If I’ve learned anything over the last two-plus decades covering maintenance and engineering management, it’s this: There is no straight line into or through this profession.
While the people responsible for the safe, reliable and energy-efficient operation of institutional facilities all have ended up in similar positions, there is no way I know of to predict where they started their careers or where their journeys have taken them.
Some started as high school graduates, some went on to two-year colleges, and some earned four-year degrees. Still others have backgrounds in the military, construction, property management, engineering or architecture. Many have taken several of these paths at one time or another in their careers to arrive where they are now.
Where have they arrived, exactly? That’s hard to say. Maintenance and engineering managers remain an eclectic mix of people, due in part to the diverse backgrounds and experiences they bring to their work. To help build the sense of community and professionalism among this disparate group, we created our annual NFMT Conference and Expo, which is coming up on March 21-23 in Baltimore, and to maintain that sense of community year-round, we started our fnPrime membership two years ago.
On an individual level, I invite you to check out our new back page feature, Career Path. In each issue, we’ll take a closer look at one manager’s background and experiences to hopefully help readers better understand the profession they’ve chosen.
The journey will go down a lot of paths, but they’ll rarely be the same paths. We hope you’ll join us.
