Week 13 – Executive Interview – Andrew McElwee
August 15, 2018
Week 13/14 – PDPM – Adam Klebba
August 16, 2018
Hello everyone,
Last Tuesday I had the opportunity to interview Scott MacIntyre. He is a Senior Project Manager at the GM Warren Tech Center. It was great to learn more about his background, experiences, and responsibilities.
Scott had his first glimpse into the construction industry during high school where he participated in a vocational tech program. He started working in the construction industry when he was 18 years old and landed in carpentry. Some of the things that drew Scott to the construction industry were being able to create something with his hands, working outdoors, good pay at a young age, and room for advancement. Scott was working for a non-union residential builder at the time. When asked about a mentor who had an important impact on him, Scott brought up his first superintendent who taught him much about leadership and work ethic. Some of the important qualities that Scott learned from his mentor were, never ask someone under you to do something that you wouldn’t do yourself and also to always work together as a team. Throughout our interview Scott often referenced both of these qualities as important attributes in a leader.
Even from a young age, Scott showed great leadership potential. At 20 years old he was already running his own crew. After doing non-union residential work for a time, Scott learned about the carpenters union and found that it offered better pay, benefits, training, and room for advancement so he joined. Besides the residential company he worked for, Scott has worked for Barton Malow and Ideal. Scott spoke about the risks of chasing the bigger paycheck and leaving a company where you are happy. As he said, a company’s culture makes a huge difference in your happiness.
Scott worked his way through the trades and became a superintendent and from there a general superintendent. Eventually, he was promoted to Senior Project Manager. Today as a Senior Project Manager, some of his key responsibilities include implementing and enforcing the PDPM program at the WTC, keeping morale up, providing people with the training and tools that they need to succeed, and much more. Scott’s favorite quote is,” Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” by Sir Richard Bronson.
Scott has many leadership methods that have served him well over the years. He surrounds himself with smart people. He doesn’t micromanage because it doesn’t allow people to learn from their mistakes and they will become reliant on someone telling them what to do instead of thinking for themselves. Scott pointed out that there’s always more than one way to do something. He has noticed that some methods of doing things work better for some people than they do for others, so being over-controlling on means and methods can have negative effects. As a leader, you have to learn to delegate responsibilities, as it is impossible for one person to control everything. Also, leaders need to treat people right and never degrade anyone.
Scott also emphasized setting yourself apart from your peers by making yourself a “go-to guy” and never turning down work. Scott credited this and hard work as a key part of being successful because you have to be willing to do things that others aren’t willing to do, whether that be working several weekends in a row or answering the call for an emergency job late at night. Scott stressed that to be successful you always need to be bettering yourself and to “never sit stagnant”.
Some advice that Scott has for someone joining the industry today, is not to think that you have to go to college. He pointed out that college isn’t for everyone and that working in the trades offers great career paths. Scott brought up that the industry is in a crisis right now because of a lack of tradesmen. Not enough people from the younger generation are joining the construction workforce after high school and are pursuing college degrees instead. Scott clarified that he wasn’t criticizing college students, but advocated for high schools, parents, and advisors to start informing the younger generation about the benefits, opportunities, and career paths available in the construction industry. Scott is happy to see that there are some programs now that are reaching out to young people doing just that.
I really enjoyed talking with Scott and learning from his experience and advice. Thank you, Scott, for your time and knowledge.
On Wednesday this week, I was able to visit the Milford Proving Grounds with another intern, Manuel Roque. It was great to see what another Ideal intern’s daily schedule entails. I also enjoyed seeing the hard-dollar side of things, as I have been in PDPM this summer. Manuel showed me what he has to do for G-compliance on air handlers. I am glad that I was able to make the visit and I would like to thank Manuel for showing me around.
Last Thursday, all the interns met to have a mock speech for our final intern presentations. This was very helpful in showing what we needed to work on for the actual speech. The interns will be giving the final speech this Friday which will also be my last day at Ideal this summer.
I want to thank everyone at Ideal for such an amazing experience this summer, especially the Warren Tech Center team. I learned so much and had a great time. I want to thank my mentor, Dan Salkowski, in particular. He was a great mentor to me this summer and I am very grateful for all the time and support he gave me. I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor. This is my final blog post for the summer so thank you to everyone for reading my blog posts and showing interest in my experiences this summer, it means a lot.
Sincerely,
Jacob Rhodes
