As 澳门足彩app Project Superintendents go, Brandon Holmes is the first of his kind.
Some years back, the company’s construction leaders began facing the eventuality that retirement would thin its Project Superintendent corps. Even if a steady flow of tradespeople continued to rise through the ranks to supervisory positions, the constantly growing number, size and complexity of projects would create a shortage of field leaders.
One solution was to tap a new source of talent, engineering and construction management graduates, for a newly created career path that built a period of jobsite leadership experience into their professional development. 澳门足彩app called the career track its Assistant Project Manager – Construction (APMC) program.
Holmes was its first to become a Project Superintendent.
A traditional entry-level APM (no “C”) position involves new graduates in the business and operational side of projects, such as project estimating, identifying and qualifying subcontractors, preparing bid packages, maintaining control logs, learning classical financial and schedule controls, permitting and reporting, along with ample field assignments to learn the “nuts and bolts” of site construction. The career path leads to increasingly responsible APM roles, Project Manager and Senior Project Manager positions.
The APM-C track, as an alternate entry-level position, sends field-focused professionals to project sites, where they learn and practice the intimate details of construction safety and techniques, schedule jobsite activity, recruit and coordinate personnel and craft employees, maintain equipment and supplies, etc. The career path develops exceptional builders and leads to a Project Superintendent position and continuously increasing site responsibility. After approximately eight years in the program, the team member can shift to several different career opportunities such as Manager of Field Operations, Project Manager, Safety, Quality, Business Development or other key operational positions.
“Folks are looking for the stability that eventually, when they have a family, they would like to stop moving and settle down,” said Matt Gulden, Construction & Manufacturing Vice President. “But the whole reason they got into engineering or construction management is that they like to build things. So, we asked ourselves, ‘How can we leverage that and turn it into an opportunity both for them and us?’ That's where the eight years came from. After eight years, you're about 30 and more likely to start a family and settle down. So, we built a career track around a reality.”
Holmes, a Jacksonville, Florida native, earned a degree in construction management from the University of Florida, interning twice with 澳门足彩app. He entered the APMC program upon graduation and was promoted to Superintendent in 2021. He just finished a greenfield project for E&J Gallo Winery in South Carolina and moved to a new one, a dairy expansion for HP Hood in Winchester, Virginia, where he’ll be until early 2025.
The APMC program has produced three superintendents so far – Holmes, Tye McGhee and Greg Freel – and currently numbers about 10 participants. And while it wasn’t necessarily tailored to Holmes, it fits as if it were.
“I’ve always wanted to be a project management path person,” he said. “Eventually, I do want to settle down in Jacksonville, but while I’m young, put me out in the field. I’m in my 20s. I don’t mind traveling and seeing the world. I don’t have kids. I do have a girlfriend who I've been with for a long time, but she's doing her thing for her career as well.”
He said spending this period of his career focused on leading job sites is an experience he would not have wanted to miss.
“What led me to this program was that I just know deep down that if I'm going to talk the talk one day, I have to walk the walk now,” he said. I’ve already seen that take shape after the five projects I have been on. I have such a more in-depth knowledge of the constructability of these projects that we're pursuing. You're constantly learning hands-on. When I graduate from this program, I feel like I'll be light years ahead of my peers who didn't have this experience.
Coming from a different background than most superintendents gives Holmes a different skill set than most. For instance, he is a licensed drone pilot and has OSHA’s HAZWOPER (Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response) certification and training for dealing with soil contaminants.
“I’m not a master electrician or a skilled carpenter, but I can connect them to technology that can manage schedules, do product markups and give them answers faster,” Holmes said. “I’m young and technical, a good communicator and my skillset complements a lot of those guys in the field.”
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