MIAMI—Most work days, Northeastern graduate Carrie Caston can be found in a hard hat hundreds of feet off the ground, on the roof of one of the many new high-rise buildings springing up in the Magic City.

Caston is a saleswoman for Sky Climber, an Ohio-based manufacturer and designer of suspended scaffolding used in painting buildings, installing glass, doing concrete restoration and other structural work.

“I get to go every day to different high-rises all around South Florida,” pricing jobs, identifying potential customers and managing projects, she says.

The only female territory sales manager in her company and one of the few in the field, Caston says working for Sky Climber gives her a unique perspective on the building boom in her native South Florida and career opportunities in construction—especially now that Northeastern is offering graduate-level courses in project management at its new Wynwood campus.

“I find solutions,” Caston says. “I work with engineers and general contractors, assess the buildings and determine what equipment they need.”

“I have the dream job I never dreamt of,” she says.

As a student at Northeastern University in Boston, Caston did not foresee that one day she would follow in her father’s footsteps in the construction industry. She majored in the music industry with a minor in business but found it hard to break into the notoriously difficult entertainment field.

Born in Hollywood, Florida, just north of Miami, Caston moved to Panama when she was 4 years old with her family for her father’s job in construction sales and safety products.

She returned to Panama after graduation but moved to South Florida a few years later and got a job doing logistics and operations for the fishing and yachting industry.

“I was born here. I had family ties here. My grandmother lived here,” says Caston, who currently lives in Dania Beach with two rescue dogs, Georgie and Olivia.

The boating industry may seem a long way from construction and scaffolding, but Caston says the lessons she learned about inventory and what it takes to operate a business were invaluable.

When an operations management position opened at Sky Climber six years ago, she got the job and was promoted to branch manager and then territory manager for outside sales.

“At the end of the day, I realized my dad had it right all along. I love it,” Caston says.

She is the only female territory salesperson in the company, and one of the few in the industry.

“The pro is that people remember you. The con is—you can imagine,” Caston says.

She’s making her mark in the field, with one of her projects recently winning Sky Climber’s project of the year. 

The work involved providing access solutions for 830 Brickell, a 57-story office building with an exterior made up almost entirely of glass. 

“This is a very complex building,” Caston says.

The office building, the second tallest in Miami, is already an icon even though tenants have not moved in yet. 

Caston called the 830 Brickell project “a collaborative effort with the local team. The complexity of the access solutions required our engineering team to design a solution specific to this building.”

“Our project won out of all the buildings in the country we worked on as a company in 2022,” she says. “We have been on the project for a year and a half and still have another year to go.”

Caston has also managed scaffolding projects for mural artists including Alex Vahan of Cushy Gigs, who silk screened Northeastern t-shirts for people attending the launch of the university’s new Miami campus on Feb. 22.

Caston says she attended the event to learn more about the graduate-level courses being offered at the Wynwood campus, where people can take classes in health care, finance and project management.

“There’s so much opportunity in Miami. It’s grown so much,” Caston says. “With the industry I’m in, it’s the perfect place to be.”

She hasn’t given up on her interest in music—she attends live music events regularly and dreams of opening a small music venue in retirement.

But for now, the construction industry is where she wants to be, Caston says.

“All of a sudden in the last two years there’s been a huge boom. One building after another. These buildings are so tall they need to get approved by the FAA,” she says. “Just in Wynwood alone I probably have six active projects now. There’s another eight coming out of the ground soon.”

Construction offers plenty of opportunities for college graduates, including women, Caston says.

“There’s so much that goes into it. There’s an entire industry of construction, engineering, architecture, project management and sales,” she says.

“Don’t put yourself into a corner” because your major doesn’t seem to align with a new field of interest, Caston says. “The possibilities are endless if you just think outside the box and move out of your comfort zone.”

The lessons she learned about ensemble music not only taught her about note reading and rhythm but when to lead, when to provide support and how to listen attentively.

“Everything I learned at Northeastern has prepared me for where I am now,” Caston says.

Cynthia McCormick Hibbert is a Northeastern Global News reporter. Email her at c.hibbert@northeastern.edu or contact her on Twitter @HibbertCynthia