Her Story
About Jessica
I have been in architecture since 2001, and I have always been in this field - I have never worked in anything else. I don't do the interior side of architecture, like the pretty pictures. I actually do the big buildings. My most valuable experience was working with Arquitectonica Architects for 18 years, where I was part of the design and construction documentation for airports and several multi-use buildings throughout Miami, and the international airport in Bogota, Colombia - that was a huge project. The area that I love is the technical side - how to put things together, how to make drawings really buildable, and how to do the coordination with all the mechanical, structural, electrical, and plumbing. It's a men's field, and there's always a shock when you have a woman taking care of all these items and getting down and meeting with several engineers that are, most of the time, men. I love what I do and I treat each project as a puzzle - how to put it together in the best way, and see them being built, and driving by them, and using them. It's an amazing achievement to me. My main area of expertise is knowing how to put a set of drawings that is really buildable together, and that we can pull a permit. I have teams of people that I mentor and that work with me, so I have to guide them, check what they're doing, and create a work plan for them. I have meetings with engineers and clients, and it's a parallel progress where you update the client on how the project is going, but then you have to meet every single week with the consultants to see how everyone is integrating all the designs within the one building.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jessica
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to willingness. I arrived to the U.S. with $350. I didn't have any connections. I didn't get my first job until 9 months of searching, because I had zero experience, like work experience. So even though I arrived here and I was an architect, I never worked in architecture in Colombia - my experience has been here. I had to sell myself to the first company that was willing to hire someone with zero experience in the U.S. I said, just give me a chance, give me a test, give me something. I was earning less than when I was doing a waitress job or doing several jobs before I got my real job. It has always been willingness - I have always given a lot more than I think what they were expecting from me. I think that the work is here, it's just that you need to prove willingness. You need to be humble, you need to pay your dues, you need to be willing to give extra effort to learn.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Don't assume anything. That is what I always say to everyone - never assume. If you don't know, raise your hand and say, I don't know. If you don't understand, raise your hand and say, I don't understand. Don't do anything. Don't spend one second of your life developing anything if you don't understand a reason, or the why, or the function, because it is wasting time. You need to understand. You don't get a good answer if you don't have a good question. You need to understand the question to get an answer. That is true for projects - don't do something because someone tells you to do something if you don't understand. Ask for an explanation. Understand it, then next time, you're gonna do it by yourself. You are not gonna be expecting someone to tell you, because you don't know. The other thing, as I say, it's very important to know what you know, but it's more important to know what you don't know, and raise your hand and say, I don't know this, because no one is expected to know everything. But the problem is people trying to act like they know everything. If you don't know, it's okay not to know. So I said, don't assume anything. Always find out the why, or the what.
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