Owen McCarthy ’20 has always enjoyed working with his hands. After Hamilton, he will have the opportunity to do just that as a rotational project engineer at New York City-based Structure Tone, a global leader in general contracting and construction management.
McCarthy, a world politics major, honed his post-graduate interests at Hamilton through a combination of athletics and theatre. He cites his lacrosse coach, Scott Barnard, and Director of Technical Theatre Tom Marhenke as key in both his academic and career exploration.
“Coach Barnard recommended that I take a theatre production class because it would allow me to experience that hands-on work I enjoyed,” said McCarthy, who took his coach's advice and soon found himself helping to build sets for a theatre production. During that experience he hit it off with Markenke, who offered even more good advice and was a “great influence” as McCarthy navigated career options.
Major: World Politics
Hometown: Millburn, NJ
High School: Millburn High School
This is not McCarthy’s first experience at Structure Tone; previously, he served as an operations intern, which he said allowed him to build meaningful relationships with staff and gain a firsthand understanding of how construction sites are built out and managed. In his new role, he hopes to apply the lessons he learned during his internship to new areas of construction management.
“Having interned previously in operations, I am excited to see how the business end works in purchasing and estimating,” he said. “It will be insightful to see how projects come together from different areas of the company.”
In addition McCarthy previously interned with Granard Pharmaceutical and the start-up Your-Yard — two positions that allowed him to develop his critical thinking skills and creativity. Both of these will likely come in handy in his new job. As he explains, the rotational project engineer position “is based upon personal interaction and navigating problems with efficiency and success.”
Despite majoring in world politics, McCarthy sees a future in the STEM fields, although he says his major has taught him how to interface with others and solve problems. “I have always enjoyed the STEMs and this job is a dream for me,” he explained. “I hope to continue this path for the foreseeable future.”
