Bartlett & West is in a sweet spot for opportunity
JD Reitinger is a project manager II in the Rail Services group at Bartlett & West, located in Overland Park, Kansas. He started his career at the company as an intern 15 years ago and has moved around — both within the company and around the United States — as his interests and experience have evolved.
We talked with JD about how Bartlett & West empowers employee-owners to learn, grow and thrive.
Tell me about your career path at Bartlett & West.
When I started working full-time, I focused on a major transportation project in Topeka, Kansas. When funding caused that project to go on hold for a bit, I moved over to helping people in our Lawrence, Kansas, and Jefferson City, Missouri, offices with some Missouri Department of Transportation work as well as some municipal roadway projects, and eventually to our Overland Park office.
At the start of 2020, I moved to Dallas, Texas, and worked out of the Fort Worth, Texas, office and then eventually the Dallas office when Civil Associates, Inc. joined Bartlett & West. This past summer, I moved back to the Overland Park office. (JD explains how he has been empowered to thrive at Bartlett & West.)
How did your role evolve in Texas?
Bartlett & West had decided to focus on the Texas market. We have had an office in Fort Worth for more than 20 years, but its attention was on a major client, BNSF Railway. There's a lot of money being spent in transportation in Texas and we saw that as an opportunity for our company to expand our footprint and get into some new markets.
I supported our new project managers, helping them pursue new projects, deliver those projects, and mentor new people coming on board, teaching them about the Bartlett & West culture. I've spent some time serving on our internal employee-ownership council and was able to share my experience in the Fort Worth and Dallas offices. (Hear JD talk about how serving each other is core to Bartlett & West’s core values.)
When you were thinking about what your career would look like, is this what you imagined?
I saw myself doing some structural work, and early on in my career had the opportunity to design a bridge because I mentioned I had some structural interest. My manager found me a bridge I could design. I realized that's probably not my path forward, but it was a great opportunity.
My career path shows the opportunity and flexibility you can find at Bartlett & West. What I've heard from others is at the larger companies you can get pigeonholed into a certain part of a design and you end up doing that one facet. You get really good at that one facet, but you don't get the opportunity to work on other types of projects or other parts of a project. (Hear more from JD on how Bartlett & West’s culture fosters growth.)
Interested?
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