TL;DR: Jeswin joined Mortenson because we are the number one EPC in solar and renewable energy. He's seen the solar industry become safer through constant innovation and thrives on the opportunities his traveling role presents (he's lived in 9 houses in 5-years!) He touches on our culture, the diversity here, and his passion for his role. The conversation ends with Jeswin explaining why he loves his work saying"at the end of the day, I helped power 30,000 homes. That's a feeling that I mean, you can't take away."

What are some of the biggest changes that you've seen in your team?

 Geevarughese: At the beginning of my career with Mortenson, those projects in Utah, pretty big projects. I want to say that 2015, 2016, year for solar was EXTREMELY busy. And we built some really good projects in Utah  over the years.

The way we have done things in the solar group has been drastically different. When I say that, I say it in a very good way. We have improved our processes, we have made sure that we could bring in LEAN innovation and, you know, cut down on time and costs.

Relopez: So tell us a little bit about that, about bringing in some of the equipment to help with that. Because I don't think a lot of people understand that and what you mean by that?

 Geevarughese: Oh, yeah, for sure. So some of the processes in the solar industry are; basically, you have to put the cable in the ground. It's three to four feet in the ground for collection. And the process is that you open up a trench. And then you have to lay the cable in the trench. And then backfill the entire cable. So you don't see any of the cables. Everything is underground. So in the, when I started off, it was all hand pulling of these cables, one, one at a time. You're basically three feet in the trench pulling, you know, the workers are pulling the cable, laying it down, pushing. So there was a lot of human interaction and a lot of potential for safety incidents, right? And over the years we said, you know, "How can we take people out of the trenches and try and not have incidents?" And basically, we got we said, "Okay, the way to improve this is to bring in a mini-excavator and try to pull it from one end. Hook it to the attachment. Pull it from one end and minimize the people that are in the trenches. So things like that, we have developed over the years.

Relopez: I like that. What is one thing you're most excited about for your future? What does that look like? When you think about Mortenson, and solar, what do you see?

 Geevarughese: The one thing I really love about working for Mortenson is that Mortenson is such a diverse company across the board, right? You're talking people, it's diverse. You're talking industries, it's diverse. You're talking, you know, cultures, it's diverse.

What I like about Mortenson in my future is that at some point I'll move to a commercial group. Currently, I am a traveler. I work for the solar group. I'm traveling.

I'm with the project for a certain duration and then we move to a different location.

At some point in my career, I would like to go back to a commercial group. Like for example, a Minneapolis, Portland, or Seattle group. Then I can move into a different aspect of construction that Mortenson offers. There are so many aspects of construction for me to explore and ask around about.

The traveling aspect obviously is a unique beast. How have you dealt with that, right? The expectations of picking up and moving based on the project. And on the flip side, how has that enabled a positive outcome in your life?

Geevarughese: That's a great question, Justin. I get that question from a lot of people. Basically, it comes down to this, I'm a traveler. I love traveling and that's why I took the job in the first place. And it is definitely challenging to move every six to eight months. It's not the easiest thing to do.

However, the thrill for you to know, or not know, where you're going to be in the next six months, or eight months, there is, I mean, I like that. I like that thrill. I like that aspect of that work. You know, over the years I've moved,

I'm currently in North Carolina. I have moved nine times in five years. I've had nine different homes in nine different states of the country. I've covered the west coast to the east coast. I've lived everywhere, in all time zones.

I speak with my American friends and they say, "You know what, we have not done that! And we've lived here more than you've been here!" Right? I brag about that quite a bit.

 Swierk: So what aspects of your life then has it opened up for you?

Geevarughese: It has actually made me grow quite a bit. I understand the diversity that is across the country. How and when you need to be acting or reacting, depending on where you are at, the demographics. It has made me grow and understand the workforce and the work market. And it has given me the ability to give a better manager as I travel.

 Swierk: That's pretty awesome.

 Relopez: So, when you say a better manager, tell us about that, how has that helped you?

Geevarughese: So when I've moved from job site to job site, obviously I've worked under different managers. And I have picked up all the good parts from all the managers that I've worked under, right? And when you move around, you also work with your peers, which are your engineers that support you on your project.

And you can be that manager to push your engineers to be better. Maybe it's an uncomfortable spot, but you got to talk to your engineers and say, "You know what? It's going to be okay. It's going to be fine." Pushing them out of their comfort zone to be, you know, I mean, most of the travelers, they do work quite, quite long hours.

So, sometimes, you know, you see the engineers falling down on motivation to come on-site or to be on-site for so long, you know? That push is really important. And, you know, being a successful manager, I think that I do an okay job, at least I'm definitely learning for sure. That has definitely helped me in pushing my peers.

