Who Knows Where Facilities Management May Take You?

-Here is an article I wrote for an office newsletter. It is all you wanted to know about my professional life and my new job at the Department of State.-

Cameron is a Building Management Specialist in FMSP and for two and a half years he has been involved in programs ranging from Overtime Utilities to CMMS to Smart Buildings. Unfortunately he’ll be leaving FMSP for a new position as a Foreign Service Facility Manager at the Department of State. While we are sad to see him leave, we are excited to see where this new adventure will take him. As curious people, we wanted to know what leads a person to take a job that might literally send him to Tim-buk-tu.
    Cameron has been around building operations as long as he can remember. Growing up, Cameron would go to work with his dad, a Property Manager at a suburban Philadelphia office park. Later he had part time and summer jobs installing roofs, maintaining buildings and even working as a one-man demolition crew. At Brigham Young University, he discovered a BS program in Facilities Management and knew that’s what he wanted to do. When he graduated he took a job with an engineering firm in Portland Maine called MACTEC. Working for MACTEC, Cameron was able to travel the country doing facility condition assessments and developing maintenance spending plans for clients. After short time in New Mexico working for Parsons on a nuclear construction project, Cameron got a job with GSA in Washington, DC.
    As Cameron was applying for jobs with GSA he also came across a posting for a Foreign Service Facility Manager with the State Department. Not being able to resist, Cameron applied. After an interview, security clearances, medical exams for himself and his family, Cameron was put on a waiting list and eventually forgot about the job. Then nearly two years later Cameron got an email out of the blue offering him a job. Cameron accepted the offer and then awaited the verdict as to where this new job would send him. Cameron viewed the opportunity as great way to further develop his career and have an adventure at the same time.
    At this point if you ask Cameron where he is going the only answer he gives is, “I don’t know.” Although a bit frustrating, the anticipation is also exciting. Not a day goes by when Cameron and his wife don’t speculate about where they might live, what schools their kids might go to and what fun adventures are to come. In preparation Cameron and his wife have surfed the web, skimmed through dozens of blogs, DVR’d every episode of House Hunters International and Living Abroad. While Cameron will be a great loss for GSA we are thrilled to see where opportunities in facilities management can take him even if that is Tim-buk-tu.