Volkert Voices – Travis Colledge 

Full Transcript

Bryan:

Welcome to another Volkert Vodcast and thank you for listening. This is Bryan Bossart, and today I’d like to share with you a recent conversation I had with Travis Colledge. For those of you who don’t know, Travis is a professional engineer who leads our Utah efforts and is really just an all-around great guy. And I guess for those of you who didn’t know we have staff and an office in Utah… well, now you know that too.

So without further ado, let’s listen to my conversation with Travis.

Hey, Travis. Good morning. One of the things I love to hear from the Volkert people that I meet is, how did you choose to come into this profession? Can you share with us a little bit about your origin story?

Travis:

So one of the things when I was a little kid and I wanted to become an engineer is I actually had a youth leader who used to take me up to the University of Utah, and I would go and look under the electron microscopes, and I got really excited about all the things he would talk about that he was working on.

And it really kind of molded from there, where I felt like with some of the skill sets that I had – like being strong in math, everything that I wanted to be involved in things.  I like building things. And I have my youth leader to largely be the guy that really got me down the path to wanting to be an engineer.

Bryan:

Well, that’s great. Does civil engineering run in your family, as they say.

Travis:

So the funny part about it is, is that my family wanted me to become a mechanical engineer. My stepfather and my mother were both working as designers and working for different companies doing mechanical engineering. They’re working for the Defense Department. And so my stepfather always envisioned us that we’d be working together one day. And I started school, signed up to be a civil engineering major, but really didn’t know what that all entailed.  I knew they were both on the same path as mechanical engineers. And as I got into the classes, I realized I really enjoyed the hands on part of it, more so than I did some of the mechanical classes I was taking. And so it was a sad day for my stepfather when I had to tell him, I think I’m going to stay with civil engineering. I think that’s where I want to be.

And so he would always test me to, you know, are you still happy? Are you still you know, that’s still where you want. You know, you and I do. I enjoy the, you know, the part of being able to see the things that I’ve been able to be, you know, working on here locally or other places and feeling a part of the community and helping enhance, you know, the infrastructure and other things in the state of Utah in particular.

Bryan:

That’s great. Now, you’ve obviously been in Utah a lot longer than Volkert’s been in Utah. Can you tell us some of the things that you’ve worked on here in the state?

Travis:

One of the first projects I worked on as a young engineer was Winter Sports Park Road.  It’s the road SR 224 that goes up to the ski jump area and those locations up on the hill in Park City. And I remember being terrified of the responsibilities I’d been given on the project, but at the same time feeling immense pride that I was going to be a part of this.

And then when the games did happen, being able to actually, as a young person, drive up the road and feel that I had had some some stake in the game, so to speak, on what’s going on up there. It was very really build some self-esteem and the things that I had done and, you know, some of some of the projects that I think I’m most proud of here in the state of Utah, as I worked on commuter rail both north and south, it’s now called Front Runner for UTA.  I worked on a lot of the aspects with the stations and drainage and to see the, you know, an alternative transportation with transit really hitting the state here. It’s been a tremendous amount of pride to see that grow, to see the opportunities that are there, allows people to be mobile in our in our valley. You know, the challenge of transportation engineers is keeping people mobile. And we are running out of space. And so using that corridor was a great opportunity.

I’ve worked at the airport, Salt Lake Airport. And so a lot of my experience is very generalist, but I feel like it also gives me a broad range of touching a lot of different aspects of life in the state of Utah, which gives me a tremendous amount of pride in my career thus far.

Bryan:

Well, that’s a pretty impressive resume. How does your family of engineers feel about everything that you’ve done?

Travis:

My my son is a little indifferent. So some of the things that I get when I, when I talk about the things I’ve worked on in the state of Utah, my bride, my wife, is very proud of the things that I’ve done. She tells people that even things that I’m like, I didn’t really work on all of that, but thank you for giving me some of the credit.

My family, my mother is very proud of the career that I’ve, I’ve chosen. She says, I remind her a lot of my stepfather about how he was. Which is a huge compliment to me.

I tend to want to I want to help others, and so part of my career that I really enjoy, and part of what I’m really excited about with this office is teaching young people to be those next engineers. And so while my son is indifferent about it, he’s also becoming an engineer. He finishes in schooling as a mechanical engineer, so he’s actually taking the other step that dad did not.  But, I’m tremendously proud of he also wants to be involved in things that are going to help society and be a part of solutions that bring, you know, opportunity to everybody else.

Bryan:

Absolutely. That’s great. So besides hearing how you decided to become an engineer, one of the things I like to learn from folks is how they decided to come here to Volkert.

