Daniel Kemack – Preconstruction Engineer with Wharton-Smith in Orlando, FL by The Preconstruction Podcast • A podcast on Anchor.M4A
Gareth McGlynn [00:00:04] Hey, everyone, welcome back to the preconstruction podcast. This week, I caught up with a young youngun preconstruction engineer who works for Warton Smith in Orlando, Florida. His name is Daniel Chemic. And among other things, Daniel has a 100 percent hardboard record, which after three years, it’s not bad. I think you look great. Daniel is a smart, articulate and motivated engineer who gives a great insight into what it’s like trying to figure out what the best route is for his career. This is a great episode to share with a young engineers who, you know, or even some people who are considering the engineering and construction weren’t know it.
Gareth McGlynn [00:00:49] Just before we hear from Daniel.
Gareth McGlynn [00:00:51] Let’s hear a few words from our sponsor back technology. So here is their president, Stuart Carol.
Stuart Carroll [00:01:07] Hey, everyone. I’m Stuart Carroll. I’m the president of Black Technology. We are based in Dallas, Texas, and we are a preconstruction software company. We were founded in 1996. And we’ve really been focused on the world of preconstruction. We believe that preconstruction is where the biggest decisions that impact the outcome of a project occur. And we believe that through the use of technology, we can enable our users to make better, more informed preconstruction decisions. The net result of which is to make the world a better place. We’re excited to announce our partnership with NEACH. And one of the things that really excites me is bringing preconstruction professionals the opportunity to get certified in our latest product, Destiny Estimates. It’s our belief that if we can help you understand how integrated preconstruction and preconstruction data lifecycle can benefit your business, it will ultimately improve the preconstruction services that you bring to your customers. And we’d like to announce that we’re going to be releasing this at the end of Q1 and it’s available to anybody that’s a friend of Mitch.
Gareth McGlynn [00:02:28] Hey, Daniel CANmake, welcome to the preconstruction podcast.
Daniel Kemack [00:02:32] Hey, how are you doing? Appreciate being on here.
Gareth McGlynn [00:02:35] No worries. Thanks for making the time. It is a Saturday morning. So we do appreciate you taking the weekend to make an appearance.
Daniel Kemack [00:02:43] Not a problem at all.
Gareth McGlynn [00:02:45] Yeah. So for those in the audience that don’t know you, Daniel. Give us a quick overview of where you’re at in the U.S. and what you’re currently doing.
Daniel Kemack [00:02:55] As I am currently living in Orlando, Florida, I grew up in Melbourne, which is just about an hour away on the east coast of Florida here. And I went to school at USCF. I’m a civil engineering degree. But now I’m working in construction doing estimating for our Robin and Smith construction. And it’s been quite the quite the journey so far. I’m really happy you are on that train when you had talked about the podcast. I was interested to jump on and give some insight to the new folks coming into the industry.
Gareth McGlynn [00:03:28] Good. Goodman. Yeah, that’s. We’ve we’ve interviewed if you’ve caught up on most of the episodes at the moment, we’re going to be quite not a VIP directors, owners, presidents. So I was really keen to get a young open Coleman and preconstruction engineer all on board just to give his insight into the market. First, before we do that, let’s go all the way back to your education. You moved and you moved to Orlando for your civil engineering degree. What way civil engineering was was construction always on your radar? Was it part of your family history? What was the what was the thinking behind that?
Daniel Kemack [00:04:08] No, I didn’t decide to do construction till the end of my degree there, but I picked civil engineering initially just because I was always like a hands on guy would take things apart. Wanted to see how they worked and put them back together. So I just kind of seem like the most straightforward option at the time. And then as I got into it, you know, because there’s different branches of similar gingery. And so I figured I would decide where I wanted to head. But again, I ended up going down the construction route, which, you know, that coincided with each other. So it wasn’t a major change, but it was just something that was more exciting for me.
Gareth McGlynn [00:04:46] It’s good. Yeah, because I’ve been speaking with senior people in your preconstruction and estimating people about the types of degrees on offer in the US. Did you have an opportunity to do construction management or what? Or even who doing the mechanical side. Electrical side. Why several do you think?
