Colangelo submitted a resume and went through a series of job interviews before being hired as a site engineer for PROCON a couple of weeks after graduation last spring.
“Our relationship with PROCON has opened new doors for our students,” Heather Maietta, associate vice president for corporate & career engagement, said. “Not only residence halls but job opportunities.”
PROCON hasn’t traditionally recruited Merrimack grads but Maietta saw an opportunity when the company won the contract to build the NRV.
Assistant Vice President for External Affairs Felipe Schwarz arranged a meeting between Maietta and a PROCON official in April to discuss the builder’s employment needs and whether the college can match them.
The meeting established a relationship and Sam Colangelo who worked as a building manager and area manager for staff development for the Sakowich Campus Center as an undergrad submitted a resume.
“Sam was really the first new graduate we sent them and they said let’s see how this goes and we’ll see if Merrimack is a target school for us,” Maietta said.
Even before leaving college Colangelo had an extensive background in construction working as a carpenter’s assistant for his family’s business. As his senior capstone design project Colangelo worked as a structural team leader helping design a STEM building for Middlesex Community College’s Bedford campus; and designed a bridge alternate to connect the building to an existing academic building.
“I knew I wanted to go into construction,” he said. “I like the structure aspect of engineering.”
The PROCON job didn’t fall into his lap, Colangelo said. “I was in the Career Services Center pretty much every day my last semester,” he said recently while driving from a job site in Maine to his home in West Boylston, Mass.
Colangelo knew he wanted to use his civil engineering degree in the construction field and was looking for an entry level job when he came across a posting for ProCon, of Manchester, N.H.
Maietta arranged a five-minute meeting between PROCON Executive Vice President of Operations Lance Bennett and Colangelo which led to a telephone interview with a company talent acquisition manager during finals week last spring.
A couple weeks later he got a personal interview and was hired as a site engineer.
He’s responsible for taking the design plans and laying them out on the ground then making sure the concrete foundation is poured in the right spot and steel footings are installed correctly.
“Pretty much it sets up the rest of the building,” he said.
Assignments have taken him from Augusta, Maine to New Jersey but Colangelo hasn’t worked at the Merrimack job site.
“It’s been interesting,” he said.
