Carlos Alvarez
Environment Health Safety (EHS) Director at Skanska
Former United States Army Staff Sergeant
- 6 years building Class-A office buildings, healthcare buildings and educational facilities at Skanska
- 3 years in the United States Army
- 11 years in the Texas Army National Guard
How has your military training helped you at Skanska?
The military prepares people to be successful in the construction industry because, I think construction industry and project teams are very close or structured like the military.
My military training has made me more effective because I learned discipline, especially being in combat, it taught me how to endure hardships, and it taught me to deal with a lot of different types of people. You learn that the definition of discipline is doing what you know that has to be always done.
Now, I'm an environmental health and safety manager, and my focus is the safety of my team. Similar to the military, Skanska is very adamant about knowing federal standards and being able to implement them on a complex construction site so that nobody gets hurt and everybody makes it home safe.
How has your training at Skanska helped your transition?
Skanska's always offering training to better yourself as a construction professional. That's really important to me because in the military you train how you fight. Similarly, in the construction industry, you train how you work, which prepares you to be successful in your career.