Constructing a Future She Never Thought She Could Have
Gabby Jones is graduating with a high-salary, rich-benefits job right around the corner
Gabby Jones was drawn to the construction industry at an early age, when she helped her grandpa with his work in the field. When the time came to look for opportunities after high school, she and her family looked for a program that could support that interest.
“I was actually doing a tech program in construction management during my senior year in high school and my tech teacher was a VTSU alumnus. I was asking him questions about construction, and he pointed me to this program,” she remembers.
While Gabby and her parents had looked at programs as far away as North Carolina, they were happy to see the job placement rate and student reviews for the nearby VTSU program exceeded many of the other programs they’d encountered.
“The job placement rate after graduation was 99 percent,” she said. “So I mean, seeing other programs, they were not that high, and the connections here were amazing. I also came for orientation and met with the teachers, and I could feel the vibe that they encourage you to do things and expect you to be successful when they set you up for an opportunity.”
Gabby originally planned to work “in the field” for a construction business—working one-on-one with subcontractors at jobs to make sure materials are on time and work proceeds efficiently. But her experience at VTSU gave her the skills and confidence to seek a position in the office, actually managing projects.
“As a construction manager, you’re managing everyone in the crew—so you’re trying to give the owner a good quality project,” she states.
Gabby credits hands-on learning for getting her to that next level. She was so impressed with what she learned at VTSU that she extended what she had planned as a two-year stint to a four-year bachelor program.
“I’m a big advocate for they show me once, I do it myself, and then it sticks with me the rest of the time,” she notes. She found validation of the quality of her education at a recent collegiate competition in Albany during her senior year. There, she and her VTSU team participated with other students from around the country on a simulated project modeled after a real-life construction job.
“It was for Baker Construction,” she recalls. “It took them three years to do the pre-construction part, and we had to do that in eight hours in the room. So, all the bids and the logistics, the schedule . . . and then we had to actually present our project in front of the company that did it and go up against different colleges. All the classes that you’ve done throughout the years lead up to that. So, it all comes together in eight hours,” she adds.
While the pressure of the competition was intense, Gabby said it reinforced the confidence she found at VTSU.
“You look back at it and you’re like, you did all that work, you’re going up against all those colleges, but that’s real-life experience. And you meet with huge companies that are all over the world. It was just amazing,” she relates.
She also credits much of her success to the three internships she did during her four years at VTSU—opportunities available to students through the rich faculty and alumni network at the University. All of the internships helped her to be where she is today, but one company stood out for her.
“I worked in my junior year and through the (subsequent) summer as an intern for a project engineer,” Gabby says. “The environment was great and the owner saw potential (in me) and started making me do more things that I thought I wouldn’t be able to do. That made a pretty big impact on me, and I knew that I wanted to be with them after I graduate,” she explains.
Gabby will join Farrington Construction in Shelburne as a project engineer after receiving her bachelor’s degree in May. As an assistant project manager, she’ll help the president, the VP and the senior project manager with proposals, estimates, schedules, financial planning and whatever else they need.
“I start the Monday after graduation. The salary is amazing, the benefits are amazing, and really the environment there—they want to look out for you. They’re actually coming to my graduation, if that says anything—not a lot of companies do that.”
What advice would she give other students with her interests?
“I would say definitely come to VTSU,” she expressed. “If you’re in (high school) tech, I’d look at this program, see where people are now. I mean, we have alumni that are VPs and senior project managers. That are making so much money. The opportunities here are endless. And the teachers really want you to be successful. They push you; they lay everything out and you just have to take the opportunities.”