Daniel Kemack [00:05:05] Was it? Again, I was just abroad. There’s just a broad cloud of engineering. I wasn’t really interested in chemical or electrical building. Infrastructure is a huge thing and, you know, in this day and age. So I thought that was a good route to take that would be successful in the long run. You, of course, have to put your time and effort into it. Yeah.
Gareth McGlynn [00:05:27] Off course. Like it. Like like everything in life or any type of part of the degree that you liked more so than others. To give you an idea. I did electrical engineer for my degree back in 2006 and there definitely was part of parts of it that I really enjoyed. But the analog parts I just could never see myself doing.
Daniel Kemack [00:05:49] Yeah. So we actually have to take some waste water, water, waste waters, classes for environmental engineering.
Daniel Kemack [00:05:58] I enjoyed those the most. I kind of wish that I did environmental engineering, but it is what it is. I just enjoyed a lot of acid. And that was that was probably my favorite part of the civil engineering track.
Gareth McGlynn [00:06:10] Very good. Yeah, there’s always that’s one thing that stands out to be funny is the degree. I think you did a couple of interns at Roadway Wages as a Roubaix designer and also a DC. Talk us talk us through those.
Daniel Kemack [00:06:26] So my first internship was working in Geotech Engineering. I was just like a CAD designer kind of thing, just helped out with the soil borings and put in the the the proposals together. I did do a lot of fieldwork during the summers with them. So I was out there doing boring holes with the with the Bragan in hand doggers and stuff like that.
Daniel Kemack [00:06:51] And then going forward, I did do some roadway design and which was strictly just, you know, being in the office on your computer and and just working on my crustacean. And they brought a lot of insight as just to how different branches of engineering are. And then my last one was a construction internship, which kind of turned the page for me, and that’s what got me into construction.
Gareth McGlynn [00:07:19] And what was it that kind of caught your eye that got you interested in construction? Maybe Civil didn’t have.
Daniel Kemack [00:07:29] I just felt like it was more oriented between being in the office and going out in the field. I wanted to have that that proper balance between the two because I’m not one to design behind a computer for 40 hours a week. So that that was really that was the primary thing. And not that in engineering, you don’t do that. I’m just more of a people person, too, and I like working in teams, things of that nature, so it was just seemed more intriguing and it seemed like something that I could be more involved with.
Gareth McGlynn [00:08:02] Yeah, yeah. That’s I think that’s what a lot of people don’t understand about the preconstruction. I think there’s a there’s a misconception there that it’s very, very masts focused and you’ve got to have the the math brain to put costs together and put quantities together. But the other side of it, the soft skills and the interpersonal skills and the communication skills, it is becoming more and part important, if not crucial, to becoming a good preconstruction estimated preconstruction manager and climbing the ladder. And I’ve signed stripped from from the time I’ve known you. It seems as if you’ve you’ve got those soft skills and maybe you could leverage that in your career.
Daniel Kemack [00:08:44] Yeah, I would say it’s crucial if you want to become a construction estimated, because anytime that you do have the opportunity to go out in the field, whether it’s before construction in the middle of construction or it’s. Post construction, you can see you can see how everything’s kind of constructed. And then you put, you know, a name to the face kind of deal with when you see it in person and you’re looking on the drawings, that it starts to make sense because some people are visual learners. And when they look at drawings, they don’t quite understand. So over time, as you could get opportunities to go in a field and see the projects that you might be working on, it gives you more insight and in essence makes you a better estimate or because you can then visualize what you’re looking at on paper.
Gareth McGlynn [00:09:28] Yeah, and that’s I think that’s another kind of thing to be that’s really important to the people, considering whether they’re just before college or in college right now. I’m considering a career because within preconstruction and maybe you can tell us a little bit more about it on like the lifecycle of a project. How much would you visit site and get a good feel for what’s happening on site or because missed conception that you just sit in the office, you just buying? I’m looking at drawings, but that that’s not the case as a.
