BC Senior Staff Engineer Jaclyn Lauer shares how the opportunities in her BC role transformed her career path. Joining BC’s Columbia, S.C., office in 2014, Jaclyn primarily worked in infrastructure with a focus on wastewater rehabilitation. After a big move across the country to Wyoming, her role evolved into a technical-focused position in which she discovered her love for working and collaborating with clients. Jaclyn has now charted her career path to a Subject Matter Expert and Client Service Manager.
“By taking the first step and asking for these career opportunities, we can open doors that we didn’t even know were doors to begin with.”
Transcript
Jaclyn Lauer: My career path at BC has not been a typical one. I started out in the Columbia, South Carolina office working with infrastructure, doing wastewater rehabilitation for sewer lines, manholes, and I really liked it. It got me in the field, got to go outside, I got to go all around the country, got to work on multiple different projects, got to work with some really cool people.
I think in 2017, my partner and I decided to make a big jump and move to Wyoming. It was three years into my career and I remember being scared out of my mind walking into my supervisor’s office and just asking her, or telling her, “Hey, I’m getting ready to move to Wyoming.” And she looked me square in the eye and said, “We will make this work. We will figure something out.” And turns out I’m more efficient here in Wyoming at my home office. And through this move, I feel like it actually opened doors to me that I didn’t even know were doors to begin with and just allowed me to grow so fast in a position that didn’t really exist yet. BC, let me create the position that I wanted to be in.
Being near nature. I guess you’d call it a hobby, but a lot of my hobbies stem from that. And one of them too is rock climbing. I didn’t think that I would fall in love with something that seems so dangerous. Excitement about climbing up a boulder and getting to the top of it and just standing there and feeling the strength and the power that it took for me, little old me, to get up that Boulder and stand on top of it proudly and just know that I accomplished something.
One thing that can instantly make my day better is a doughnut. Any kind of doughnut, I do not care, all donuts are not created equal but all donuts will make me happy. I thought coming to BC that I wanted to do fieldwork the rest of my life. Well, it turns out I really, really love working with clients. And maybe you want to go and talk to clients more or become a client service manager and win work for BC. I mean the opportunities, again, are endless. And if you don’t ask for them then you don’t know what’s out there.