Lena Bassett Project Engineer | Shook Construction Company

The male figures in my life have played an incredibly influential role in shaping my career journey. Growing up, and even now, the two people I’ve always looked up to most are my dad and my late uncle Don. 
My dad is an engineer, and although he’d been working in the field for a while, he decided to finish his college degree when I was still young. Telling everyone, “My dad is an engineer!” was the coolest thing in the world. I used to look at his textbooks whenever he wasn’t home. I didn’t understand a word of it, and honestly, I still don’t, but that didn’t stop me from saying that I was going to be an engineer when I grew up. 
My uncle Don, on the other hand, was already retired by the time I was born, which meant he often watched me. His favorite place in the house was his workshop, surrounded by tools, so he brought me along for everything. Although I don’t remember all of it vividly, the smell of sawdust and solder, along with plenty of photo evidence, brings that right back. 
Even though I changed my mind countless times about what I wanted to be, right up until college graduation, my interests always stayed in the world of building and creating. With the kind of role models and experiences I grew up with, a desk job never even crossed my mind. 
 

I’d say that my first construction job was in my uncle’s garage shop, nailing scraps of wood together when I was four. But realistically, my role at Shook is my first true construction job. My degree is in Interior Design, and from the time I entered CTE school at 17 all the way through most of my college years, that was the path I was committed to. I loved what I was learning and believed that was exactly where I belonged. 
But once I started gaining hands-on experience, I realized I was much more energized by the construction side of architectural design. I was fortunate to find Shook, who offered me a post graduate co-op so I could explore that shift before making any big decisions. It only took a couple of months for me to know this is the work I truly want to be doing. 
 

One common misconception is that women can’t be leaders, or don’t want to be leaders, especially out on a jobsite. When people picture construction management, they often imagine loud, commanding, stoic, masculine decisionmakers. In reality, the industry relies far more on communication, coordination, and clarity than on being a demanding overseer. 
Part of the challenge is that there still aren’t many women in construction management roles, so we don’t have a large group of seasoned role models to look up to, and there’s no truly fair comparison yet. This misconception also implies that women are less respected, but that has everything to do with bias, not capability. 
 

Women often bring a high level of detail orientation to construction management. This can make it easier to spot discrepancies in drawings early or ask proactive questions about things the contractor or architect may not have fully considered, allowing issues to be resolved before they become last minute problems. Many women also bring strong creativity to their work, which can lead to practical, outside the box solutions to real on-site challenges. In addition, women tend to be better at building strong relationships, whether with their teams, clients, or site personnel, which can create a more collaborative and productive jobsite environment. 

I haven’t been here long myself, so take this advice with a grain of salt. When you’re just starting out, you don’t need to have all the answers or be able to respond on the spot, no one expects you to. What matters most is staying curious, learning constantly, and being willing to ask questions. Spend time with the field crews and ask if you can watch them work. Seeing things come together builds both knowledge and confidence. They may not always love the extra questions at first, but once they realize you genuinely want to learn, they’ll respect you for it. Being curious allows the answers to slowly come to you.