U.S. General Services Administration
Amy Gutirrez is not afraid to ask questions
Amy Gutirrez
Branch Chief
Project Management Office
18 years at GSA
Construction is not always about swinging a hammer, there is a lot of depth to the career field. One of those crucial roles to the process is that of the project manager.
It is the project managers who mitigate the risks, manage the resources and communicate with the stakeholders. They set project goals, ensure things are on time and within budget. In Region 8, Amy Gutirrez is in charge of making sure project managers are better prepared for their tasks.
As the branch chief for the Project Management Office (PMO), she leads a team of five that are responsible for building a training and support program that provides project managers a solid foundation of understanding and familiarity for the work they will perform throughout the region.
Gutirrez has been a program manager throughout her 18-year career at GSA; but that was not always her career goal.
She received her degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Texas in 2003 and after a brief stint in the private sector, she came to GSA as a contractor in the IT department. She thought IT was where she wanted to stay. When she finally started as a full time federal employee, she translated the organizational skills she developed in her undergraduate education to project management for construction.
“Right out of college, I took a position with a private firm that certified residential and commercial construction work was being completed within scope and budget,” said Gutirrez. “That was my first glimpse into the construction field.”
Despite limited experience, Gutirrez has thrived in this environment. Mentors along the way have helped with her success.
Kim Bailey was a major influence for Gutirrez. She actually hired her and saw that diamond in the rough. Bailey saw her educational background and work in the private sector as a positive for the construction side in Region 8.
More recently, Capital Program Branch Chief David Hopkins provided Gutirrez with some direction that has been her guiding light while shaping the PMO.
“He challenged me to always have the project manager in mind while building the PMO. Always asking ‘what is the why’ and the value add,” said Gutirrez. “It has helped me build a dynamic and robust program that is very project manager centric in how we support and train and ultimately provide resources to the end users that hits the mark.”
The biggest challenge Gutirrez had to overcome, as she started as a project manager, was understanding technical construction language and methodologies. Coming from the IT industry, being immersed in construction terminology felt like a new foreign language. To overcome that deficiency, she asked a lot of questions and wasn’t afraid to admit that she didn’t understand aspects of construction.
Her advice to new people coming into the career field is you don’t need to know everything or have to be an expert. Just bring the experts to the table to support you as you learn and don’t be afraid to ask questions. It is important to not be paralyzed by a lack of knowledge, just having a willingness to learn will build trust and respect.
During her career, her all-time favorite projects were the ones that had a challenge to overcome. She often was assigned projects that involved a challenging customer component where they really needed someone to hear them as well as understand and work through their concerns.
One example she offered was a lease project to build out a new space for a customer in Sioux Falls early in her career. This customer did not like working with GSA and did not have a great relationship with the contractor. Nothing seemed to be right for them and they did not have confidence that the space would meet their requirements.