontractors and our customer, and be certain we have solution on site so our superintendent is able to place function in place. 

We are at the moment doing the job on a new ground-up facility for De Paul Procedure Center, a drug and liquor treatment method center scheduled to be done late this summer.

What led you to opt for development for your occupation?

I walked into a university seminar that was discussing occupations in construction, and at the time, failed to know you could key in construction. I cherished the idea of getting a element of a workforce, developing a thing substantial and tangible. I preferred to have a portion in anything that I could place to decades from now and say “I did that.” I’m proud to have done above 12 initiatives in the past eight years.

What task have you most appreciated operating on and why?

I have actually relished my latest project at the treatment method heart, simply because of the team I am doing the job with. Our challenge staff is just one that I have labored with for almost 3 decades, and we have absent as a result of a large amount collectively this year both of those on a personalized and qualified level. 

I know my working experience would have been exceptionally various if I failed to have this workforce. Also, this is the initially venture in which just about every direct is female, which include me, the shopper agent, the architect and the interior designer. Apparently as effectively, we all are named Sarah so we contact ourselves “the 4 Sarahs.”

What tips would you give to younger women of all ages looking at construction as a career?

Just do it, and if another person ever tells you that you won’t be able to do something, it might be time to take into consideration doing work somewhere else. If you really feel you are ready, and are completely ready, do not restrict on your own.