Changing industries doesn’t mean starting over
When I moved into the world of industrial and residential construction in the Sea to Sky, I did not bring my hard hat and blueprint background. I come from a world of warehouses, robots, continuous improvement and wearing suits to the office. What I brought from my other experiences were:
Structure and precision from Deloitte
People-first mindset and execution from Apple
Flow and foresight from Supply Chain and Logistics
Remote logistics management from Global IO (now Deloitte too!)
Mining and logistics have more alike with each other than construction but when it comes down to it, it is a surface difference. One has haul trucks and robots, the other has cranes. One’s measured in tonnage and seconds saved, the other in square footage. But what I have discovered was that the skills I honed in that ‘previous life’ weren’t just transferable-they were a competitive edge.
Mining: The World of Remote Logistics
In mining, nothing is easy to get to. The weather can shut down your roads, cave in your shaft and trap your equipement and most importantly, people. Your equipment parts arrive weeks and months late. Suppliers are hundreds of kilometers away. To make it, you must:
Orchestrate complex supply chains to remote sites
Build trust with local communities (in my case it was Mexicans, but the same applies for First Nations) to get work done respectfully and collaboratively.
Anticipate risks before they become downtime and use the unscheduled downtime to run maintenance.
Those habits-thinking three steps ahead, making the most of limoted resources and forging strong relationships- are still at the core of how I run my projects today.
Deloitte, MWPVL & Groupe v2: Process thinking on steroids!
In this world that took up the first 5 of my professional career, I learned the power of structured thinking. From LEAN Six Sigma to advanced supply chain analytics, I gained the tools to break down messy problems into smaller, solvable pieces. I also witnessed how much speed, quality and clarity improve when everyone works from the same playbook. Collaboration, open communication and team work are the keys to success in this industry.
Apple: The Customer Experience Standard
Apple taught me something that mining and consulting on their own never could: the human factor. At Apple, the customer isn’t just part of the process; they are the process. This taught me to see every stakeholder-the GC, supplier, homeowner- as a person whose journey I can influence for the better. I have carried this customer-first mindset ever since and it has been one of the things that have kept me engaged. Without people, there are no projects.
West Coast Construction: The Balance of Structure and Flexibility
Coming out West, to BC specifically, I had to shed some of my overly rigid habits that govern the East Coast. Projects here move at a different pace-sometimes slower, sometimes more fluid. I learned to keep the structure that ensures quality, and adapt my cimmunication and process to teh people and culture I’m working with. How the crews run themselves individually and learning to surf the change have made be a better Project Manager with whom relationships can be created.
The Lesson
Once you learn to see the systems behind the work; how supply chains, relationships and risk management all connect, you can apply those skills to almost any field. Mining made me resourceful; consulting made me precise; Apple made me people-focused and construction made me adaptable.
That combination? That’s my toolkit.