Daniel Kemack [00:09:58] No, not at all. And it kind of depends. It might be a special project that will go out and kind of do like a field trip or make a field trip out of it. And I think we if there’s a new school that’s being built and it’s it’s a tilt panel building. You know, we might go out there and watch them lift up to till panels and kind of put all that together because it’s it’s kind of fascinating, you know. You will make the estimate and put all that effort into it, but you’re not really sure how it happens. So seeing it kind of just gives you more perspective. It’s like, OK. Definitely. Don’t forget that crane to lift. There’s still tails or, you know, just something simple like that. It’s it gives you more perspective for sure.
Gareth McGlynn [00:10:38] Yeah. I think it allows you to visualize the next project a lot easier. Yeah. 100 percent. 100 percent.
Gareth McGlynn [00:10:46] Yeah. And so give us an idea on those types of projects you’re working on at the moment with swordsmith. What’s the size of a project? Are you across a diverse range.
Daniel Kemack [00:10:57] You, yeah, for the most part, I was working on a bus filling station for a new high school that was built. I’m actually working on. The elementary school that I went to as a kid. They’re doing so well. And so I was so I did that project. I did it like a training building for a water wastewater plant. Our other our wastewater division had the whole plant. And then we, the commercial side, bet on the training building. So, you know, nothing, nothing super crazy expensive as far as project cost, but definitely a variety variety of projects.
Gareth McGlynn [00:11:36] Yeah, it’s important. And again, your love, your love for wastewater water. Maybe maybe one day you’ll jump all over to the dark side, would you? That commercial Warton Celesta Wastewater.
Daniel Kemack [00:11:49] I don’t know. Probably not, because it wouldn’t be the same. It’s not like you’re designing water wastewater plants. From my knowledge, maybe they do.
Gareth McGlynn [00:11:57] Yeah. No, I think you’re you’re comfortable knowing the commercial safe. And give us an idea as well, Daniel, because I know that you had a Florida father native, but you did move to Orlando. How was that move? And give us a little fee for condo because we do relocate. Orlando is one of our hot hot spots and we do relocate a lot of people from around the U.S. to Orlando. Give us a feel for it, for what it’s like, what it’s got to offer and what you like about it.
Daniel Kemack [00:12:27] Sure. I mean, the move to Orlando from Melbourne wasn’t that bad at all. I mean, I kind of grew up going back and forth from Melbourne to Orlando. So it’s just like another drive my my buddy. Now, we just had a small U-Haul and packed a little stuff we had and then just moved up here. But as you know, Orlando’s got all the theme parks. So that’s that’s really the main attraction. I myself growing up on the beach and I I’m an hour away, but it’s it’s not that far to get to the beach because that’s just like my own personal oasis. I mean, golf is pretty a pretty evident in this day and age, especially with all the guys at work. We’ll go play golf on the weekends. Nice. I’m a big hockey guy, so we actually do have a couple ice rinks. And as you know, we have some NHL teams in the nearby area. There’s a lot of record like recreational parks and a lot of community involvement with just sports in general, so that’s always intriguing to, you know, there’s options out there. It’s not like there isn’t it’s not like there isn’t much out there.
Gareth McGlynn [00:13:32] Cool. Cool. And I think you’re I know you’re an avid hockey fan, but you’re pretty handy it as well, I believe.
Daniel Kemack [00:13:40] Yeah, I’d like to think so. I’ve only been at it for five or six years, but. But it keeps me in shape.
Gareth McGlynn [00:13:46] I hope you can hear. I hope you can hear. My son and daughter, four year old and a two year old on the road next door. So if you hear that the noise in the background, that’s that’s who it is. No worries. Cool. Yeah. So, I mean, I know the one thing that I really like about your level at the moment, although you’ve you’ve only been graduated. Let me just check. You’ve only been in the industry since 2007. Seventeen Shoy. You’ve experienced quite a lot with AutoCAD, the civil side on the ground upside. Is there any advice that you would give to maybe an intern at the moment or somebody studying civil engineering? Any advice that you would give them? I cannot challenge himself or to get the best out of themselves.
