LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Victor Hernandez, an assistant project manager for Skanska who has seen his share of promotions, shares advice on advancing your career.
Construction can be a very demanding industry to work in, but with that, it can also be incredibly rewarding. Watching a project you helped build come to life is a rare experience, but as construction professionals, we get to live it every day.
Getting started
I attended the University of California, Irvine, where I majored in civil engineering. The curriculum was heavily design-focused with different engineering specializations such as geotechnology, water, environmental, and more.
I gravitated toward structural engineering because in that field things are not supposed to move. Equations get more complicated when you are dealing with elements that move like water and transportation.
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Having said that, it wasn’t until I attended a career fair at UCI that I saw how the construction industry interfaced with civil engineers. Skanska had representation at the fair and had recently finished construction at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. I’m a big football fan so this was very intriguing to learn more about.
After that meeting, I was given the opportunity to start my construction career at Skanska.
Appreciate the variety
Like many new graduates, I didn’t know what I wanted to do after college, but there was, of course, pressure to land a full-time position after graduation. Throughout my time as an undergraduate, I was laser-focused on completing my required curriculum and therefore hadn’t done too many internships.
If I could go back, I’d make more of an effort to be involved in the engineering community as an undergraduate, so I could explore the variety of opportunities available and would advise that current aspiring civil engineers do the same.
That said, upon being hired, I joined Skanska’s Core Competency Training Program, which involved two years of four-month rotations in different departments and projects such as cost control, field engineering, safety, and estimating. During my time in the program, my favorite rotation was as an assistant superintendent in Los Angeles on the D Line Subway Extension Project (alternatively known as the Westside or Purple Line project), where I gained experience overseeing the piling and decking operations at Wilshire/Fairfax Station. The program gave me a holistic understanding of how the construction industry works, and after I completed the training program, I came back to the D Line project as a field engineer full time.
Over the past 10 years on the project, I have been promoted multiple times – most recently from project engineer to assistant project manager. Each role brought a new scope of work, and as I gained experience, I became increasingly involved in different aspects of the project.
As a field engineer, my tasks involved keeping track of quantities, takeoffs for materials, and quality control in the day-to-day operations. At the time, my primary focus was on excavation and support of excavation work.
As a project engineer, I took on the role of area lead for Wilshire/Fairfax Station, which entailed longer-term planning and management of the operations and overall buildout of the station. I was also assigned two field engineers, which gave me a taste of management and supporting the growth of other team members.
During this phase of the project, the primary scopes of work included the station’s concrete buildout, removal of support of excavation, and coordination with the tunnel interfaces.
As an assistant project manager, my role grew to working on three stations, with the main scopes of work being architectural and room finishes, equipment commissioning, and closeout.
With Skanska’s work on the project complete, I am transitioning to a role on the Los Angeles International Airport Airfield and Terminal Modernization Project.
Embrace large projects
My career in construction really started with the D Line project, one of LA Metro’s biggest undertakings. While an incredibly exciting opportunity, there were several challenges along the way that were key to my growth as a construction engineer and now an assistant project manager.
Learning the ropes when first entering the industry was difficult. Understanding the various parts of the business and learning industry lingo, for example, was intimidating but something that came with time and more experience.
Regarding specific challenges on the D Line project, excavating through tar sands was a big hurdle. To combat this, we used state-of-the-art gas-sensing equipment and ventilation to ensure the environment was safe for us to work in.
Stand-up time (how long a vertical face of dirt can support itself before it starts to slough) of the excavated material was not very good, so supporting the excavation was challenging. We had to reduce the height of our excavated lifts for lagging, post-grout any voids, etc. Maintenance of equipment was also tough due to the sticky nature of the tar sands, which caused problems with exporting the material.
Working on a project of such scale allowed me to learn and gain firsthand experience in how project decisions were made. An important lesson I learned, and have continued to take with me, was that decisions made today have effects on work that occurs years later.
Taking a holistic approach and getting all the necessary people involved to share their needs and expertise are central in making the best project decisions.
Be curious and ask questions
The challenges I enjoyed tackling the most, which are common in underground construction, were the clever design details – our own kind of “easter eggs” – to get materials and equipment in and out. For example, temporary access points left in the structure for construction purposes and rebar lap splices swapped for couplers to remove 50-foot struts or bring in a 70-foot escalator months later are some of the subtle adjustments we made. These were the very simple tweaks and bits of forethought that were my favorite to see once the project came to fruition.
A project of great magnitude such as the D Line Extension can’t be done without a great team of industry veterans and teachers who are eager to help younger generations of professionals learn and apply themselves in the field. I have been lucky to come across some of the greatest minds of construction throughout my career and soak up what I can from them.
To that end, sharing knowledge goes both ways and is a big component of career growth. The more work I did, the more I was involved in the planning and coordination of project elements. Over time, colleagues began to approach me for my opinion, and I had a team that looked to me for direction, which came with additional responsibilities but was a great feeling.
If I were to give advice to my younger self, I would tell him that he’s going to have the opportunity to take on challenging work, which will at times be intimidating. But I would also tell him to ask questions early on and know that he was entering into a line of work that would be exciting and enriching and affect many others long term.
