"I’ll tell you what. The opportunity here at PennDOT is endless. You’ll go as far as you want to take it. It all depends on the drive that you have."
Jaime is a shining example of what can happen with the right drive, determination, and a bit of good fortune. His PennDOT story began 27 years ago – right out of high school.
"I graduated from high school and was bouncing from job to job. My father asked me what I wanted to do with my life - and I said I just don’t know.”
Jaime was quite certain of one thing though, college wasn’t for him. And here’s where the bit of good fortune came in: Jaime’s father had a friend with a job in the commonwealth.
Jaime met with the commonwealth employee and was intrigued with the idea of working for the state, and ultimately pursued becoming a PennDOT Equipment Operator Trainee. In that position in December 1990, Jaime started on his career path with PennDOT.
PennDOT’s trainees are required to obtain their Commercial Driver’s License (CDL), so Jaime was trained for three weeks, passed the test and obtained it.
From there, Jaime just kept going. He became an Equipment Operator A, then an Equipment Operator B. PennDOT offers an extensive training program, and Jaime took full advantage.
“I wanted to do more than drive a dump truck, so I put in for everything…everything they had I put my name down,” he said.
And he learned it all – the excavator, oil distributer, oil roller, and more.
"I’ll tell you what. The opportunity here at PennDOT is endless. You’ll go as far as you want to take it. It all depends on the drive that you have.”
Jaime’s ambition did not go unnoticed. His then Assistant Highway Maintenance Manager, Tim Singleton, approached him with a question. “How would you like to join our acting foreman program?”
“I felt like I didn’t have the confidence at that time and I didn’t know if I’d be able to do it. But he talked me into it. He said, look, just give it a try. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to do it. If you love it, then what do you have to lose?”
After a two-week course, Jaime began to fill in when foremen called off or went on vacation. In that position, he would supervise crews and oversee the day-to-day projects or activities that were scheduled during that period.
Since then, Jamie assumed progressive responsibilities in higher-level positions over the years and now he is thriving in his position of Assistant Highway Maintenance Manager.
“I love motivating my guys. I’m definitely a team player; I love to get them excited, to motivate them to have a purpose. I call them my team, my guys. We talk about the different projects, put our heads together, and figure out and prepare the best ways that we can. Step by step.”
He takes every opportunity to introduce his crews to as much about what he does as possible.
“I want to get everybody involved, because it might be that one person who will someday- with the same drive that I had - say ‘Hey, you know what? This might be for me. I might want to do this.’ At least they’ll know and have the information and insight of what it takes to be a foreman or what it takes to be an assistant highway maintenance manager.”
Not unexpectedly, Jaime takes a lot of pride in his work.
“It’s an honor to serve the citizens of Pennsylvania. To give something back to the taxpayers out there. They exp
ect a good product; I expect my team to give them a good product. I take pride in our projects and I want them to look like we did our best. Not only are we going to be proud of that but the taxpayers are going to be proud of what we did.”
In a final reflection on the opportunities that he chose to pursue at PennDOT, Jaime said, “I never thought in my wildest dreams where I came from that I would be in this position. Never went to college. My parents were Hispanic and didn’t speak much English - but having a father who pushed me and through his friendship with a person who worked at the state, look where I am now.”
Jamie’s extends his gratitude to his wife, Jen, for all her support over the years and to Dale Good, his supervisor, for giving Jamie the opportunity, confidence, training, and ongoing assistance to be successful in his PennDOT career.