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By JENNIFER COMPSTON-STROUGH
The desire to be with family is what brought John Jefferis home from college to begin his career, and family is what has kept him living and working in the Ohio Valley.
Born and raised in Barnesville where he still lives today, the 38-year-old project manager is a fairly new employee of McKinley Architecture and Engineering, but he has years of experience working with other firms on a variety of projects throughout the region. He has been with McKinley for five months, and already he is working on an artificial turf plan for Barnesville HIgh School's football field, among other projects.
As a project manager, Jefferis performs a wide variety of tasks.
"I am responsible for overall coordination, schedule, budgets and communication with clients and our staff from inception of a new project through project closeout," he said.
"Typical" is not a word Jefferis would use to describe any day, either at work or at home.
"Generally, there is no typical workday," he said. "As anyone with kids will acknowledge, every morning with them can either go smooth or challenging! Once we all make it out of the house I am either working remotely, traveling into Wheeling to the office or heading to a client for meetings. I am constantly communicating with a variety of people every day, clients, contractors, internal staff and other consultants that we partner with on our projects."
Jefferis has two children with his wife of nearly 14 years, Anna - 9-year-old Hank and 2-year-old Harper. The family has a dog named Birdie, and they all live in Barnesville.
Jefferis said he wants to stay here in the area to be close to the people who are important to him.
"I was born and raised in Barnesville. I left for college and had an opportunity to bring me back to Barnesville and I took it," he noted. "I took it at the time to be closer to my grandmother who had some health issues, and I wanted to be able to spend more time with her. Family brought me home and family has kept me home.
"I have no desire to leave the Ohio Valley, there are plenty of opportunities here locally. Sometimes you just have to create the opportunity, though, and not wait on one to come to you."
Jefferis is involved with the Barnesville Area Education Foundation, and he sees organizations such as that as a bright spot for the area.
"There are organizations in and around the valley that are helping others, making a difference in someone else's life," he said. "There are current organizations laying groundwork to enhance others' lives."
But that's not all - he also sees plenty of opportunity in the region.
"There is work here for those who want to work, from professional architects and engineers, lawyers, nurses, doctors, to blue collar jobs such as truck drivers, carpenters, electricians, maintenance jobs, etc.," he pointed out. "Find what you love to do and go do it."
Jefferis believes the future of project management is bright and that there are career opportunities everywhere you look in all industries throughout the Ohio Valley. And he has some advice for young people who are just breaking into their fields.
"If you want to become great at your job, learn everything you can, go the extra mile, be early and stay late," he said. "Do what others will not do and you will be noticed and recognized over time. Positivity and a smile helps bring joy to others and, again, you will be recognized."