A Career Change Leads To MCL Construction

Written By: Rachel Dempsey

​Change is good.

“After Union Pacific, I knew I wanted something different from the corporate field, to get different experiences, and I wanted to see what another type of environment looked like. That's probably what gravitated me in the end to MCL Construction,” said Heather Fredrick, MCL Construction's Associate Director of Business Development.

Heather joined the company back in January after working for Union Pacific, first in marketing and sales, later in HR for 21 years. Before interviewing with MCL, Heather was looking at a few larger corporations but, in the end, the discussions she had with the MCL team gave her an innate feeling of ‘this is where I am supposed to be."

“I think what sold me on wanting to be here was listening to the vision MCL had and where they wanted to go as a company; feeling like it was very much that family-focused environment and all about the people and that, to me, was refreshing,” explained Heather. 

Heather is intrigued with the sustainability of construction, stating, “things that we build are going to be around longer than I am and I think that's interesting.” However, working in the construction industry has its challenges.  Coming from Union Pacific, Heather didn’t know much about what construction entails. 

“This industry is a very tight-knit industry; people have been around it for a while and they are very knowledgeable. I would say the lack of knowing the industry is probably my biggest challenge,” revealed Heather. “There is so much to learn, honestly.” 

Shortly after working at MCL, Heather joined an organization called Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) to help expand her network and learn more about all the players in the construction industry.  The organization was formed to bring together women involved in the many aspects of commercial real estate to exchange information, develop business contacts, and help each other succeed professionally. Since joining, Heather has been able to learn not only about the construction industry but how all the industries related to construction work together. 

“I think CREW is a great support system.  They have been able to open many doors for me, especially when I was coming into an industry that I didn’t have many connections in or knew much about,” commented Heather. 
Heather knew there were going to be challenges going into an industry that she was new to but that didn’t affect her, especially with an organization like CREW to help her through it.  Although Heather has only been working with MCL for seven months, she has loved learning how buildings are constructed and is excited to see how construction will better the city. 

“Honestly, one of the things that drove me to construction was the idea of being part of something bigger, such as making the city better, getting to see things from the ground up, and seeing everything come together from a building perspective,” stated Heather. 

Working with MCL has also been a huge change for Heather compared to working for Union Pacific. MCL Construction provides Heather with a lot more flexibility that allows her to pave her own way. Heather’s passion for marketing and sales has flourished with MCL, and she is eager to be a part of a company that has a great vision for the future.