Would your high school self be surprised you ended up in construction? As Webcorians, we know there’s more to working in this industry than pouring concrete and hanging drywall.
But how many middle and high school students think of construction when they’re interested in law, accounting, marketing, technology, writing, or design?
Last month, five Webcorians gathered at our LA office to introduce local students to the plethora of career pathways available at a construction firm like Webcor. The event was part of Ketchum YMCA’s Career Camp, a recently launched initiative offering the program’s teen members a chance to tour company offices in downtown LA, learn about different career routes, and gain insights on how to get started.
Sr. Executive Assistant Agueda Zarate initiated our partnership with Ketchum YMCA in 2020, when we began sponsoring their annual Stair Climb (now a Stair Climb/Urban Hike) benefiting their youth, family, and young adult programs.
“Partnering with Ketchum YMCA is a great way to serve a community in which so many LA Webcorians live and work,” Agueda says. “Some Webcorians are Ketchum gym members, and at least one was part of their teen summer program. It’s always a no-brainer to partner with them, especially now that they’re literally across the street from our DTLA office!”
After touring Ketchum YMCA’s teens through our LA office, presenters dove into their professional journeys and current roles at Webcor:
As an ACE Mentor, Manny’s no stranger to connecting with local youth and opening their eyes to opportunities in construction. He kicked off the presentation series with an engaging overview of what a general contractor (GC) does and how they could one day fit into it.
“I wanted to shed some light on our industry for kids who wouldn’t otherwise know what a career in construction can look like,” he says. “I was really hoping to dispel the stereotype that construction is just for burly guys swinging hammers. People from all backgrounds, genders, ethnicities, etc. belong at GCs! And we’re performing all kinds of roles outside of building things, from Marketing to Legal to Accounting to VDC and much, much more.”
His words resonated deeply with the teens, who weren’t shy about raising their hands and throwing him thought-provoking questions. “I felt like they were genuinely interested in what we all presented.”
Like Manny, Liem was excited for the chance to show today’s teens that construction isn’t limited to a certain type of job or person. As a VDC director, he explained his impact on projects and his role’s emphasis on visual technology—renderings, animations, quantity take-offs, 3D coordination, virtual mockups, augmented reality, virtual reality, reality capture, etc.
“My career certainly hasn’t been linear,” he says. “I was educated as a landscape architect and somehow ended up specializing in VDC for a construction company.”
Later that week, Ketchum YMCA’s Career Camp program managers shared that the teens’ post-event survey responses were extremely positive, including one that stated their time at Webcor inspired them to learn more about engineering and architecture.
“A lot of underserved communities don’t have access to resources like Ketchum’s Career Camp,” Agueda says. “I love that they offer these initiatives that expose students to possibilities they may never have heard of otherwise.”
As the father of a teenage daughter who’s benefited from similar career-focused presentations at her school, Liem was grateful for the opportunity to give back and do the same for downtown LA’s local teens.
“I’ve been having regular conversations with my daughter, who’s entering her junior year of high school, about what she wants to do when she gets older,” he says. “I appreciate those who volunteer to educate her and her peers on potential careers.
“Taking some time for Ketchum YMCA’s teens and doing something out of the ordinary was a great experience. I highly recommend others consider volunteering for a future YMCA Career Day.”
If you ask Project Engineer (PE) Intern Ricardo Ramirez, Webcor’s greatest differentiator is obvious: the people.
“Everyone I’ve met here is a pleasure to work with and exemplifies what the company stands for,” he says. “Webcor Concrete Assistant Superintendent Robert Lim, who I’m working closely with this summer, is a great example of someone who’s outgoing and hard-working but most importantly, willing to teach.”
For Ricardo, reuniting with Robert was the ultimate full circle moment: Almost two years ago, the two met at Webcor’s information session at CSU Chico, where Ricardo’s studying construction management. At the time, he was a freshman just beginning to think about internship opportunities and life after college.
During the info session, he asked Webcor’s participating PEs all about the company and internship program. Impressed with their project history and motivated by the PEs with whom he’d connected so naturally, he decided to pursue a spot in their summer 2024 program.
It was a successful first summer—so successful that he was asked to return for a second internship with Webcor Concrete at UCSB San Benito Student Housing in 2025. He accepted without hesitation, eager for another summer of tackling new construction challenges and of course, building relationships with Webcor’s seasoned experts—the passionate, talented professionals that drew him to Webcor in the first place.
