Credentialed and Confident

Before enrolling in Construction Ready Pre-Apprenticeship training, Ezra Brown spent more than a decade in the world of civil construction—sewer lines, storm drainage, pipe installation, site prep and the like. When he graduated from the program, he took with him a priceless intangible he didn’t have before: confidence.

“Construction Ready gave me confidence about my level of knowledge and basic skill set, confidence to know what’s right and what’s wrong” [on a job site],” says Ezra, a Douglasville resident. “Now I was sure that I knew what I knew, because the instructor who taught me was confident in what he knew.

“On day two of my new job,” he continues,” I did a walk-through on-site, and from the knowledge I got with Construction Ready, I was immediately able to start addressing issues with the subcontractor. Like, ‘Wait a minute, that’s not how that’s supposed to be, this angle is cut wrong, that needs to be reshaped. Those things that I learned in class were so fresh in my mind that I was able to get right in and start addressing issues and getting corrections made.”

Ezra discovered Construction Ready the way many students do, through online marketing. An ad popped up in his social media feed one day and caught his eye.

“My [previous] company was starting to deal a lot more with structures,” he explains. “I really didn’t have the knowledge base that I thought I should have for that. I didn’t have a lot of hand skills like carpentry and things of that nature. So when the program came across my newsfeed, I was like, ‘Man, I think I can get something beneficial here.’”

Ezra applied and graduated with Douglas Group 1 in February 2026. Many of that group’s students provided on-site help with the Construction Ready CareerEXPO the following month. When he wasn’t helping out behind the scenes, Ezra was able to take in the sights and sounds of the expo floor.

One company display he noticed was T5 Data Centers, an Atlanta-based developer. Ezra didn’t make a connection at that point, but soon after the event, he mentioned CareerEXPO on his LinkedIn profile, and a former colleague, Chris Baldwin, saw the post and followed up with him.

Baldwin, it turned out, was an executive with the company. “He said, ‘Hey, did you see us at the expo?’” Ezra remembers. “I said, ‘I saw your table, but I didn’t really get to talk to anyone.’ He said we need somebody for a CSA [Civil, Structural, and Architectural] role.”

Baldwin directed Ezra to T5’s hiring partner, and soon he was on the company payroll.

“That’s another cool thing about Construction Ready,” Ezra says. “They knew my background was going to be good, because it had already been checked [at the Pre-Apprenticeship application stage]. They knew I had my OSHA 10 and my OSHA 30 card. It was really smooth, and it was Construction Ready that made that a possibility for me.”

Ezra’s work with T5 was on a data center project in North Carolina. While data centers are an increasingly hot-button topic, Ezra has no reservations about them. He explains:

“I’ve always loved construction. I also have a passion for technology. So right now, being in this data center space, it’s a blend of those things. We’re doing something great. I think we’re building what is probably one of the most critical infrastructures for the future.”

Ezra speaks extensively about how his knowledge base has grown as a result of his Construction Ready training.

“Reading structural blueprints versus reading civil plans—that knowledge helped me a lot,” he says. “So when I was getting into structural blueprints. I had no problems understanding every element of the plans and really being able to lock down with the subcontractors on site and say, ‘Look, we’re missing this, you’re short in that scope, let’s get this together.’ They understood that I knew what I was talking about.”

When Ezra’s time on the T5 project ended in June, he turned to Construction Ready for further direction. Luke Fletcher, CR’s Vice President for Recruitment, Placement & Retention, and Placement & Retention Manager Nick Bruno were ready to help.

“I knew they had my back,” Ezra says. “They said, ‘With your background, we’ll get some more sticks in the fire for you. We’ll put you in rooms where you can meet people who can get you where you want to go. I think that’s another important thing about this program—the people involved in it take the time to get to know what you want for your career.”

Ezra’s new company is Integra Construction, where he works as a Project Manager in the company’s Atlanta home office. “What I’m diving into with Integra is going to be phenomenal,” he says. I’m excited to see what comes out of this.”

Clearly, Ezra is making the most of the career boost he found in Construction Ready. He’s also become an evangelist of sorts for the program.

“I was wearing a Construction Ready t-shirt in a store one day,” he recalls. A lady said, ‘What’s that?’ I said, ‘This is a program that helps people get skills in construction,’ and she said, ‘I need to get my son in that.’ I said, ‘You absolutely do.’ I would say [to prospective students], do it. It’s going to be worth your time. The tools are there.”