Meet Carly Donnenwirth, a Permit Manager who has been working in the Mid-Atlantic Region for two years. She shares more about her role, in which she tackles something new every day. From creating purchase orders for client invoices, helping out the CAD team, to creating new permits, Carly does it all!
TELL US ABOUT YOUR CAREER PATH AND WHAT LED YOU TO YOUR CURRENT ROLE?
I went to college for Marketing with a Minor in Hospitality and Tourism Management. I did a sports marketing internship at my alma mater, Appalachian State University (Roll Neers!). I ended up hating it because I would rather be in the stands cheering, but it was a great experience, and I learned lots of new skills from it. The former head of Professional Services at Network Connex reached out to me towards the end of my internship about the Project Coordinator job opening. I became Permit Manager a couple of months ago after getting some experience in that area.
WHAT KINDS OF EDUCATION OR ON THE JOB TRAINING HAVE HELPED YOU BE SUCCESSFUL IN YOUR CURRENT JOB?
A lot of what I do now had to be learned on the job.
The permitting process is a lot of trial and error, so you learn as you go and need to remember any past mistakes so they don’t happen again and hold up permits from getting approved.
Oh, and thank God I took Excel in college.
WHAT CHARACTERISTICS DO YOU THINK ARE NEEDED TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN YOUR ROLE?
Organization is so important in this role. If a manager reaches out asking for a status update on a permit, I’ll have to be able to track down that permit out of the hundreds of active permits we have. My organizational skills are much stronger now after being in this role.
Good interpersonal skills might be even more important than that. I have always been a very sociable and extroverted person; that’s the Gemini in me. But you have to learn how to communicate and build relationships with so many different kinds of people in a friendly manner so that they will help you out in the long run. I once set up a meeting and helped an older VDOT employee learn how to open his OneDrive and upload documents to it. Afterwards, he said if I ever needed anything or to speed up the permit application review process that he could pull some strings. That will definitely come in handy one day.
WHAT DOES A TYPICAL DAY AT WORK LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?
It’s different every day. I still do some project coordination tasks as well as permitting. I help some managers with end of the month billing for big clients, I create purchase orders for client invoices, I book rooms, flights, and car rentals for our Field Team, and I find old road plans in VDOT software archives to help out our CAD team. On the permitting side, usually I create new permits every day now, while also reaching out to the people reviewing our applications to try and get an update or push to speed the process up. There is lots of work editing applications in Bluebeam and talking on the phone with people.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT WHAT YOU DO?
It is so satisfying to see the whole process of getting a permit approved. Some can take a week while others could take months to receive. It is such a long process with lots of revisions, and it can get frustrating sometimes. But it is always the best feeling to get all of the permits that are needed for a project so that it bumps up the next step and our clients can start construction.
HOW DO YOU LIKE TO SPEND YOUR TIME OUTSIDE OF WORK?
LIVE MUSIC. I love concerts, festivals, and any small shows at a fun dive bar with my friends. My music taste is very broad, but some of my current favorite bands are Khruangbin, Geese, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and Billy Strings. Other than that, I love to explore different neighborhoods in Chicago and spend time outside!
TELL US A FUN OR SURPRISING FACT ABOUT YOU!
I love hockey (Let’s Go Rangers), and my favorite meal is pretty much any sandwich. I have a sandwich Instagram where I review yummy sandwiches for my friends and family. I would share the username, but that’s embarrassing.