Sundt Concrete Operations Manager Shawn Blubaum is getting ready to attend the Associated Schools of Construction Regions 6 & 7 Competition for the first time in his new role. He and a team from our company are traveling to Sparks, Nevada next week to meet and work with some of the most promising college students in the country.
It’s a great venue to find the next generation of construction professionals and for students to impress contractors that may one day hire them for their first jobs. There are 1,443 students from 49 universities registered for the event.
We are one of the few that sponsor a competition. Ours takes a real situation involving concrete construction and tasks the students with finding the best solution. Shawn and his team put the “problem” together and eagerly await solutions the students generate.
How much of a recruiting ground is this for Sundt?
The competition is huge for Sundt from a recruiting standpoint, as we are exposed to more than 1,300 students from schools across the country. Our concrete solutions problem is hosted in the Open Category, so we not only gain access to students from schools that we currently recruit, oftentimes we have schools participate from other regions that we are not actively recruiting. We have many Sundt employees who are former participants in the ASC Competition.
How did Sundt get involved with sponsoring the concrete problem?
In 2010, we made the decision to petition the competition to become a host. In 2011, we hosted our first concrete solutions problem in the open competition category.
The problems come from real scenarios. How often do students develop solutions similar to ones that worked in the field?
Students often develop solutions that are similar to the ones that worked in the field. However, whether they matched what our project team did or if they came up with their own solution, the real value comes in thinking through the process. It’s amazing what innovations the students are able to come up with in such a short period of time, and there are times the students come up with workable solutions that even us as professionals may not have considered.
What do the students get from this competition?
They get exposed to more than 1,200 industry professionals from across the country and from companies of varying sizes, structures and markets. The students have an opportunity to solve real-life scenarios and get a glimpse of specific skill sets the industry is looking for as they prepare to enter the workforce.
Besides the opportunity to meet the next generation of builders, what’s the motivation for Sundt to serve as a sponsor of this event?
It’s really about the Sundt brand and getting it out there to schools and our industry peers. Approximately 100 other contractors sponsor the event, including many of the most well respected names in our industry. Further, Sundt is one of only 12 Platinum Sponsors of the event, aligning us with other best-in-class contractors as far as support and development of the next generation of builders and the overall growth and health of our industry.