Serge Agbatchi’s Kiewit career got its start in a University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) classroom. Two Kiewit engineers held an info session. Afterward, he set up an interview.
“We talked and two months later I was in Phoenix,” said Agbatchi.
In Arizona, Agbatchi’s career took off. After working on a few jobs across the state to start his career, he traveled to Nebraska, Canada and California for various opportunities with the company.
“I’ve learned a lot from traveling,” he said. “I think most importantly seeing what other parts of the business do and how they do their work and getting to build relationships with all those other Kiewit companies is the highlight of traveling for me.”
In his travels and different roles, he’s learned both sides of Kiewit’s business — building work and getting work.
“That’s really something that I actually grew into I guess toward my second year with Kiewit. That’s when I started to realize I wanted to learn the (get work) side, too,” he said. “The good thing was I was afforded the opportunity to do that. You always get the support from management to be able to go and see where you really fit in and succeed.”
Today, Agbatchi is a project controls manager on a water treatment plant project back in Arizona. Even in this role managing project budget and financials, he spends a lot of time out in the field, observing the work.
“I do spend a lot of time outside in the field because my job does require me to understand everything that’s going on out there to be able to forecast accurately,” he said.
Agbatchi encourages anyone back in a college classroom like he was not to be afraid of getting into construction, which is often perceived to be a challenging industry.
“At a company like Kiewit, we have a lot of resources and a lot of help to be able to succeed,” he said. “As long as you’re willing to succeed, you’re going to succeed.”
“The sky is the limit with Kiewit. Whatever you want to do, there’s a way to get there with Kiewit.”
