About 70 miles from the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, PJ Grossman grew up watching his dad work in construction in Indiana County. He developed an early interest in building and design work, and after graduating high school, he enrolled in the engineering program at Pennsylvania State University.
PJ spent his freshman year taking several design classes, but quickly realized it didn’t appeal to him. “I was fascinated with design work, but when I started taking classes, I lost interest in it,” PJ says. “I didn’t know what area of engineering I wanted to get into so, I concentrated on obtaining a general engineering degree.” Eager to connect with potential employers and to explore a variety of career opportunities, PJ would frequent college career fairs whenever he got the chance.
It was during a Penn State Career Fair that he ran into a Manson recruiting booth and became enamored with dredging. “I had never heard of dredging and when I discovered this ‘new’ process, it caught my attention right away,” PJ explains. “What captured me was the idea of the dynamic teamwork, projects, and travel requirements of a Field Engineer.” After graduating from Penn State in 2017, PJ joined Manson’s Jacksonville office as a field engineer.
During his early days as a field engineer, PJ immersed himself in Manson’s dredging operations and learned about hydrographic surveying and volume calculations on projects like the Galveston Ship Channel Maintenance Project in Galveston, Texas. Five years later, PJ now holds the role of Dredging Project Engineer. Much of his day-to-day still remains the same, and his excitement for dredging has not wavered. He credits his peers at Manson with keeping work interesting. “Manson does an excellent job at recruiting people who are all striving for the same goal and who make a great team,” PJ says. “Manson really cares about its people and puts its personnel first by assembling capable teams that can get the job done.”
Reflecting back on his experience as a young engineering student who joined the company five years ago, PJ says it was his fascination with dredging that got him to where he is today. “Whenever I meet engineering students, I tell them to always ask questions and show recruiters that you are willing to get on the same page as the company in terms of interests and goals,” PJ says.
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