I had no idea what I wanted to do.
It’s an honest answer from Kayla Wannamaker, a young construction project manager with Construction Richelieu in St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Québec. When she was coming out of high school, there was no distinct pull in one career direction or another.
“All I knew was I didn’t want to be someone who sat behind a computer all day without a reward at the end,” she says. “Then my mom found this architectural technology program at Vanier College, and it seemed really interesting to me.”
While taking the three-year program, Kayla found herself drawn to the construction management courses more than anything else, and she says she could see herself in those spaces more than design. She tried different roles at different companies, learning from each place she landed, but ultimately realized she was looking for something that had more variety, something that let her see every element of a project. That’s when she found Construction Richelieu.
“I started here as an assistant project manager, then a junior project manager, and now I’ve been a full project manager for three years,” she says. “My boss was really a mentor for me too, and he still teaches me a lot to this day. He’s one of the people who encouraged me to go back to school, actually.”
In 2019, Kayla began working part-time on her Bachelor’s degree in Construction Engineering from École de technologie supérieure, and in December 2024 she’ll complete the program.
“The goal was to get more knowledge on the building side of things, and then also it gives you more career opportunities,” she says. “The company has been really good about accommodating my education, too. Not every class is at night, so sometimes I need to adjust my daytime schedule to attend, but it hasn’t been a problem with them.”
On a day to day basis, Kayla’s schedule is never the same. It’s constantly changing depending on what’s happening around her—but that’s how she likes it.
There’s no point in planning your day because it will always change. I work hand-in-hand with the superintendent on each site to make sure things happen on time and on budget. It’s a lot of problem-solving, but that’s the fun part.
And just as no two days are alike, neither are two projects. She’s worked on childcare centres, fire stations, police stations, hospitals, and schools—but the fire station is something that Kayla holds very close to her heart, as it’s being built in her hometown.
“It’s a good feeling to know I’m bringing that to life,” she says. “It’s fulfilling. The fire station, if ever it saves some people, I can know I was a part of that. Even something like hospitals means bringing better care and infrastructure to the community the hospital serves. I like building for my community.”
Working at Construction Richelieu, Kayla has really hit her stride in terms of growing her career and taking initiative. Kayla spearheaded the switch to Procore, a globally recognized construction software that helped bridge a gap between accounting and project management. One of the benefits is less paper usage, which is a major component of a more sustainable industry.
“We don’t have control over the actual designs and things like grey water systems, but we can focus on recycling materials, have the engineers or architects approve products and equipment that are local to reduce their delivery footprint, and even set up recycling systems on our sites when we can to divert waste.”
Construction is proving to be a promising industry, one that Kayla is excited about. And when it comes to helping others find their fit in construction, she says it can be challenging but it’s worth it.
“You can pick where you want to go,” she explains. “It could be more on site, it could be pre-construction, you have so many different paths you can take. And you never work by yourself. There’s no day where you don’t talk to anyone. There’s no day where you haven’t left your seat. You get to see things come to life. But you need to like not having a routine of doing the same thing every day. It’s an extra challenge, but why not take it on?”
