When I was four, Dad designed and built our first house basically by himself on nights and weekends. I remember sitting on the grade beams learning how to swing a hammer. My parents still live in that house today. Throughout my young adult life, I kept working with Dad and learning the basics of construction. When the dot-com bubble hit, Dad got fed-up seeing his retirement account shrink and decided to start buying fixer-upper properties for rental. Of course, he needed a workshop to store all his tools, so we ended up building one that is bigger than our house (Mom still makes comments on that today).

What was your route into the profession?

I studied finance at college, expecting to go into investment banking. However, I graduated in 2008 during the global financial crisis, when finance majors had a very tough time getting jobs. But while I was in college, I’d taken a real estate class that gave me the hours to apply for a real estate salesperson licence (obviously not an optimal time to start selling houses either). I then worked for a broker for close to a year until I found a part-time opportunity with a local developer/asset manager that eventually led to a full-time position.

What inspires you?

The increase in technology implementation and practitioners opening up to change has been really uplifting. And, as a CM, there is no feeling quite like driving by a development and thinking you helped build that. I’m looking forward to seeing completed projects that have really embraced new technologies and created a special user experience. 

What advice would you give your 20-year-old self?

Face challenges with a rational and positive attitude. If you keep working hard, keep pushing forward in an ethical manner and treat others with respect, you will end up much further in life than you can imagine when you are 20 years old.



Read Eric Ottinger ACABE's full article here | buildingengineer.org.uk/community/5-minutes-eric-ottinger-acabe