Everybody Starts Somewhere

Every story has a beginning and every career has to start somewhere. This is Jacob's story.

When Jacob Milton nervously walked into his first meeting with Kendrick, he didn't think he had much to offer. He was halfway through his construction engineering & management degree and had applied to many companies looking for his first internship. His classmates had all gotten set up, but he kept getting no response from his applications. He hadn't grown up in the trades like most of his classmates so had no experience to crow about, but he knew that was where he wanted to be. All through school, his talents for math and science moved him towards the technical side of life but, while he could crunch numbers when needed, he knew he wouldn't be satisfied sitting behind a screen all day. He wanted something more hands-on, something more collaborative, more relational. But how would he get his foot in the door? The answer to that question is a truly "Optimum" answer: through a relationship.

When Covid hit during his freshman year, everybody went home and sat in front of their computers for a year and a half straight. That summer Jacob just had to get out of the house so he picked up a job at Lowes. At least there he could be around people, put his hands on tools and supplies, and talk to the trade guys coming through the store. This was all well and good but he felt like he didn't have much to offer and the path forward was not clear. However, by a fortunate turn of the wheel, who should he meet there, but a kid he went to school with back in Portland named Luke Rainsford who he hadn't seen in years. The last name might ring a bell. Luke told him that he worked with his dad doing commercial construction over the summers and that he should check out Optimum. Luke put a good word in for him and, the next thing he knew, he was sitting in front of company co-founder, Kendrick. Terrified.

If you haven't met Kendrick, the first thing you will notice is that he has a presence. Jacob was sure he was going to be exposed for his lack of experience and that would be that for his internship. But Kendrick leaned back in his chair and carried the conversation along, picking his brain about school, life, his outlook, making him feel at ease. At the end, he leaned forward and said the obvious, but the verdict wasn't what Jacob was expecting: 

"You are a blank slate…...so we will treat you like a blank slate and start filling it in. You don't know hardly anything and we won't expect you to. Ask any question you like….of anybody…at any time. We'll teach you. When can you start?"

While many college kids make their way by filling out the right forms and checking the boxes, it was the relationship and recommendation of his friend that Kendrick relied on to take this chance on a young man. It was the trust in Luke's word that got Jacob in the door. Much to his happy surprise, as he went along, he saw that this is how they operate on every level at Optimum. 

He spent his first weeks following his buddy Luke around like a lost puppy, carrying stuff, watching, learning, getting his hands dirty. Every day he was asked to do things he'd never done and amazingly no one ever got mad at him for messing up, not understanding what to do, or asking a dumb question. While everybody was working full tilt and things moved fast, he could ask anyone on site and they would stop and take the time to explain and teach. Nobody was too important to help out; even as the new guy he was treated as an equal.

Speaking of getting hands dirty, pretty soon he cut a chunk out of his thumb (a good old-fashioned rookie mistake) while working on some drop ceiling. Being sidelined in your first months on a job is not ideal, but Kendrick and Ryan put him in the office and got him involved on the commercial construction coordination side of things which proved to be right in his wheelhouse. The cool thing about this was that he could see how the Optimum's priority on relationships is the grease that makes the whole machine go, not just the worksite. Trust and clear communication is the rule everywhere, between Ryan and Kendrick and the project managers, between the managers, the superintendents, and subcontractors. The relationships are both the glue and the grease needed to hold it all together and keep it running smoothly. One of Jacob's office mates with more time in the construction arena said to him "you just don't find people like this anywhere."

But how do you think they do it, Jacob? Well, they invest in people for the long term. They do everything assuming that you're going to be sticking around for a long time. They consider the time spent on people as time well spent. It might be more "efficient" to make the new guy get coffee so the rest of us can get the "real work" done. But if you look at him as someone who you want around for a long time, he's worth investing in, worth risking a bit of time on, a few more mistakes, and more explaining, on the way. And these investments don't just pay off in a decade when he has enough experience to "be useful." They make a job site that people are happy to be working on, a place where everyone's talents and energy are used, and, who knows, the new kid might see things with fresh eyes and ask the dumb question at the Monday meeting that makes everybody stop and think, "Yeah… why do we do it like that?"

Jacob is back at school now in Bangor, even more excited about his studies than he was before, but his heart and mind are still in Portland with the Optimum crew. He says they're keeping in touch and throwing work his way in between classes and studying. When I mentioned that this was a really great place to get his career started he said, "It's not just a start, I couldn't imagine working anywhere else."