June 25, 2017

Although I wrote last week, I have not written concerning the past two weeks. During the past couple weeks, I have had my best job opportunity because I want to work with a company.

Before I start writing about my experience, I would like to share some words of wisdom about the professional world. Since I have applied to hundreds of jobs and interviewed with many companies. I have found that the interviewer always asks the following question: What do you want to do (especially if you are networking with someone)? They may also ask 'What is your five year goals?' What do you see yourself doing in five years?" Where do you see yourself in five years? When people join academia, you should start networking with people with the same passions as you. I have interviewed a lot, and one thing that I have found is that employers only want to hire people that are passionate about their work. Interviewers see that I am not passionate about their work and company; therefore, I am not offered a position at the company. People want to help you pursue your passion. Network with people and businesses that have your passion as their business, and they will help you succeed and recommend you for opportunities. Pursue your passion and let people know your passion, and they will help you because they want you to thrive. You will only thrive if you are doing something that you are passionate about. I never really felt that this was true until I tried it. I don't think that I was ever really allowed to try it because I could not find the company that I would fit in. My passion is to make buildings as efficient as possible. Contractors don't do that. A sister by the name of Chamonix Larsen came to speak at a BYU Idaho Design and Construction Management Department seminar, and she spoke of her profession with Morrison Hershfield.

The company that I am interviewing with is Morrison Hershfield, and they do consulting, focusing on the building envelope. I developed a passion for mastering the building envelope during a Methods and Materials class. The subject of the building envelope mainly resists the elements that it is exposed to. I thought to myself. Why are we paying for water and energy, if our building are designed to resist water and energy from entering the structure? Can't we just harvest the water and energy to have self-sustaining buildings? I have developed an incredible vision for my idea. My goal is to master the building envelope as I work a Morrison Hershfield; then, revolutionize the building design and construction industry. Utilities infrastructure are unnecessary according to my philosophy.

The Mormon Channel exposed me to an opportunity, where my concept can be implemented readily. A family went on a charity vacation building a home for a family in Mexico, but the family's patriarch wanted to have another experience like this for his young men's group of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He found that it would be too dangerous to take his group back to Mexico. He worked hours to figure out another possible opportunity similar to his family charity vacation. He learned of the Navajo Nation, finding a contact to help build a home for the family. The Navajo Nation is a nation about the size of West Virginia in the state of Utah. Most do not have water or electricity as they live in trailers. The Navajo Nation leader's provided forty thousand dollars for materials to build a house for a family. The father speaking in the Mormon Channel podcast asked the Navajo leaders how many more homes need to be built. They said ten thousand without hesitation. My concept would be directly implemented not requiring infrastructure of sewage, water lines, and electrical lines. I want to build these nations with my inventions. There are many people that can benefit from my concepts. Can you imagine a community or city that was built for refuges because they have no homes? There is plenty of land. We can build sanctuaries for forgotten people that have no foundation or infrastructure for their people. There are millions of refuges, and I would like to help them provide for themselves. I don't want to only serve the forgotten people, but every people. Every person would not need to be dependent on utilities for water or electricity. They would never worry of water or electricity outages again.

I am taking the Capstone Class of my degree of Design and Construction Management, and one of the tasks of the curriculum is to evaluate our personal nature and see how you can develop the traits of leadership. Leaders lead their own lives. They do not take whatever opportunity that comes in their way. They have a passion and purpose to contribute to the world and pursue. Before this semester, I was just hoping to get a construction management job because it is my field of study; however, I have realized that I have always acted as an exception. I would interview with contractors and say that I want to be an architect. This does not make sense for a contractor. Why are you interviewing with me? At the end of my studies at BYU Idaho, I realized the recommendation for me to pursue architecture after getting my degree in Design and Construction Management was not a good recommendation. It was good to learn my true passion, but my path to be an architectural success would have been very strenuous. If I pursued architecture, I would need a three plus master's degree, requiring more than three more years of schooling, because I don't have an architecture bachelors' degree. My law teacher was an architect, and his wage was about thirty-three thousand dollars. The wage is too low for the monetary investment of the education. The University of Utah costs forty thousand dollars a year just on tuition. I estimate that I would accumulate at least two hundred thousand dollars in debt. Chamonix Larsen's seminar and networking with her to pursue my passion of building consulting was a miracle. The discovery of the opportunity with Morrison Hershfield is the only job interview that has been completely sincere in my ambitions because their business fits well with my passions. I was writing about developing leadership traits. I have been coaching a classmate, and he has been coaching me. My personal development evaluation has been very task oriented particularly with Morrison Hershfield. I believe that the task and goal orientation to develop the traits of extraversion and openness has been key to my obtaining a second job interview with the company. I am waiting for their response to the interviews. I plan to look into the duties of the position that I have been interviewing for, and ask the people that I have a network with at the company about aspects that I have questions about.