Caliber 1 Construction, Inc

Kelly Jordan

Employee Wellbeing Advocate

In construction, a blueprint is everything. It is the intentional design that guides every decision, every measurement and every action from groundbreaking to completion. A great blueprint leaves nothing to chance. The same philosophy should govern how we build internship programs.

Over the course of my HR career — spanning Fortune 500 companies to privately held organizations — I have had the privilege of developing internship programs across a wide range of industries. The goal has always been consistent: give students an experience that stays with them as they step into their careers. The execution has evolved, but the foundation has not.

At Caliber 1 Construction, Inc., a woman-owned commercial general contractor, we live our values of Integrity, Quality and Satisfaction in everything we do and our internship program is no exception. We call it Building Your Blueprint, a nod to the construction process that defines our work and our culture.

The Foundation: Four Non-Negotiables

Before structure, before scheduling, before anything else, we establish four core expectations for every intern: a genuine desire to enter the construction industry, intellectual curiosity about the work, a willingness to learn by doing and accountability to earn the compensation they receive. These are not soft suggestions; they are the load-bearing walls of the program.

The Structure: Ten Weeks with Purpose

Our internship runs for ten weeks: one week of kickoff and orientation, four weeks focused on Project Management, four weeks with our Superintendents in the field and a final week for turnover and wrap-up. Within that framework, we build in flexibility so the experience can be tailored to what each intern needs most.

Structured learning topics run throughout, paired with thoughtful questions designed to deepen understanding. Interns participate in a weekly call with our internship coordinator to discuss what they learned, what they're planning and any challenges they're navigating. They share meals with our executive team, attend company meetings and are included in real problem-solving, not simulated scenarios, but actual challenges our teams are working through.

“If more organizations approached internships with the intentionality of a well-drawn blueprint, the next generation of professionals would enter the workforce more prepared, more engaged and more committed than ever.”

We also expose interns to every corner of our business through what we call "Follow the Money" — training sessions covering preconstruction  process, contract administration, project scheduling, blueprint reading, accounts receivable, accounts payable, human resources, safety & risk and project closeout. Each intern is assigned a direct manager but gains visibility into the full organization.

What an Internship Is Not

This bears stating directly: an internship is not grunt work. It is not busy work. It is not sitting idle, being unprepared or existing on the margins. Every intern we bring in could become our next hire. They will carry their experience back to their universities, peers and families. They have voices, and those voices matter.

Our Intern Punch List ensures structured engagement — scheduled one-on-ones, networking events through the AGC and local Chamber of Commerce, vendor presentations and happy hours where our full team welcomes them into our culture. We set clear expectations: be respectful, ask questions, be ready to learn and do.

The Selection: Intentional and Selective

Last summer, we received approximately 187 applicants for four internship positions. That ratio reflects a deliberate process — career fair participation, employee referrals, phone screenings and structured interviews. What we look for mirrors what we value in every employee: communication skills, transferable experience, coachability, clear goals and, above all, alignment with our shared values.

Four interns. One hundred eighty-seven applicants. That selectivity is not an exclusion; it is respect. Respect for the intern's experience, respect for our team's bandwidth and respect for the integrity of the program.

The Blueprint Is Never Finished

After every internship cycle, we conduct a post-program review: What should we start doing? Stop doing? Continue doing? A blueprint gets revised. Ours does too.

The opportunity to shape a student's career trajectory — to be the experience that makes them say this is the industry for me — is not something we take lightly. If more organizations approached internships with the intentionality of a well-drawn blueprint, the next generation of professionals would enter the workforce more prepared, more engaged and more committed than ever.

Build with purpose. Build with structure. Build something they will remember.