This is the first guest post The Trailer has done. In this post, Utsavkumar A. Kachhadiya will talk about his journey born and raised overseas and how he came to the US for college and to start his career. I have a fair number of foreign born university students and young construction pros reach out to me. I can offer advice and support but I don't truly know how it feels to be in a foreign born person's shoes. I hope that this post will resonate with international students and construction pros. I also hope that it will help them know there are others like them who are working hard to figure things out and grow through the construction industry. Finally, I hope it will help people like me better understand and support international students.
The Journey
Written by Utsavkumar A. Kachhadiya
BACKGROUND
Creating infrastructure that enhances and connects human lives is what attracted me to construction. Growing up in a family involved in construction, my journey in construction began at a very early age. Since, I was a child all I wanted to do was follow in the footsteps of my father, to be an engineer, build infrastructure that brings positive growth in the society. After high school, I decided to come to the United States for further education. The idea behind that was to get exposed to advanced construction methodologies, construction technology, while being a part of multi-cultural environment. Being an 18-year old introvert kid, demanding to go out on his own, my parents were hesitant to let me go ahead with it, but they understood that in order to grow and test oneself, they have to leave their safety net and take on challenges.
EDUCATIONAL JOURNEY IN UNITED STATES
While on the flight, I made my mind aware about challenges that are waiting for me on the other side of the world. I was joining a civil engineering program (I didn’t know construction management program existed) at California State University, Northridge. In the beginning, it was challenging to adjust to a whole new culture, education system and doing everything alone. Although, I had always been introvert, coming to the US, I quickly learned that life becomes much easier when you just express yourself. During my undergraduate program, I was learning what I always wanted to learn, building physical structures. Although, my family didn’t want me to worry about day to day expenses, I grew to understand the value of taking care of myself on my own. My days in undergrad school, were defining in my life, as I started working part-time, learned cooking. Being independent does set your priorities straight. It was an enjoyable journey, where I made new friends was able to successfully graduate with Undergraduate degree through the support of my program faculty. Upon graduation, although I had plans to pursue graduate degree in Construction Management, I decided to work for a year or two to gain experience in the construction industry and satisfy my craving for working in the field, managing projects.
While working in construction industry, I discussed my goals to pursue graduate degree with my boss/mentor and they basically advised me that doing a graduate degree while the iron is hot would be beneficial rather than waiting. Upon further contemplation, while juggling work and preparing for getting into grad school, I successfully landed myself at Texas A&M University in Construction Engineering and Management. Now, a more mature me, experienced with the education system in the US, quickly achieved my graduate degree. During graduate school, I have taken wonderful courses which have elevated my knowledge about project management in the construction industry. I also got opportunity to engage in research projects with amazing peers and faculty. Also, I managed to get more essential management experience through internship and co-op education. Currently, I am in my last semester working towards graduation, although I will surely continue my education through industry experiences.
JOB SEARCH
As I am nearing my graduation, like many international graduate students, I am busy looking for my dream job. Lot of students will agree that job hunting can be a frustrating process, doing online applications while not getting any positive responses. It is frustrating as you wait to find out where will your career and life might lead to. Don’t worry, I am in the same boat as you, it is always difficult to find exactly what you are looking for. Through this struggle, it is very important to stay positive, be visible to potential employees and share your journey and experiences. Most importantly, try to network with people who are already where you want to be. Ask about their experiences and learn from them. Eventually, when we work hard to achieve something, there are great chances that we can achieve it.
I found Utsavkumar's journey interesting and relatable. No matter where we come from we often have similar goals and similar struggles in reaching those goals. My biggest piece of advice to college students looking for jobs or starting jobs is to just work. Work hard. Treat getting a job like you would treat actually working at a new job. Whether at a career fair or in a trailer on site, hard work can cover for inexperience while on the job training takes place and hard lessons are learned via real world success AND failures. Specifically to students, prep for your career fair like you would a final exam or championship game in your preferred sport. Know everything you can about the companies and people that are attending and then set a strategy to meet and impress these companies to increase your chances of getting an interview. Throughout the process just be you. It can be hard to get a job but if you try to be what you think a company wants and aren't true to yourself, your inner compass will be at least a little off.
If you would like to learn more about Utsavkumar, you can check out his LinkedIn profile or e-mail him at kachhadiyautsav29@gmail.com. If you would like to be a guest contributor on The Trailer feel free to contact me at postholedigger@thetrailer.com. Expert discussion and information is always great as are profiles of construction pros like Utsavkumar.
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