Daniel Kemack [00:14:36] Yeah, I would say just to really put yourself out there, I know it’s a lot of people are lenient or nervous to to put themselves out there in the industry or with internships and such. But it definitely helps you out in the long run. You meet more people, you meet new people. They have new connections. It gives you perspective. It’s all about perspective. I keep saying that. You get that from the different internships that you do, kind of helps you guide yourself onto what you do really want to focus on. If you’re not sure because, you know, you could do that same internship or the same couple of internships, your whole college career, and then you still you graduate and you’re still unsure. So I highly recommend getting out there and trying different internships. And that’s the whole purpose of it. You know, you don’t have to stay away and laughed at one company, you know, just because they pay you a decent hourly wage or something. Yeah. But along with that, you know, when you go to college, it’s. There’s more than just the book smart portion. All the materials that you learn that you come through, that you take out of it. I always talk about with one of the interns at work. He always asked me why I’m always so it’s like you were always so relaxed when you have all these projects going on. It’s like you don’t seem like you stressed out that much. And I and I just tell him because I’m like, yeah, well, when I was in college and we had, you know, four exams and one week or all these projects and I was really freaking out, you know, it’s like I take that scenario and I apply it to my day job and, you know, I just be relaxed, like I’ve already been through it. So now I understand how to work through it and just not freak out because then you can lose your performance. And it’s like a piece of advice.
Gareth McGlynn [00:16:22] I think there’s certain people that can do that are quite mellow anyway. And you have to be, to be honest with you seem quite mellow and quite calm and collected. But it’s great advice that if anybody is worrying about exams or about like, let’s be honest, whenever hopefully Colvard moves on, there’s going to be a tsunami of projects landing on your desk and there’s going to be people looking for beds left, right and center. So it’s great advice to be able to just remain calm. Do your best at at at everything. Maybe prioritize one project over the other or one. One topic. But that’s good advice. And then the other thing is one thing that you’ve done looking at and speaking to, you’ve kind of upscaled yourself during this downtime, whether it be on LinkedIn, learning or reading books or watching watching stuff online. I mean, the show much free stuff online. Is there anything that you would recommend someone catch up on is only one thing that you think it’s definitely worth doing.
Daniel Kemack [00:17:24] Yeah, I’m with them learning. I don’t know as far as like estimating softwares, like plantsman. I don’t think there’s any material like that. But just Microsoft software like Excel. Anything that you would use in the construction industry. There is a plethora of videos that you could watch and just update yourself. Again, I was. We talked earlier about it. I watched this for our video about Excel, and I knew most of it. But I learned so much in the first 10 minutes of the video that I know it’s you can’t put a price on it. And it’s really helpful, especially if you do have downtime and not even just software related. I watched the video on time management and I watch the video on just like, you know, body language in the office and how to react during certain situations just kind of just gives you more material to prepare yourself to be a better version of yourself in the future. Really? Yeah. Great advice we had.
Gareth McGlynn [00:18:20] If you get a chance, I’m releasing one next week. Daniel’s yours are probably two weeks time. I’m trying to keep going to two week and and find myself a there’s a guy, Martin Walsh, who he was a young engineer from a very good university in Ireland who came to the U.S., has been here twenty two years. But he openly admits that when he arrived in the U.S., he was very raw. He couldn’t go into a meeting with an architect, an owner on a GC. He was just very bullish and brash. And he said he developed those soft skills constantly throughout his career by challenging himself. And he’s no. You’ll notice it on the video really well, well-rounded. So that’s people I don’t think people put enough emphasis, especially on, as you say, that the body language or the soft skills of any job. But more importantly, estimating.
Daniel Kemack [00:19:15] Yeah, I mean, just even communication within your team is just hard. How do you how are you presenting yourself to them?
Daniel Kemack [00:19:20] And then if it’s a certain way that, you know, maybe that you could adjust on and then you go over to like an owner meeting, like you’re talking about. It’s just you might not notice what you’re doing at first if you even if you don’t think it’s wrong. And it could be it’s it might not be something crucial. But again, the simple thing is just how you deliver your words or or how you react to someone or do you keep interrupting them. It’s those are things that are important to look for or think about. If you do watch something like that and you can kind of adjust that as you go and just refine yourself.
Gareth McGlynn [00:19:53] Yeah, that’s good. And tell us how important is obviously a big day if you’re presenting with it with a client. How important is that especially true to winning the project? Honestly, at that stage, you you’ll have worked on the project for two, three, four weeks understanding the project and the way you deliver it. How important is it? And actually getting the work. Do you think?