Travis:

So my Volkert story is probably unique. First off, with the footprint Volkert, we are the farthest west location now. Initially when I was looking at opportunities of where I wanted to take my career, it’s interesting how paths cross. And my first knowledge of Volkert was looking – somebody had reached out to me and, and I saw a familiar name who was someone I’d worked with in the past at a previous company, and we started having a conversation. And it was, I think, as I started to research what Volkert is, and I started to really dive into it and see if this was where I could envision my career. The more that I learned about Volkert, the more I was intrigued by the culture, intrigued by the opportunities, and intrigued by the stuff that the company had worked on in the past. And it really drew me in. And again, my experience is a little bit short, but everything that I saw and everything that I looked at as I was going through that research as you will, has been proven above and beyond.

Bryan:

Well, we’re lucky to have you on the team for sure. And speaking of that kind of last push to get you to join our team. Was there anything in particular that told you? Yeah, this this is really where I should be.

Travis:

So one of the specifics when I was first onboarding with Volkert, that really, I think probably struck me more than anything else was I was given the opportunity to go down to Mobile and meet with the CEO of the company.  And to go to a lunch with him, first of all, the conversation was a great conversation. I enjoyed speaking him, but the biggest thing and the and the thing that was really kind of hit me the hardest was we’re at this restaurant for lunch and to see this man make it… without… I know he didn’t want me to see what he was doing, But he was paying for some of our soldiers lunch, and he was doing it out of his pocket. And he was, you know, he seemed to know everybody, and he seemed to be very everybody loves, you know, just loved the guy. That’s always a good sign when your boss  knows a lot of people and gets along with a lot of people. And to see this man make a gesture that I know he didn’t want me to see, I know he tried to do it, you know, without me seeing it – was really kind of the check mark that said this culture is different. You know, the we are Volkert, the family part of this, the feelings that you you feel that that this company is about really resonated when I saw that gesture without him wanting to get noticed for it.

Bryan:

That’s really cool. And I’m with you just seeing how much this company cares for and takes care of their people is really incredible. So now that you’re here, what’s your vision for Utah?

Travis:

One of the one of the great things about this office in particular, is the opportunity that those people that we’re able to bring in here, that they have opportunity working on big projects that are currently going on in other places in the country. That allows us to to grow this office organically, but to also integrate the different disciplines and different skilled people around the country, and to get familiar with those other people that are in Volkert.

And I think from my point of view, the importance of that is, again, with the culture of what I see as Volkert, I think those interactions and that connectivity that it provides us, allows us not to just be this lone island office out in the middle of the Intermountain West, but to be connected to Volkert as a whole and to bring that spirit in the way of looking at things in the way of doing things to bring that culture here to Utah.

Bryan:

I think that connectivity is really what makes this company special.

Travis:

As an engineer, I think all of us are wanting to make a statement or leave something behind, so to speak, and to be able to do that in an environment not only where it’s new, but that you have the support of a tremendous, long term, well-respected company that has your back and will give you those opportunities, I think is a tremendous opportunity for somebody looking for it.

You know, one of my visions of the office out here in Salt Lake is I really want it to feel like a family. I want people to feel comfortable that, first of all, that we all want to do good work. We’re all responsible to one another when we interact with one another to be, you know, engage one another and be respectful of one another.  But to also we’re going to work hard. But at the end of the day, I want people to be fulfilled in this office. And I also want them to feel like we want to feel like a family. And so we really want to engage this office as it grows. We want it to be welcoming. We want it to be a place where people feel like they can have a, you know, a five minute discussion at the watercooler and talk about the soccer game, talk about the, you know, the baseball game that, you know, and their children played at and something great happened. And to have opportunities where we can have time, where we can spend and get to know their family. Because a lot of times I think I know in my experience, you know, sometimes that interaction is really helpful in helping that somebody who is in that office to work through their whatever, you know, opportunities or some things they might be going through and to have that recognition of that, that they can, you know, sometimes we have to dial it back and if we are as a family, sometimes one of us steps up to help the other and then to allow people to have those opportunities where they have to take care of their family. And at the end of the day, we want everybody going home safe, when everybody going home feeling fulfilled and not everybody going home knowing that their family is the most important thing.

You know, the more that I’ve been involved in, the more that I’m getting into this. I’m just I’m ecstatic about the opportunity. I can’t be happier about the choice I made to, frankly, this is the place I want to be to finish my career. I’m on the back side, as they say, on the back nine of my career, but I have a lot of years to go and I’m excited about the opportunities not only at Volkert as a whole, but the growth that we’re going to have here in Utah and the opportunities it will bring to young engineers and old engineers alike and designers and construction people. And I’m just over the moon about what it is to be here at Volkert and can’t be happier with the choice that I made to come.

Bryan:

Well, Travis, we’re over the moon that you chose to join us. And thank you for sharing your time with us today.

Travis:

Thank you.

Bryan:

Well, I hope you enjoyed listening to my conversation with Travis Colledge. And thanks again for listening to the Volkert Vodcast. We’ll be talking again real soon. Bye bye.