Nishita Lakhani is a Senior Project Engineer at McCarthy Building Companies. Although she is relatively new to the profession, I loved hearing how passionate and positive she is about the construction industry. We talked about the differences between construction in India versus the U.S., how you don’t realize it when you’re in school but communication is the key to successful projects, and whether or not mentorship and diversity initiatives are actually effective.

Show Recap:

• How growing up in India inspired Nishita to pursue a career in construction
• How growing up in India inspired Nishita to pursue a career in construction
• Nishita explains the difference between the Construction Engineering Management and Construction Management majors
• On interning at Disney!
• Why she chose to stay in the U.S. after graduation, and how construction in India is different from the U.S.
• I shared my experiences working in Shanghai
• Advice for someone who wants to study CEM
• How we both spend most of our day talking to or emailing people (before getting to our "real" work)
• What she does as a Senior Project Engineer at McCarthy
• McCarthy's project management training program
• How technology has changed the construction process
• Contractors and architects are on totally different time schedules
• What she wishes architects knew, or would do