2022 News

Celebrating Women in Construction: Kayla Youngblood

Celebrating Women in Construction: Kayla Youngblood
03.15.2022

Kayla Youngblood is a project engineer at Baker Group and worked her way up from our intern program. She now has more than four years of experience providing support and administrative help to project managers and the Mechanical Business Unit. She describes herself as a “right-hand man” while also running smaller projects and building a client network.

Growing up on a farm, Youngblood was always exposed to construction projects but says she didn’t know the construction industry was the right fit for her until she found the construction engineering program at Iowa State University.

Youngblood says the most surprising part of being a woman working in construction is how much she was accepted on the jobsite from the very beginning of her career.

“Being a woman on a construction site can be challenging,” she says. “However, every Baker Group field personnel I have encountered onsite has taught me so much and treated me like family.”

Youngblood’s favorite project she’s worked on so far is an NDA multi-story building in Bondurant, Iowa.

“A multi-story building being built in under a year was a challenging feat, but our team made it happen,” Youngblood says.

She thinks the biggest changes she’s seen in the construction industry recently is the amount that technology is being used on jobsites.

The most challenging component of being a project engineer for Youngblood is managing the work-life balance while still being successful. She says her best advice for young women who want to enter the construction industry is: “Do not be afraid to stand up and share your thoughts and ideas. We bring a very unique perspective that needs to be shared within our industry.”

Youngblood embodies our core values of being Mentally Tough and Loving What We Do by being driven to succeed and creating lifelong relationships with clients and her team. Thank you for all you do!

About Baker Group

Baker Group is a commercial and industrial specialty contractor based in Ankeny, Iowa. With more than 1,000 employees, Baker Group is the Midwest’s premier full-service specialty contractor providing mechanical, industrial, sheet metal, electrical, building automation, process automation, security systems, fire alarm systems, parking/revenue controls and 24/7/365 service. For more information, call 855.262.4000 or visit www.thebakergroup.com.

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