From a young age, Sierra Smith was interested in construction. “I had no idea how to really get into it, but I knew I wanted to create, I wanted to design, I wanted to build, and I had very little knowledge and exposure to it,” Smith says.
Her interests expanded into the landscape industry after she saw a post from R.M. Landscape showing excavators and skid steers.
“It aligned with a lot of the things that I knew I wanted to do and it overlapped with construction,” Smith says. “They took me with no experience, so I just hopped right into it.”
Smith is a detail foreman with R.M. Landscape and has been with the company for four years. She says she loves the flexibility and diversity of working in the landscape industry.
“There’s so many different things that you can do,” Smith says. “I love coming in and being able to be outdoors. I’m not really trapped in an office.”
Smith says she was very excited to dive in and learn all the different things a career in landscaping could offer her.
“My interest grew even more when I realized that everything kind of overlapped in construction and commercial landscapes, like project management, site planning and using the heavy equipment,” Smith says.
Since joining the company, Smith’s interests have expanded beyond using heavy equipment. One of her mentors, Jenny Girard, introduced her to plant health and science, which she found fascinating.
Another employee taught Smith everything he knew. She says she can lean on many of her colleagues if she has any questions.
“I was never alone in this,” Smith says. “The support that is all around me, from my coworkers to my mentors to even just the company in general, they have invested in me completely.”
One lesson she says she’s learned is not to take anything personally.
“People are going to try to give you a better experience, better tips,” Smith says. “They’re going to criticize you, but you can’t take it personally. It’s just a part of the job. Don’t bring it home with you when somebody’s talking about you. It’s just about the job, not about you.”
Smith is responsible for the detail work on various properties, where she deadheads and weeds to make the sites look spectacular. Once she’s done with her tasks, she can help other crews thanks to the different skills she has acquired.
“Every day it’s something different,” Smith says. “I can be going with the mow crew. I can be going with enhancement and construction, or I can be doing detail so I’m really fulfilled here with that.”
Smith also loves seeing the results they produce. She encourages others not to be scared of coming to the landscape industry as the opportunities are endless.
“When I first started, I just thought it was picking weeds and mowing a lawn and maybe weed whacking,” Smith says. “I would love for people to know, especially women too, that you can really dive into this and make a full-blown career. Men here embrace us. You might have a couple of people who are like, ‘Eh, whatever,’ but overall, they love to work with us. We work hand in hand. It’s amazing. Don’t let that steer you from joining us.”
Smith has learned over her career that we are our own greatest critics.
“We will hold ourselves up in so many different situations because we’re so stuck in our head,” Smith says. “I missed out on a lot of opportunities and different things because I’ve held myself back because of what I thought people thought or me thinking that I’m not good enough.”
In the next five years, Smith hopes to walk the stage with a degree in civil engineering mixed with business management from the University of Buffalo.
“I could absolutely stay here and make a career out of this,” Smith says. “I love this, and it’s amazing, but I already had a dream before this, and I just want to make sure that I stick with that. I’m hoping that I can combine the two at some point when I do eventually open up a business.”
This article was published in the November/December issue of the magazine. To read more stories from The Edge magazine, click here to subscribe to the digital edition.
