Feature Friday: An Interview With Norwest’s Roy Kim
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
At Norwest, we are extremely fortunate to have an amazing team. With the relaunching of our website we have created a program to feature one member of our staff each month for our #featurefriday. For the month of September our Featured Employee is the very talented, and very passionate, Roy Kim.
I had the wonderful opportunity to chat with Roy earlier this week and get his unique perspective on Norwest, what brought him to the Pacific Northwest, and why he can’t see himself leaving any time soon. I was surprised to discover his love of all things basketball, including participating in a fantasy league with college friends. I also had the pleasure of speaking with a few of Roy’s supervisors and heard nothing but glowing remarks. According to his managers, of all Norwest’s values, Passion is one of Roy’s strongest attributes. Another value that Roy’s managers pointed to is his ability to Take Ownership of his tasks. “He is always willing to put in the extra effort to get something done. He has a great attitude.” I could not agree more.
Overall, Roy’s passion and dedication, both in and out of the office, are elements that make Norwest truly appreciate having him on our team. We are proud of his abilities in the office and are lucky to have such a skilled engineer. I hope you enjoy getting to know more about Roy as much as I did.
Q: "Good Morning Roy! I want to start out with your background at Norwest and in the industry. Give me your resume more or less."
A: "Well I graduated from UCI, University of Chicago Illinois, with a degree in Chemical Engineering and then went to work in Houston with Pegasus for about a year and half before Norwest reached out to me."
Q: "Oh wow, Norwest recruited you?"
A: "Yeah around 2015."
Q: "And were you doing the same type of work with Pegasus in the oil and gas industry?"
A: "Yeah, mostly all the same midstream offshore and onshore work. I was really drawn to Norwest because they were a smaller company. And at the time I had a lot of interest in a small company. I wanted to be somewhere where you can wear multiple hats and Norwest provided me more learning opportunities in project management and controls."
“At Norwest everyone cheers each other on and wants each other to be better. Work aside, it’s the culture that keep me here. Everyone puts their time in to teaching each other and really the only word for it is culture."
Q: "What drew you to our Portland office instead of our Houston office?"
A: "I was ready to leave Houston. Houston just wasn’t really for me. I had some friends that had recently come back from a trip to Seattle and they kept talking about how beautiful the Pacific Northwest was. Plus, Portland had the (Trail) Blazers and if they had a basketball team, I figured it had to be good enough."
Q: "Good enough? I had no idea you were a basketball fan!"
A: "Yeah, I’m a huge fan! No one in the office really knows that about me because I don’t play on a fantasy team in the office."
Q: "I had no idea fantasy basketball was a thing"
A: "I don’t know if it’s really a thing, but I play it with some friends from college every season."
Q: "That’s fun! Are you the league champion?"
A: "Not yet. We have been playing for about 8 years or so and I haven’t won it."
Q: " I think "yet" is the key word there."
A: " Yeah, I guess you never know."
Q: " So getting back to Norwest, you’ve told me a little bit about what drew you to Norwest but what keeps you happy at Norwest day after day?"
A: " It’s the culture and the people. That hashtag we are using, #itsourpeople, is so true. The atmosphere and people are what keep me here. At Norwest everyone cheers each other on and wants each other to be better. Work aside it’s the culture that keeps me here. Everyone puts their time into teaching each other and really the only word for it is culture."
Q: " Outside of the culture and the people what is your favorite “work” part of your job?"
A: " Getting to do everything from beginning to end. In my old job you only get to support the project in certain stages. At Norwest I’m building rough schedules, creating TIC estimates, and preparing calculations. It’s really helped me grow a lot. I also really enjoy being on site and seeing myself."
Q: " Seeing yourself? What do you mean by that?"
A: " I mean getting to see what I created. I really enjoy being part of the construction. I’m much more of a visual person so getting to see everything up close is pretty awesome."
Q: " Now as you know, Norwest launched their revamped mission vision value statement at last year’s summer party. Which value do you feel you embody the most?"
A: " Passion. The whole team is passionate about the work and trying to make the world better by making clients happy. I feel you need passion outside of knowledge to make that happen. Knowledge is important and you need knowledge to do the job but you have to want to learn to grow. And you need passion to want to learn. You have to want to do the work. So yeah, I would say passion is on the top of my list."
Q: " One of the perks of working at Norwest is we get to work from home if we need it. What does your home office look like? Any special helpers?"
A: " My home office is pretty basic and no pets yet. I have a desk in my room that I work from because I’m currently living with my great aunt/grandparents."
Q: " Oh, I didn’t know you had family in the area. Did they help with the transition to Portland?"
A: " Well they weren’t originally here. They visited in summer of 2016 and they loved it. They were close to retiring so when they finalized everything, they moved there. They had only been here in the summer though so they had no idea how much it rained."
“Passion. The whole team is passionate about the work and trying to make the world better by making clients happy. I feel you need passion outside of knowledge to make that happen.”
Q: " When it’s not raining what is something you love to do outside of the office?"
A: " Hiking and ocean seeing."
Q: " Ocean seeing? Like going to the beach?"
A: " I don’t know another way to describe it. Part of it is going to the beach but really I just like going to the ocean and looking out at the waves. I find it very relaxing and calming. There has to be waves though. I just really like the sound of it."
Q: " You should invest in a sound machine to play while you sleep."
A: " (laughs) maybe"
Q: " So just a few more questions here, what is one thing that no one in the office would guess about you? Outside of the fantasy basketball of course."
A: " Wow. I don’t know. Oh, I really love romantic comedies and I can be kind of emotional at the movies. Like I cried during the cheeseburger scene in the new Avengers Infinity War."
Q: " Wait, the cheeseburger scene but not the sacrifice scene?"
A: " Well I cried during that one too and when all the characters showed up to fight. Basically, I cried a couple of times during that film. My girlfriend gave me a hard time for it."
Q: " I went to see that in theaters with a group of about 20 and half of them cried a couple of times so I think you’re in the majority with that one."
A: " That’s good to know. I don’t feel as bad now."
Q: " Roy, thank you so much for your time this morning. Is there anything else you would like the world or the Norwest team to know about you?"
A: " Only that I’m very happy at Norwest and that the recruiters can stop calling. I get a couple a day and I don’t have any plans of leaving anytime soon."
Interview by
Chelsea Bracken
Business Development - Southwest
For work inquiries:
Norwest Engineering, Inc.
P: 909.702.0976
E: cbracken@norwestengineering.com
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