Earlier this year, Carley Hartquist received the news that she had landed her dream job. She spent the next few weeks preparing to move herself, her husband, and her dog, Cheeto, from Boston to Orlando, Florida –where she would soon begin work for Walt Disney Imagineering. Hartquist had been preparing and planning for this opportunity for years. Her path towards becoming an Imagineer started in 2015 when Hartquist and her parents visited Purdue’s campus for the first time.
Hartquist’s family, who hail from Connecticut, always wanted her to go to college nearby. When Hartquist began exploring undergraduate engineering programs, she looked all over the Northeast, but she also applied to Purdue – a school well-known for its engineering programs.
Though Hartquist’s family was reluctant about her moving all the way to Indiana, they agreed to take her on a campus visit. Her mother spent much of the visit searching for a reason for Hartquist to reject her admission offer at Purdue and choose somewhere closer. But, despite her mom’s best efforts, both Hartquist and her mother ended up falling in love with Purdue’s campus and its engineering programs.
“Visiting the campus was amazing,” Hartquist said. “I was talking to people in the engineering program and alumni who had graduated, and some of them were already offering me jobs for after my graduation. It was clear that there was a lot of opportunity at Purdue.”
Ultimately, Hartquist picked an undergraduate major in interdisciplinary engineering – a program that allowed her to customize her degree and explore many kinds of engineering careers. She was set to graduate in 2020 with a job already lined up – then COVID hit, and her job was delayed by several months.
“During the pandemic, a lot of my friends were having their job offers delayed or cancelled,” Hartquist said. “When my job was delayed, I had some extra time after getting my bachelor’s, and I wasn’t sure what to do with it.”
That’s when Hartquist decided to start work on a master’s degree.
“It didn’t make sense to waste time,” Hartquist said. “I wanted to show future employers that I had initiative.”
Hartquist knew she needed a master’s program that was completely online so she wouldn’t have to delay her job any longer. She also wanted to stay at Purdue – an institution she trusted and respected. And though she did her bachelor’s in engineering, she wanted to take her master’s degree in a different direction – something that she hoped would help her move into a job in project management.
“I didn’t get an engineering degree to be an engineer,” Hartquist said. “I got an engineering degree so I could work in engineering, but not necessarily as the person who’s doing all the math and physics and drawing things up. I always wanted to work on the project management side, so I needed a background in leadership, in management, and in all the bigger picture stuff.”
Hoping to hone those skills, Hartquist chose Purdue’s online Master of Science in Construction Management program. Hartquist’s job was in project controls within the construction industry, so the program – which focuses on teaching leadership and management skills in the context of construction careers – fit with her goals and career trajectory perfectly.
Learning by Doing – Purdue's Construction Management Program
After starting her online master’s at Purdue, Hartquist was immediately struck by how experience-based the program’s curriculum was. Even though all her classes were online, Hartquist worked closely with her graduate school colleagues on real-world projects that mirrored the kinds of problems construction management professionals face on the job. Her classmates were from all over the world and represented dozens of different industries, so everyone brought a unique perspective to the project groups.
“A lot of times, what you learn in the classroom might help you on a job site, but you have to actually be on site to learn how it all works,” Hartquist said. “This program allowed us to explore the reality of what it’s like to be on the job, and we got to hear so many different experiences – both from other students and from the professors, who were all industry professionals themselves.”
Hartquist was impressed by how easy it was to reach her professors even though she was taking all her classes online. They were attentive and engaging, consistently responding to emails and keeping online classes fun, relevant, and interesting. Since many of her professors had experience working in construction management, they also shared job stories and offered helpful advice about the industry.
“So much of the program was about collaboration – collaborating with professors, and collaborating with other students,” Hartquist said. “Everyone was at a different point in their careers, so as someone who was just starting out, it was so valuable to learn from people who had been in the industry for years. You get a sense for what to expect, and how to correct potential mistakes before you make them.”
At Purdue, Hartquist also got to take courses that focused on leading teams and spearheading big projects. When she started her master’s, she hoped that these experiences would put her on the fast-track to a management position. But she didn’t expect that she would land her dream job so soon after graduation.
Becoming an Imagineer
Hartquist graduated in August of 2022. At the time, she had already done multiple rounds of interviews at Disney, but she wasn’t sure if her efforts were going to pay off. An Imagineering job had been on her radar for a long time – she first sent a message to her now-manager on LinkedIn a year and a half ago, forwarding her resume and expressing her hope to work for Disney one day.
When an Imagineering job popped up on Hartquist’s radar, she had to apply. The job required more expertise and experience than Hartquist currently had, but she knew she could use her master’s degree from Purdue as leverage.
“I had to convince them to take a chance of me,” Hartquist said. “I didn’t have a ton of experience, but they knew I was about to get my master’s, and so they could see that I was growing and learning.”
When Hartquist finally received the news that she’d gotten the job, she was ecstatic. She was going to continue working in project controls, but instead of overseeing the construction of airport terminals and railroad stations, she’d be overseeing the construction of theme park attractions and experiences.
“Project controls is really the interdisciplinary role on an engineering project,” Hartquist said. “You act as a translator for all of the engineers on a project, so this role really fits with my education history and my interests – it all came together.”
Looking towards the future, Hartquist hopes working in project controls will open more doors at Walt Disney Imagineering.
“This is definitely a dream come true,” Hartquist said. “I can’t wait to see where it goes.”
For more information on Purdue’s online Master of Science in Construction Management, please visit the program’s website.