Daniel Kemack [00:20:19] Well, it’s it’s super important, of course. I think some of the negotiated work is that present. The whole presentation is done initially for dealing with our big job and it comes to the due date. That portion actually is pretty simple. You just because you have your seal bad, you might sit in there in the room with the owners rep and maybe the other competitors and we’ll just cut. They’ll just go. They’ll just unseal it. They’ll open it. They’ll look at the price kind of jotted down. And then the respective low bidder at the time, you know, might be awarded the project. But in that, you know, the whole presentation that you’d give them, you know, there’s dead requirements, the whole nine yards, how you how you set up your whole proposal, you know, if it’s if it’s off by one little detail, you know, you might be disqualified. So and we have personnel that that do it’s not like it’s all on the estimate or, you know, it’s again, it’s a team effort. So we all work together to make sure that that’s, you know, and in mint condition for the owner.
Gareth McGlynn [00:21:21] Good. And then is it. What do you like better or do you like the negotiated work, the hard to see him at risk? Artist Does a competitive age of Daniel Chemic come out and say, I love the hard drive and I love the victory dance or the.
Daniel Kemack [00:21:37] I said, I’ve done a lot of Seema and I’ve done hard. That was all I really did was hard beds at my first estimate, a company that I worked for. I think I am. I don’t think I’ve lost a hard bed yet. Then I was lost. So I know it’s a I don’t want to jinx it, but I was going to say I have a pretty good track record with those goods.
Gareth McGlynn [00:22:00] And what one is it? What way do you think that is? Is it because you like because negotiated business or seem at risk and negotiated is slightly different? Do you think that the Harbord your your your competitive background and your track record. Is that because you know that you’re up against three or four of your competitors and you just what you want to you want to test Meckering?
Daniel Kemack [00:22:21] Right. Yeah, yeah. You know, you’re on the line to to get the proper price and it’s just exhilarating, really. You know, you’re out, you’re pressed for time and trying to get everything together. And actually, we we do a little different here. I wordsmith from the last company, and I’m not actually used to it. But you would get your sub numbers. And submit your bid on the same day. Maybe that’s just how it’s supposed to be done. I guess I’m not used to that. But nevertheless, it’s a it is fun. You know, you always want to you’re like, how do we do? How do we deal? You know, you’re always curious. But I do enjoy it. And I’m in the SIMAR portion is fun because you go through the iterations of schematic design, design development and then, you know, 100 percent Durand’s. It isn’t. It’s intriguing for sure, because you have to go through it with a fine tooth comb, see what changes are between the different sets of drawings. So that has its own. It has its own. Parts that are intriguing.
Gareth McGlynn [00:23:26] Brilliant. Very good. And get listen, we all know the preconstruction and fascinating. It’s a stressful role. It’s a difficult position. What is the most difficult if you could pinpoint one thing that you would like to see change or that that stresses you out? What is the most difficult part of your job?
Daniel Kemack [00:23:47] Well, we’re actually in the process of taking our in our plantsman take software and how we do things and excel with our templates or estimate templates and our guidelines for kind of what we’re working on, like a guideline for for estimating. And again, that’s that involves working in your estimate and how you do your takeoff and plants with because, you know, you’ve got your senior guys, you’ve got your mid-level guys, and then there’s guys like me who are upcoming. And what me and when my coworkers and I at the moment were putting together this guideline to kind of keep everyone on the same page, you know, this guy does it this way and he likes it. And then this guy does it this way and he loves it. He’s been doing it for years.
Daniel Kemack [00:24:32] And what we’re trying to make it mainstream and just do a certain way that way. You know, there’s not any gimmicks, 90 mishaps when when you’re because if someone does an estimate and then they have to hand it off to the next guy, it’s you have to spend time just trying to see where they’re at and what they mean by what they say. So what does guideline again, you know, that’ll that’ll hopefully. Eliminate that and just keep everything flowing nicely.
