Virnetta Woodbury
Project Manager, Brasfield & Gorrie
Author, “My Life, My Career, My Choice”
You do so many things beyond your actual job description—including authoring a workbook to introduce children and teens to construction and other careers. What sparked this passion outside of your regular job description?
I love my job at B&G, and that includes helping people. Whenever anybody at the office asks me to help somebody or I get a phone call or somebody reaches out, I’m there. I wanted to take that generosity and use it to make a difference across Alabama. I’m involved in helping high school students find their career paths because I feel like I can talk to them—if someone doesn’t know something and they want to learn, that’s a good way to find out. By putting that in a book, I felt like I could impact more students.
Why is this book—and other resources like it—important for the future of the construction industry?
The students don’t know what they don’t know and they don’t always know those careers are out there, and throughout the book, the students do career research themselves. My first intention with this book is to get it distributed across the state of Alabama. You could go to rural Alabama and it might help kids realize that they can go work for a place like Brasfield & Gorrie as a carpenter or a laborer or work their way up to superintendent, all with no college education.
What did the process of publishing look like for you?
Once I finally got it written, I used my skills as a project manager and did some of my own research, but I relied heavily on one of my coworkers and really good friends who works in the marketing department here at B&G. She comes from the journalism world—she did that before she came here. She was a major asset.
Do you have plans to create something else or do you have other things already in the works?
In a perfect world, this book would be available across the whole country, but I do have something in the works for next year.
As a former student-athlete at the University of Alabama, do you have a favorite Alabama tradition?
I ran track at Alabama on a scholarship, so I’m a huge Alabama sports fan. My husband—who I met at Alabama—and I have season tickets to the football games. We try to make it to every single one. My personal tradition is I always have to wear my Alabama jersey on game day whether I’m at the game or not.
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