Nicholas

Nicholas joined Mattamy Homes as an Assistant Builder through the company’s Toronto-based Construction Leadership Internship Program (CLIP) in May of 2022. When it was time for him to complete his final year of education, he stayed on with Mattamy working full-time during the day while completing his studies during the evenings and weekends.

7:30 am
Set up all our handy people and labourers by providing a list of what needs to be done that day for our homes under construction.

8:30 am
Walk all the homes under construction and conduct a quality check to ensure everything is progressing in the homes and that there are no leaks or issues that need to be corrected. 

10:00am

Confirm all of our trade partners have shown up and if not, follow up with them.

10:30am

Prepare for any city inspections that may be happening later that day or the following day.

11:30am

Troubleshoot any challenges that come up throughout the day to ensure our team and trades stay on schedule.

The reason I joined Mattamy was because of the company’s proven business model that builds fast while still maintaining high quality standards. I knew I wanted to be a part of a company like that and that I’d learn a lot.

What excites me most is that Mattamy is always at the forefront of change. For example, Springwater (the community I work on) is the largest geothermal site in North America. We are industry leaders and disruptors in Net-Zero Ready homebuilding and I’m really proud to be a part of helping to evolve the homebuilding industry as well as the future of Mattamy.

For my personal career, it’s exciting to see all of the incredible opportunities that are available for me to grow in my career. There are several examples of leaders who started their careers as students or labourers and are now leading huge functions within the company. That’s really inspiring and proves that Mattamy invests in its people and gives them the tools to succeed.

Amazing, I could not have asked for better experience in the field. The entire team at Springwater has opened their arms to me and has given me the confidence to build my knowledge and grow as a manager/leader.

It’s hard to narrow it down to just one. My favourite parts of being an Assistant Builder are:

1. Taking houses from studs and insulation to somewhere people can live and enjoy for decades to come. There’s so much pride that comes with that.
2. Interacting with a variety of team members each and every day – from trade partners to Senior Builders.
3. Facing new problems every day and finding joy when we overcome an obstacle.

To be successful at Mattamy, you need to be confident in your abilities to lead and manage a team/trade. Building relationships and trust with trades is crucial to your success as well as the success of your team because they will perform at their highest level if they believe in what they are doing and trust you to make the best decisions.  

Another critical characteristic to have at Mattamy is passion. To me, passion means continuously finding new ways of doing things or finding ways to improve existing processes. You’ve got to have passion to come to site and boost team morale, regardless of how time pressed and stressed everyone may be.  

My most meaningful experience has been learning new skills daily and being able to shadow different Senior Builders to learn more about their roles and responsibilities. I work closely with two Senior Builders and they have both been major reasons as to why I’m here today. They continue to invest in me and my learning and have helped me grow so much in such a short time.

“Do everything at the first available moment, not the last possible second.” is something Mattamy’s Founder, Peter Gilgan, says a lot and it’s also something I’ve seen our senior leaders on site live by each and every day.

For students applying for CLIP at Mattamy, my best advice is to be yourself and trust your abilities. Have confidence in your knowledge of construction and be the best version of yourself during the hiring process. After that, expect to learn A LOT and soak it all in like a sponge!