Inside EDGE: Black & Veatch
Looking for a head start on your career with hands-on, meaningful work that builds skills, confidence and professional networks? Check out our EDGE program. It's a 3-4 year long rotational program at the beginning of your career. You get to explore career paths and experience a field or client assignment. And it's open to multiple majors/disciplines.
Find EDGE openings for new college grads at bv.com/campus or apply after joining Black & Veatch.
Find direct openings via https://careers.bv.com/go/College/366...
Transcription:
My name is Kristina Hammerquist.
I'm John Handley.
Huda Chaudry.
I have a degree in civil engineering.
Chemical engineering, and a masters of civil engineering.
Electrical and computer engineering.
My title currently is Projects Controls Senior EDGE Associate.
I am currently a Project Development Analyst with Diode Ventures.
Proposal manager with Global Renewable Energy.
I had some difficulty between undergrad and grad school,
and when I expressed that to my research adviser during my Masters
she knew some folks here at Black & Veatch
in the area that I was interested in.
Hearing about some of their work
in some of the things that they got to do on a day to day basis
I was blown away.
They encouraged me to apply to Black and Veatch
which I think in the past was always something that
wasn't the right area of work
or it wasn't something that I thought that I could get into.
Six months later those same people that I got to learn from
were my co-workers and supervisors.
I'd heard that you can move around the company pretty easily,
and I guess that kind of led me right to the EDGE program
for that same reason.
My gut just kind of told me
I've always loved traveling and trying new things,
and I thrive off of being challenged.
And that was when I was like okay I'm gonna try to EDGE program.
I actually started off in Power Delivery.
I got hired in just as an electrical engineer.
And then did a mini rotation where I went to Telecom to work.
That's around the time I got into the EDGE program,
and started looking into a field assignment.
I think I got a lot of warning
beforehand that it is a very different environment,
but it's something that I actually ended up loving.
My first rotation was as a Water Resources Engineer
in our Planning and Asset Management group in Water.
It kind of hit this range
of very technical very engineering related processes and calculations
to kind of the business behind the decisions
that are made on a city level
I think once you get out of that kind of fresh start period
you start to gain your footing, and you start to know
who are the right people to reach out to for certain questions.
What are the questions that you actually need to be asking.
What are the things you need to prioritize.
You're paired with the champion at the beginning.
My champion was chosen
because of the business line that I was interested in.
It's a really good look into what your
career can look like 30 years down the road
and what opportunities there are.
You know whether I stay in Power
or move on to a different business line
there's just constant learning opportunities
and ways to challenge myself.
Another reason why joined Black & Veatch is that
I noticed they are highly involved with Engineers Without Borders.
It's crazy how your standard of living can be
completely changed from just some power.
I started in the civil site group,
and I knew I wanted to
try something a little bit different in engineering
for my second rotation.
And I'd heard of project controls.
When you're on site
people see that you don't have as much experience,
so they're willing to show you everything.
So I asked questions maybe 100 questions a day.
Especially in the beginning.
Because I don't know what anything was,
and the superintendents would take me out and showed me
this is what a combiner box looks like.
This is how power will be generated.
It's important to remember as an EDGE professional that
you want to add value to the team
because there is a learning curve
and you're that team's investing in you.
My experiences in the EDGE program and through the PRIDE ERG
and being at Black & Veatch in general
are definitely gearing me toward the kind of position
or the kind of career that I am after ultimately.
Get into the EDGE program because it's a safe space
to figure out what you want to do.
It's not just a destination it's a journey.
Whatever you choose don't panic because it's not written in stone.
I mean you can always change it, and that's why I love the EDGE program.
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