It’s an opportunity he doesn’t take for granted for a second. “I’m so grateful to work alongside all the foremen who have taught me why we do things the way we do,” he says. “They and my teammates have taught me so much through hands-on learning and the lessons they’ve shared through their own real-world experience. It’s the type of education you can’t get in school, but it’s essential to building a successful career.”
One such lesson was the importance of double-checking others’ work—something he learned from Webcor Concrete Superintendent Fausto Rodriguez Gomez. “He emphasized that it’s your reputation on the line, not their’s.”
This summer has been a generous mixture of administrative and hands-on field work—handling RFIs, submittals, product data, concrete pour scheduling, embed logs, and more in the office, and pouring concrete, supporting layout for slabs/elevators/tower cranes, coordinating logistics plans and QC efforts, and organizing the site’s layout yard in the field.
As much as he’s loved every minute of his time with UCSB San Benito Student Housing, the standout moment was the 2 a.m. concrete pour for the tower crane foundations—Webcor Concrete’s first major milestone at UCSB.
“The adrenaline of everything moving so fast and the pressure of ensuring everything went smoothly was really exciting,” he says. “Seeing the actual process is especially rewarding when you get to work alongside our laborers and masons.”
It sums up what he’s always loved most about construction—the complexity of the herculean behind-the-scenes work it takes to deliver a structure, and “seeing it all come to life in the field.”
Outside of construction, Ricardo’s passionate about K-9 training. “I love taking my dog to protection work—seeing him do bite work with human dummies and run through obstacle courses never gets old!”
Two months ago, Sydney Seyfarth made the nearly 2,500-mile trek from Lafayette, Indiana to San Francisco to intern with Webcor’s Estimating department—her third time traveling across the country for our summer internship program.
Two months ago, Sydney Seyfarth made the nearly 2,500-mile trek from Lafayette, Indiana to San Francisco to intern with Webcor’s Estimating department—her third time traveling across the country for our summer internship program.
“I really enjoyed my first internship here in 2023,” she says. “When Webcor’s college recruiters returned to my school that fall, their presentation reminded me how much I liked working there and wanted to go back.”
Sydney had discovered Webcor through her academic advisor in the fall of 2022, when she was a freshman at Purdue University. Growing up in a family of woodworkers, she’d always known she wanted to be part of the planning/building process and was eager to start interning with a reputable construction company.
When she spoke to her advisor about internship opportunities, he praised Webcor’s summer program and suggested she look into it further.
No other general contractor she researched came close. She applied for a spot in the summer 2023 internship program and waited.
That April, she interviewed with SVP, Project Planning Allison McCue, a Purdue alumnus who had once joined Webcor as a PE intern. After a lengthy discussion, Sydney left feeling more energized and motivated than ever before.
“I had an even better feeling about the company after interviewing with Allison,” she says. “I was really hoping the opportunity would work out!”
Before she knew it, she was flying to San Francisco for Webcor’s intern orientation. That first summer was a blur of embed logs, shop drawing revisions, product data review, document backlog updates, RFIs, and “lots and lots of submittals.” She finished with a climb up Verde’s tower crane, where she soaked in Mission Rock’s breathtaking city views and reflected on her first internship. To this day, it remains one of her favorite Webcor memories.
This summer, she’s diving into budget proposals, project bids, scheduling, and takeoffs for the NorCal Estimating team in our King Street office. The highlight of each week is Precon/Estimating’s team meeting, where she gets to hear new insights from seasoned Webcorians and gain helpful perspectives.
“I love the process and excitement for new projects,” she says “Every project is different in its own way, which makes the industry really fascinating. I feel like it’s impossible to know everything—there’s always something new to learn!”
It’s been a demanding summer, but the lessons learned over the last two years have fueled her confidence as she continues to tackle new responsibilities and explore new facets of construction. She’s learned that with thoughtful organization, note-taking, and Googling (“Google Images is your best friend in this field”), she’s unstoppable.
“Listening, writing down everything you don’t know, and researching it later are key to learning in this industry,” she says. “And shout-out to Project Manager Luana Galbeno for showing me the literal daily payoff of staying organized!”
Outside of her engineering pursuits, Sydney’s an avid reader who typically reads two books per month and read 70 within the year that COVID hit. She also enjoys hiking when she’s back home in Southern California (“not too many good hikes in Indiana, unfortunately”), skiing, and participating in Air Force ROTC—last summer, she went to an Alabama boot camp for three weeks of military training.
