A Job with a Purpose: Meet Brian Smith, Senior Project Controls Consultant
Brian Smith, senior project controls consultant, joined the Manta Ray Consulting team in October 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The role brought together two of Brian’s requirements for a job: no headache-inducing commute thanks to MRC’s distributed team structure and the chance to do work that benefits the world. Looking back on his career, Brian says that having a job that gives him a purpose has made his work with MRC his favorite role to date.
After earning an Engineering degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Brian was hired for his first project controls position at a company in Chicago. Through six years in that role Brian found a natural fit for his talents and interests.
“What I like about project controls is that it plays to my strengths,” he says. “I am detail-oriented and an analytic logical thinker.”
He gained experience in several additional roles including the oil and transportation industries before being recommended to MRC by his colleague Thom. Once onboard at MRC, Brian settled into the Office of Project Management team at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
Brian’s day-to-day at SLAC includes supporting the Detector Microfabrication Foundry – a superconducting device fabrication cleanroom - and the Cryoplant Repair and Maintenance Facility projects. These highly specialized, complex projects come with the opportunity to truly impact the world.
“The work at a national laboratory like SLAC benefits all of humanity by advancing global technological progress,” Brian says.
Outside of work, Brian enjoys working out and keeping up with sports, including basketball and football. He sees an overlap between the project controls world and sports, both of which utilize his analytic mindset.
“In sports you’re using metrics and analytics to play more efficiently, tracking seemingly obscure statistics to make the team better,” he explains. “This is similar to project controls: both require a strong team. I could be the best individual consultant or basketball player in the world, but the end goal is not going to be met unless the entire team is collaborating and working well together.”
Brian sees a bright future ahead for the project controls industry and encourages those interested in the field to get their Project Management Professional (PMP) certification early on in their careers. Though he loves the analytical side of project controls, he also stresses that people skills, flexibility, and foundational good work habits (good communication, staying organized, showing up on time, etc.) are critical. He sees a lot of promise in AI software and hopes it will help consultants be more efficient by automating menial tasks.
“This job market is going to continue to be strong and we’ll keep doing important work,” he says.