Gareth McGlynn [00:24:58] Yeah, absolutely. Oh, nice. Would that be when you bring a guy under underneath you or the next guy into the company, you can just hand them the procedures and the policies and how you do the standards and then they can be up to speed much, much quicker.
Daniel Kemack [00:25:11] Right. And the whole purpose of it is to give it to an intern or, you know, someone new in general, and they could go through it, hopefully know how to do it. And then they can they can work on their estimate and have it open at the same time and follow along and then execute without without any issues. So that is the goal for sure. And I, I do look forward to when we finish that. We’ve actually been pretty busy. So it’s let’s work on work, try to work on the guidelines kind of guidelines.
Gareth McGlynn [00:25:41] Very good. Yes, it’s nonstop. I just know it’s kind of a touchy subject.
Gareth McGlynn [00:25:46] That would be not good to dismiss Koban 19. Obviously, you guys have been in the office then your social distancing. How do you how are you finding it and what do you see coming out of this pandemic?
Daniel Kemack [00:26:03] We’re just kind of held to a little bit higher standards. You know, just being responsible outside of work. Don’t. Don’t go anywhere in that area. Don’t go into large crowds of people kind of thing. So I’ve just been I’ve been maintaining my distance outside of work and network. Again, we do our social distancing. I have my own kids. So it’s I don’t really leave my cube too often. But I mean, we’re flowing we’re still working hard. I put in a lot of hours last week, which I actually enjoy doing. I was working on this project for the city. One of the public works facilities. So that was actually a lot of fun. That one’s to see Mark. I mean, as far as the work goes, everything seems pretty normal. All the owners, their projects are still going on, so we’re still working. It’s obviously after when you leave work and you go home and buy a home for the weekend and it’s like, well, we do you know, it’s when you start a bunch of little projects and then we’ll make the day out of it at the house kind of thing.
Gareth McGlynn [00:27:04] Absolutely. It’s tough at home. It’s it’s tough. And I think all of I mean, this week I mentioned that on my on the podcast with Brian Myers, the Ben Guri St. Louis. And we said, listen, it’s it looks as if we’re coming out of this. Restrictions are being lifted. Construction projects should be given the go ahead across the U.S. So fingers crossed this will look a lot better in two or three weeks because how nice has the golf courses opened in Orlando?
Daniel Kemack [00:27:30] Yes, they have been open the whole time as far as I’m good now.
Gareth McGlynn [00:27:35] Well, your your your fly in. Well, you play off.
Daniel Kemack [00:27:40] Well, I play off a handicap.
Daniel Kemack [00:27:44] Yeah, right now I. I probably should. I don’t. I try not to keep score that way. I can still stay in the game. Good. OK, brilliant.
Gareth McGlynn [00:27:52] Well, listen, thank you very much. This will be really helpful for the junior people in the industry and the people looking to get out there. It’s a good perspective because as I said, we have got a lot of VPC directors, presidents in on the podcast so far. So this will be refreshing to the younger the younger listeners, especially the people going into college, in college or maybe in their intern. So thank you very much that they appreciate it.
Daniel Kemack [00:28:17] Thanks so much.
Gareth McGlynn [00:28:18] No worries. Thanks, Daniel.
Daniel Kemack [00:28:20] Thank you.
Gareth McGlynn [00:28:20] Talk to you soon.
Daniel Kemack [00:28:22] All right.
Gareth McGlynn [00:28:29] Well, thank you to Daniel for taking the time out to record that episode over the weekend. Really appreciate it. I really enjoyed speaking with Daniel. He’s a super smart guy who seems to have found a great company in Wharton Smith to help take his career to the next level. He’s a guy I see doing really, really well. A couple of reasons for that. Firstly, his ability to communicate with others, which I think is really important, especially if he has those skills at a young age. And then more importantly, his desire to learn and challenge himself. I got that from me. He has no problem throwing himself into new challenges, but doing it in a methodical way.
Gareth McGlynn [00:29:14] I hope you enjoyed the episode as always. Share it with your peers. There will be clips of the podcast of the interview coming out on LinkedIn over the next few weeks. Once I get them trimmed and look good. Thanks again for listening. And as always, there’s much more to come.
Gareth McGlynn [00:29:32] Using.
