Her Story
About kaleigh
I started my career in the construction industry with Webcor, a general contracting firm, where I began at the reception desk answering phone calls. Within a year, I worked my way up to administrative assistant and then project coordinator for a 58-story high-rise building in downtown Los Angeles. After that, I moved to Ani Group, a property owner that acted as their own general contractor, where I worked on what was originally planned as a 60-story high-rise that ended up being about 58 stories. I was with them from the beginning of the project to completion, starting from excavation to about mid-construction of the high-rise. Between Webcor, where I started from mid to end of construction, and Ani Group, I have completed a full high-rise project lifecycle, just with different companies. Currently, I work with JLL, a property management firm, where our client is the state of Tennessee. I manage maintenance projects ranging from $25,000 to $250,000 throughout the state of Tennessee for state-owned buildings. My typical day involves receiving project assignments from the Director of the Department of General Services, developing scopes of work, holding bid walks with contractors, managing the RFI process, awarding to the lowest bidder, coordinating with clients and tenants to schedule work, conducting punch walks to ensure completion according to scope, and closing out projects financially. What I'm most proud of is that I came from the healthcare field with no construction background and have been able to advance from reception to assistant project manager, about to be promoted to project manager, which is kind of unusual to do without going to school for it.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with kaleigh
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Communication is the most important of everything. Building client relationships, not just with your clients, but with customers, is extremely important, so getting out there and getting out of your comfort zone if you're an introvert like myself to be able to make those relationships is really important in really any role. I mean, it goes across the board, whether you're in healthcare or in construction. Building those client relationships, those relationships with your peers, your mentors, and the facilities team is extremely important in creating success for yourself. At work, I make sure to be social and make those connections because it is very important, even though I'm more of a homebody and not particularly the party type of person.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Material costs have gone up just because of the economy, and that has influenced the pricing structure. Since our client is the state of Tennessee and they go with the lowest bidder, that has impacted us a little bit. Also, JLL's contract with the state is coming up for the following year, so we're under RFP right now, and other people are getting a chance to bid on the state contract, so that does have its challenges as well. We used to sit with a client at the Tennessee Tower, and we do still sit at the tower, but we can no longer sit with a client until they award the new contract. So it's kind of up in the air whether we're going to win it or not. We won't know until July, but that does come with its own challenges with communications and how we're communicating with the state versus how we used to communicate with the state and tenants in their spaces.
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