Robert Grossmann

Murphy Company

Where you grew up

St. Louis Metro – North County and St. Charles County

Where you went to school or did technical training

Jennings / Wentzville HS; Missouri S&T

Personal hobbies

Music, Hiking, Skiing, Photography

What do you do in your profession?

Primarily estimating / sales but also technical assistance for projects. We review drawings, specs, models, and site conditions to come up with cost estimates and prepare proposals for our customers. In addition to my regular job, I am also on the Sheet Metal Contractors (SMACNA) Board and sit on various committees within the local construction industry on behalf of the Sheet Metal Contractors.

What are your dream career and dream tasks to work on?

I’ve always enjoyed problem solving. Construction offers a pretty steady diet of problems to solve. In commercial construction, we never or rarely build the same thing twice so every project presents it’s own unique set of problems that need to be resolved.

Advice for someone who wants to do the same job or career as you.

Learn the “why” not just the “how”. When we understand why things are done a certain way or why things work a certain way, we can extend that knowledge to situations that we maybe haven’t experienced before. It’s great to know how to do something but when the conditions change, we may not understand what we need to do differently. Learn to be a problem solver. Understand how to define the problem and determine what information you need to solve the problem. The world will always need problem solvers.

If you were to go back and give advice to yourself at age 16, what would it be?

Always do the extra credit. Don’t just do what is asked. Always see if you can do a little extra. The extra is what people will notice and that can be what sets you apart.

Any other comments or information that you would like to include.

Construction offers many great career choices. It nice to be able to drive around and point out projects that you had a hand in. The construction industry needs a wide variety of personality types and training backgrounds. It needs people that are skilled with their hands as well as their minds. It needs engineers, accountants, craftsmen, CAD operators, planners, safety professionals, sales people, quality control professionals, …