Bartlett & West employee-owner wishes he’d found the company 10 years ago

fHoward Hoffman is a Lead Construction Engineering Technician for the Water Resources Service Group at Bartlett & West. He started his career at the company in May 2024. Prior to working at Bartlett & West, Howard worked in operations and maintenance for 17 years for a rural water district in North Dakota. In fact, Howard worked closely with the Bartlett & West team during that time.

We talked with Howard about performing inspection duties on projects and how his experience gives him insight into that job, and why he chose Bartlett & West.

How was it working with Bartlett & West before you were an employee-owner?

I enjoyed working with Bartlett & West, four projects over 17 years, seeing that team at a lot of meetings.

After I left the water district and went into the construction field, I was kind of at a crossroads where I was a project manager for 10 years and didn't want to be in charge of entire projects in that capacity. I wanted to be in the water industry, but maybe not necessarily as a project manager, running 30 people and timelines and schedules. I thought maybe I'd give inspecting at Bartlett & West a try. (Hear more from Howard about his experience working with Bartlett & West employee-owners before he came to work here himself.)

How did the relationships you’d built over your career lead you to Bartlett & West?

Relationships are important. I have in my phone no less than 2,000-3,000 contacts after all my years working at the water district with many different contractors. There are people you cross paths with, operators from other water systems, managers, you name it. Employees and foremen that worked under me over the years that I still stay in contact and talk to on a regular basis.

As I have gotten to know Bartlett & West even better, I didn't realize that Bartlett & West is as big as it is and so diverse, from rural water projects, water tank projects, transportation projects, surveyors, all of that.

Now that you’ve spent several months on the job as an inspector, how has your experience as a project manager helped you?

As far as rural water projects, after 17 years if you didn't learn how to put pipes together and lay pipelines and work with people, then you might have wasted your time.

We were the guys in the hole, down in the dirt, down in the mud. When something went wrong, you didn't go home until the water was back on. That was our mantra and we had our standards of putting stuff in, and there was nobody coming behind us to repair it if it failed. We took pride in that.

What do you tell people about working for Bartlett & West?

I’m not ashamed to tell people I wish I’d found it 10 years ago. I’m serious about that.