Fieldwire employee spotlight - John Chamandy Cook
John Chamandy Cook • Not only are Fieldwire employees incredibly talented and smart, but a good majority of them came from the construction industry before joining Fieldwire. They uniquely understand the challenges faced by construction teams in the field and the office, which makes their contributions at Fieldwire even more valuable.
Get to know one of our employees from the construction success team in this Q&A interview.
John Chamandy Cook, Construction Solutions Engineer
Professional background before joining Fieldwire
I graduated from Lehigh with a degree in Industrial Systems Engineering and went to work at Kiewit, one of North America's largest contracting firms. During my time at Kiewit I had the pleasure of working on complex projects with amazing people.
I started as a Field Engineer on a 2x1 combined cycle power plant. A project that was nearing substantial completion, we managed Punch for internal crews and over 20 subs to get the job done under budget and early.
The power plant was followed by a quick stint of estimating where I learned the ins and outs of construction contracts, Plan/Spec evaluation, costs and negotiations.
I ended my tenure at Kiewit working on a large infrastructure project in New York City on the Williamsburg Bridge. A project that required substantial redesign, coordination between subcontractors/fabricators and multiple construction constraints that challenged our team daily.
The project consisted of two phases and ¾ of a year of redesign where I managed a team of engineers redesigning components to be installed on the bridge. The process involved creating numerous RFIs, Submittals and change orders. The second phase consisted of working as a superintendent, where I managed self-performed ironwork, laborer and carpenter crews.
Tell us about your role at Fieldwire
My day-to-day at Fieldwire consists of working hands-on with customers to help them develop and foster their use of Fieldwire. Having come from the industry and being Fieldwire product experts, the construction team as a whole has the ability to provide our clients with sound advice, training, and we become our customers’ trusted advisors and partner in improving project efficiency.
This is what I love about working at Fieldwire; I get the chance to show customers the perfect solution to their most complex construction issues.
John’s favorite part of working at Fieldwire
My favorite part about working at Fieldwire is when a client has their “AH HA!” moment with the software. At that moment everything clicks about the workflow we have created together, and they get a tailor-made solution to the construction issue they were facing.
John’s favorite feature of Fieldwire
Using tasks and forms in tandem to track and record quality control on a project. I think the reason why I love this workflow within Fieldwire so much is because I remember the immense struggle I had in the field organizing, recording and reporting on quality control on my projects without Fieldwire.
How do you think Fieldwire is impacting the construction industry?
There are a lot of construction management solutions out there. What I think makes Fieldwire unique from our competitors and how we impact the industry is that we were created with the field in mind first. What that means is we provide our clients with a product that their field teams actually wants to use.
During my time at Kiewit I used many different types of construction software and I never had the pleasure of using one that my foreman would actually want to pick up and interact with. This makes the product less effective because instead of having a software that lightened my workload, I found myself needing to continually relay information back and forth between the field and office. With Fieldwire this is not the case because your field personnel are doing this back and forth communication on their own!
