Get to Know our Scheduler and his Growing Team
For those of you who do not know me I am Dennis Walsh, Project Executive of Scheduling. I started my current role at Hollister on September 25, 2017.
My history in Scheduling goes back to 1979. I remember working on a 1-Billion-dollar aluminum plant in Venezuela, as a clerk in a Scheduling Department on the 91st floor of the original World Trade Center. Back then we used input sheets, key punch cards and 11x17 green and white computer generator print-outs. My responsibilities included gathering the input sheets from the 7 schedulers and couriering up to the Key Punch Department. After they punched the entirety of the input sheets, my job would begin. I personally proofread each card coming out of the Key Punch Department at that time. In one month, that department would put out at least 2,000 cards per update. Once the proofreading stage was complete, the next step was putting them into the Job Control Language (JCL). This was a scripting language used on IBM mainframe operating systems to instruct the system on how to run a batch job or start a subsystem. I would head up to the Computer Department with all my cards to run the project. We had a card reader that I would have to put the JCL and all 2,000 cards in to. Then, I could dial the St. Louis mainframe computer and would receive the results from the run in a print out an hour later.
Despite all of this potential tedium, I knew that this was what I wanted to do with my career. The process intuitively made sense to me. In my role as a Scheduler, I have worked for companies that have performed work around the world. I have been lucky enough that my job has taken me to India, Indonesia, China, Singapore, Spain and those are only the highlights. I have done projects in about 30 states in the US. This career path can take you anywhere and will take you everywhere. I am incredibly proud that when the building process began for the New World Trade Center, I received a call from a colleague to review a schedule- Back to where I had first started.
In my opinion, my greatest accomplishment was teaching at NYU as an Adjunct Professor of Scheduling for seven years as part of their Masters Program. I was able to share my knowledge and experience with people heading into the world to do big things. Regardless of the changes in technology, the scheduling process requires experience to be shared. Sometimes I just sit back and think, “Me, a guy from Queens without a college degree teaching students with their college degrees and pursuing their Master’s Degree from NYU, calling me Professor.” I would laugh to myself each time my thoughts circled back to this. Nothing beats experience.
In my career, I have played many roles. Since shuffling between the Scheduling Department and the Key Punch Department, I have worked and learned a great deal. One of the greatest aspects of scheduling I have found is that a good scheduler is always in demand. I have now entered a stage where I have the ability to build a scheduling team, not only to provide more comprehensive and detailed deliverables, but also to continue mentoring the next generation of schedulers. The first addition to my team was Hamed Parsa, a brilliantly gifted scheduler, joined the team in September 2017, poised continue his growth.
Hamed Parsa
“When I entered the job market in 2010 as an engineer majoring in Electrical Engineering, I spent a few months in design for US Military construction projects in Afghanistan. From communication and interaction with the project team and job market surveying I realized the project management field is growing continuously and I had a better career option to explore. I started my project management experience as a scheduling engineer in 2010 and working with Primavera P6 and MS Project. This led me to pursue my MBA in project management, PMP certification, PMI scheduling professional certification and growing my knowledge and skills over the years to promote to more executive level.
My experience in project management along with my degrees and certifications helped me become a project control specialist in 2014. My role did not only focus on creating time schedules, it allowed me to help project teams control project cost, scope and risk. In 2017, I moved to the United States and started working as a scheduling analyst for Hollister. In this new role, I assist project delivery units develop and maintain schedules and generate work performance reports which aid senior management with strategic planning and decision making.
The newest addition to the Hollister Scheduling Squad is Dayton Pierce, an ambitious new graduate from the NJIT Masters Program who started in June 2018. His enthusiasm and willingness to learn makes him a prime candidate to succeed in this role.
Dayton Pierce
“I arrived in scheduling almost by mistake. During my coursework for my Masters, I took a scheduling and planning class which I really enjoyed and did well in. Coincidentally, I happened to meet some of the Hollister Team at the NJIT job fair and immediately could see that Hollister was the perfect fit for me. I look forward to learning from Dennis’s wealth of experience and Hamed’s brilliance and contributing to the team in any way that I can.”
Dennis, Hamed and Dayton work closely with Hollister’s delivery teams managing a wide array of projects throughout New Jersey and New York.
