Webcor’s greatest asset has long been its people—talented, passionate, ambitious construction professionals driven to disrupt the AEC industry with fresh, innovative solutions. From the field to the project trailer to the main regional offices, Webcor employs carefully selected individuals who embrace the company’s core values and commit themselves to Webcor’s purpose: building solutions and bettering lives.

When tasked with recruiting the type of people whose talents and experience align with a company as selective as Webcor, it all starts with knowing where to discover them. For the last 15+ years, Webcor has sponsored the Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) problem statement at the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Regions 6 & 7 Student Competition, a major event that draws about 1,300 students pursuing construction-related degrees from colleges throughout the Rocky Mountain Region (Region 6) and Far West Region (Region 7) each year.

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“Targeted industry events such as the annual ASC competition are excellent sources of the type of talent we seek," says Director, Talent Gina Glasco. "Every year, we identify and recruit outstanding engineering students for summer internships or project engineer roles. It’s also a great opportunity to spend time with recruits who recently accepted a job offer or are considering a postgrad offer from Webcor. Our recruiters are able to connect with the students one-on-one and foster valuable relationships.”

Each year, the Webcor judges dedicate about six months to creating and finalizing the problem statement presented to the student teams. This year’s judging panel included VDC Director Jocelyn Mezofenyi, Assistant Project Manager Marina Rosso, Assistant Project Manager Rachel Johnson, Sr. Preconstruction Director Ryan Hoff, Project Engineer Mac Hammit, and Assistant Project Manager Karen Turcios. As always, the problem statement’s development was based on a current Webcor project under construction.

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The entire statement consisted of nine “small” problems inspired by actual challenges the project team faced during construction that the students could realistically solve over the 12-hour working period, explains Project Director Blair Hinojosa. Participating student teams were tasked with correctly solving the nine presented problems, which tested their knowledge on trade coordination, field logistics, cost estimating, and scheduling, while demonstrating their ability to think critically, apply VDC skills, and clearly present their solutions to the judging panel.

“Students get a real-life understanding of the challenges we face on real projects,” Blair says. “With the problem being focused on VDC skills, it always pushes them to leverage VDC and technology tools to not only more efficiently solve the presented problem but be nimble and react to mid-problem statement curve balls.

“Each year, the VDC tools (such as those used for trade coordination, cost estimating, 3D models, and field verification software) are suggested as ways to solve the problem statements. Over the last four years, the Webcor team has pushed the envelope of students’ VDC skill use and extended the use of the tools and their skills from simply processing information on their computers to doing real, live field verification using an in-place mock-up that the team builds and sets up. In ‘the field’ (the conference space with our mock-up), we’ve begun asking the students to create shop drawings, validate embed and column layouts, create 3D super plots, verify that ‘in the field’ pipes and cans are placed correctly, and cross-check super plots with 3D photos captured in the construction site.”

This year, Webcor’s judges selected Sacramento State as the winning team for their outstanding team cohesion, preparedness, and professionalism. “They were extremely well put-together, and it was obvious they’d come to win,” Jocelyn says.

Karen commended Sacramento State’s team for remaining calm and confident throughout their entire presentation and clearly being prepared to share their thought process and struggles with the problem statement.

“The team was full of talented students who understood what they were speaking to,” she says. “The students’ ability to turn around quality work in such a short amount of time always stands out to us.

“Leading up to the event, they all spend so much time preparing for the competition, which in my opinion is the most rewarding part of the overall ASC experience. The students’ excitement always comes to light during their presentations, and speaking to them afterward is very rewarding. They usually give us their feedback on the problem and share how much they enjoyed solving it with their team, which always excites us about putting together next year’s problem statement!”

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