Sophia Alvarez

I graduated high school in 2008 and initially wanted to pursue a career in architecture at UT Austin, but I had a bump in the road and became a single mom, so I unfortunately had to drop out of school. I worked a lot of not very good jobs and small paying jobs, but I finally decided to go back to school at ITT Tech to do drafting and design. While I was pursuing my degree, they actually helped me find a job in drafting and design. I was looking for work in the architectural field, but I didn't have any experience, and this job offer came about doing telecommunications drafting and design. I've been in the field ever since, and I absolutely just have fell in love with this side of the engineering role that I didn't even know existed. I started doing cable TV and fiber design, doing the blueprints for clients like Spectrum, and the technician takes our prints and goes and builds it. I did that for about 5 years, and then I made my way into utility engineering, which is the company I'm now at. I've now been with this company going on 7 years. I started entry level as a Telecommunications Planner 1, and now I've made my way up to a senior manager. I'm working more closely with the clients now, working on getting more contracts with them and more work. My main area of expertise is doing pole permitting. I'm working my way into project management and I'm actually working on my project management certification. I want to continue to grow in this industry, and ultimately, my end goal is to be a director at an engineering company that does utility engineering.