A Very Hollister Summer

The Hollister Interns met with Mo Fathelbab for a Mo-session, a sincere team-building exercise

This summer, the Hollister team welcomed 13 bright students as interns, all pursuing different career paths in the industry. They spent their time at Hollister learning from the best, shadowing different project delivery units (PDU) and department teams. As their summer dwindled to a close, interns were asked to reflect on their experiences and share any highlights that they personally enjoyed. At Hollister, we would like to thank the interns for all of their hard work and enthusiasm and would like to share what they had to say.

Declan Healy

Before I began my time with Hollister this Summer, I was initially nervous to start due to my lack of experience and the age gap between the people I was going to be working with and myself. However, working for Hollister has taught me the value of a positive working environment and I have found myself very comfortable in the office with numerous positive working relationships with fellow co-workers. Learning these things has been incredibly valuable to me, making me excited to go out into the world and to have a real job someday, and has made me feel much more comfortable about going out and finding a job someday down the road.

Brad Banaszynski

First, my time here has showed me that the type of culture that this company embraces will be an important selling point to where I would want to work in the future. Today, when you think of the type of company that focus on all aspects of their employee’s life and who they are as a person, most would quickly respond that they only know of that type of workplace at companies like Google. My time here has shown me that Hollister has proven that even a smaller scaled company can harness this type of culture that makes being at work not always feel like it is such a chore. Not to mention, it meant a lot to me when the time gets taken out of my day to have a group session with someone like Mo to show you how much the company cares about you as a person. Between all the “Hawaiian Fridays,” the company outings, or even just the fact that people stick around to have a drink together in the culture room on 5 o’clock on a Friday it reflects that Hollister boasts an environment that makes people enjoy coming to work and being around each other. No matter what industry I end up pursuing, I hope to find a place that has as rich of a company culture that Hollister does.

Gerard Falzarano

I began working with my assigned project development group getting a feel of how daily tasks are performed around the office. Whether it was contacting subcontractors about proposals, reading plans, performing quantity takeoffs, familiarizing myself with RFI’s and change orders, completing punch lists onsite, or simply sitting in on meetings, Hollister made me feel part of the action. Every time I went into work, I instantly felt the hospitality running through the office and although my time was limited, I was always treated like family and proudly embraced the Hollister way.

Interns visit the Warren Amenity site to see delivery up close

Kieran Flanagan Jr.

For the majority of my life, Hollister has been something I’ve grown up with ever since my dad and Chris Johnson started out in 2004, when I was five. I’ve grown up with all the company picnics and walking job sites with my dad. In my eyes, the company simply built buildings and had a little bit of fun with their employees as well. However, even from the first day, I realized that Hollister is so much more than it seemed on the outside. I noticed an incredible focus on community and service that I hadn’t expected to be as deeply ingrained in the inner mechanics of Hollister as it was. Hollister has an atmosphere about it that is unlike any other company I’ve been introduced to. The focus on being a team rather than employees is especially motivating. I feel strongly that it is this atmosphere that allows all of the teammates to contribute to grow and maintain Hollister’s reputation within the industry as well as build the impressive structures that it does.

Aidan Gautieri

I think my time at Hollister has been a good learning experience for me, mainly because I want to pursue an IT career. My experience at Hollister has helped me meet new people and work in an office environment. One of my personal weaknesses is that I am not all that comfortable speaking with people I don’t know very well and my time at Hollister has helped me work on that by more or less requiring that I speak to people both inside of Hollister as well as outside of the company.

Christopher Guardia

Interns and Hollister teammates visiting The Lighthouse Point Project in Staten Island

I came into this internship with the mentality that I would be buying coffee and printing plans for everyone but it was the complete opposite. They truly made me feel part of the team. Steve and Dave took me into their owners meeting in order for me to understand what is going on at the Rutgers HLLC project. Also, Steve put me on the very early stages of the Rutgers HLLC project, therefore I had the chance to work on and see everything come together. Dave allowed me to take part in the BSR meetings and showed me around the project to teach me the different processes and structures at the site. Khairi and Ekrem explained to me the different assignments and tasks they perform as an assistant project manager. Ekrem also introduced me to the Hub at Harrison project and explained what problems they had and how to solve them which would help me in the future. I spent most of my time working on the Rutgers site with Hussein where he taught me a lot of life lessons and what it’s like being a superintendent on million dollar project.

Akiva Hochbaum

One of the main things that I have learned from my time here at Hollister is the importance of “building sound relationships”. Having positive relationships with clients, subcontractors, and others is fundamental to any company’s ability to grow and accomplish their goals. As part of the estimation team, one task that I often worked on was calling subcontractors for a variety of reasons. It could be just to find out if they plan to bid on a job, remind them when proposals are due, or bother them when their proposals are late. Through the hundreds of phone calls, it was often clear to me which subcontractors Hollister has positive relationships with.

Lindsay Levatino

Each member of the Hollister team took the time to greet us and make us feel at home. As an engineering student at James Madison University, I am so lucky to have had this opportunity to get some real experience. Not only did I learn new things about mechanics on site, I was able to learn about business, safety, and everyday professionalism in general. There wasn’t a single day during my time at Hollister that I felt like I didn’t learn anything valuable.

Tatiyana Lofton

Working with the pre-con team was a wonderful experience and they’ve taught me so much about the processes they go through on the daily basis. This summer I learned many new things about the department and I was also allowed to sit in on very important meetings. Prior to working for Hollister I had never been introduced to OST (On Screen Takeoff), but thankfully Tom on the pre-con team taught me how to maneuver through the many abilities of the program. With this knowledge I was able to complete takeoffs for actual projects the company had taken on. Along with OST, I also learned how to read Standard Cost Codes. Learning these codes gave me a better understanding of how the company organizes different trades in the pre-con department.

Interns visit the Harrison site to learn about the delivery process.

Tom Morrell

The experiences of working as an intern at Hollister and Saxum were educating and allowed me to realize that I am very interested in real estate. Coming into this position, I felt that I had no idea where my career was going and I lacked confidence about what I could do and what I am really good at. My internship has definitely given me a better understanding of my skill set and where my career can take me.

Samantha Jean

Overall, my experience between the DSY and working at Hollister were amazing, and I got a lot more than I expected from it. Leaving Hollister, I’ll have many new contacts in my network, and exposure to many aspects of marketing that I would have never seen through purely research. Thanks to my coaches, I know for sure that I prefer the branding and content creation portion of marketing and will investigate it more for my college career. Plus, I am more informed than I have ever been about construction and will continue to appreciate all the hard work that goes into it.

Shequille Fearon

Hollister places a significant amount of emphasis on “TEAM” and how vital this is in ensuring the continued success of the company. What this does is to alleviate employees because it sends across the message that they are not alone, and support is there for them. In most cases employees must be independent to achieve what they need, but at Hollister it is being dependent on each other that allows the benefits to be reaped. In addition, the fact that the CEO, Chris Johnson, goes by the title “Coach” highlights that it is not about being at the top. Rather, the term coach connotes wanting others to do better by equipping them with the necessary tools and ultimately the entire team will be enhanced.

Hollister’s internship program, in place for over twelve years, gives us the opportunity to coach and be part of our future leaders’ development. We look forward to seeing them succeed and maybe even welcome them back, this time as permanent teammates. Good luck to our 2018 interns!

Interns join the Hollister team in some paintball during their final week.

Hollister Construction

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A construction management firm building sound relationships and structures.

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