Before this past summer, the closest I’d come to construction was sitting in traffic next to a jackhammer. I’d never been on a jobsite. Never opened a plan document. I thought construction was all hard hats and poured concrete—physical, hands-on work that felt miles away from my world as a college student.
Then I joined Bluebeam.
Bluebeam builds software used by architects, engineers, subcontractors and construction technology teams to collaborate on projects. As a marketing intern, I wasn’t using the tools myself—but I was writing about them, sitting in on content planning meetings, watching customer webinars and helping shape stories about how professionals use Bluebeam to move work forward. And through all that, I started to see the industry completely differently.
What I Thought I Knew vs. What I Learned
I used to think construction was mostly boots-on-the-ground work. What I’ve seen instead is that it’s a massive network of coordination, communication and problem-solving. Behind every project are layers of decisions—designs being revised, PDFs being annotated, teams aligning across disciplines and time zones.
That complexity became clearer the more I worked with the marketing team. I helped promote examples of how companies are streamlining reviews and improving visibility across teams. One case I watched involved Bluebeam Studio Sessions enabling near-simultaneous input from multiple stakeholders—dramatically speeding up what would normally be a back-and-forth process. I wasn’t on those projects, but seeing how they were talked about—and why they mattered—helped me understand the stakes.
It also reframed how I thought about marketing. It’s not just about messaging. It’s about translation: turning technical workflows into human stories that people outside the field can understand and care about. That’s what marketing in this space really is—not just supporting construction, but making it make sense.
Seeing Collaboration from the Inside
This was also the first time I really understood how much construction depends on collaboration. A design gets updated, and someone in another office has to know right away. A document gets annotated, and three separate teams need to see it. When communication stalls, progress does too.
That level of coordination wasn’t just something I saw in webinars or case studies. It showed up in my internship. In my first week, I joined a social media brainstorm where someone suggested creating a “construction glossary” series for Instagram—short explainers for people like me who were new to the space. I pitched a post explaining the difference between architects and engineers. It got drafted the next day. That small win gave me a clearer view of how teamwork really works, not just in construction, but in the workplace.
What Changed
Now, when I look at a building going up, I don’t just see steel and scaffolding. I see a live thread of decisions—1,000 micro-adjustments happening across drawings, devices and job roles. I see how much trust, context and clarity it takes to keep a project moving.
Communication in construction is more than a tool; it’s the backbone that holds everything together. Without it, even the strongest materials and most careful plans fall short. It’s not a side task. It’s the structure under the structure. And somehow, starting from the outside, I got to help tell that story—and see why it matters.