>First off, they're not falling short of material. They have all the documentation that they need. And you have made the process as easy as possible for them to understand if there is any questions, we want to make sure that the engineers are going out talking to the foreman, the general foreman, the superintendent, so on so forth.

When I sit down with the superintendent, I'm looking at the labor side. I'm looking at how many people will we need on this one task and is how long is that task projected for? So basically, I'm trying to manage the money, working with the superintendent side. And then when I'm working with the project manager directly, we are thinking about how we are going to be processing change orders or important information to the owner. So if there's an interaction with the owner, that only project managers give it to them. So, you know, we can take our information from our project team and send it up the chain to the owner.

As soon as you entered the job site, you're lost, right? So I think right off the bat, the first impression is the last impression as they say, right? So we make a very good first impression. And I like that. I love that. And I keep that. I make sure that that is still the case for every single customer because, I mean, the customer would want the same thing. So I put myself in the customer's shoe and say "Hey, okay, is this gonna work? No, I don't like that." Okay, I'm gonna put the exact same expectation to my team members.

So that's what keeps me here. We have excelled. I mean, Mortenson is not just number one for the name's sake of it, right? They've done so many things. And have been number one or in that first two or three spots for a very long time for a reason. And that, you know, that's just incredible. You know, not a lot of companies can do that, you know, years and years and years in succession.

 Swierk: The money aspect, right? Managing the time and the hours How much of that is your part of your job?

Geevarughese: I'm gonna say it's 50/50. So basically, managing the time, trying to understand, like, for example. Today, we got rained out. There's nobody working today. So, if we did not work today, we have to catch up for the work that is not done today, of course, and then we also have to do the work that is scheduled for tomorrow. So, we have to come up with a game plan every week. So that we have, we take care of our craft folks, who are working for us, and being on schedule to meet all of the schedules that we promised to the owner.

 Swierk: I'm just making a giant leap that you do understand other types of projects. What is so different about a Mortenson solar project, in your mind. Because you have to have some understanding of what other companies are doing from a solar project perspective.

Geevarughese: Yep.

Can you think of a time where Mortenson has challenged you? Where you've had walk the talk and stop work?

If you were sitting across from yourself, what would you tell yourself? What would you want someone to know about coming to Mortenson?

 Geevarughese: Oh, that's a scary thing. Quite honestly, I would definitely want people to know that it is fun. It's a construction site.

So I'm gonna be honest with the person that is going to be in that position. I'm going to say, "Hey, look. There's going to be bad days, right? Not all days are good. It's a construction site. There's going to be bad days. There's going to be some kind of going back, and trying to fix this, or trying to do that. It just happens on all job sites.

But, attitude matters.

If you know what your end goal is, and you're going to go for that end goal, you will survive. You will do good. And you will not just do good, you will excel in your position. So, you know, you can say, "Oh, I don't like my job." But if you come up, you wake up with a good attitude and say, "You know what? Today's a new day. Yesterday? Yeah, we did not succeed. We did not do what we needed to."

But if you come in today with a good attitude and say, "You know what? We're going to fix this. We're going to come back and do this right." I think that would be my message. Know that there are challenges, especially when you're traveling. There's a lot of talking with the owners, the engineers, and the team itself.

But the thought of you, at the end of this the six month period that you have powered 30 thousand homes. That's a feeling that I mean, you can't take away from anybody.

Is powering up all those homes what wakes you up every day to go to Mortenson? 

 Geevarughese: That's part of it. My passion. The bigger passion would be me working with the folks that are on-site.

Every day I get up and I know that I'm far away from my family. So this is literally my family here at Mortenson that I work with. I basically work, you know, whatever the case is 12, 13, 14-hours a day, five days a week. Six days a week.

So, when I wake up I'm not dreading saying, "Oh, man, I have to go to work." I'm saying, "You know what? I am going to work to see my family." So if I have that thought, I know that my day is going to go good.

Swierk: The people you work with are your family.

 Geevarughese: And you know, the other part is also, Justin, is when I have the time, and I take a site-wide drive. I go and speak to the crew members, the actual team members who are actually in the trenches working, you know?

I feel proud of these people, and I love to interact with them. Sometimes, you know, I take time, and I just go out and have lunch with them. You know, that gives me some kind of joy.

First, I try to mingle with the folks that are actually working in the field, making our project successful. We definitely are dependent on these people.

And then the other thing is these people recognize you, not as a project manager, but as a human being. That you're coming there and talking to them. And having lunch with them. Laughing with them, you know, and then doing the work.