Artist’s Touch

When Solomone Thorpe embarked on a professional career, he was an artist with an animation degree from Savannah College of Art and Design. But by early 2025, less than a year after leaving SCAD’s Atlanta campus, he was feeling restless and eager to try something different.

As it has done for hundreds of other men and women, Construction Ready gave Solomone a fresh start, providing a four-week fast track into an entirely new career. He completed the CR Pre-Apprenticeship program in February 2025, and one month later, began work as a project coordinator for Norcross-based Eastern Glass and Aluminum (EGA).

Since then Solomone has been promoted to project engineer, and he expects to move into a superintendent role in November 2026.

“It’s been a huge change career-wise,” says the Atlanta native. “I wanted to work in an industry that expanded my skills and my mind, and I wanted to work on something more practical. I appreciate how this job has forced me to grow.”

Solomone shares more of his story in the Q&A format below.

How did you discover Construction Ready’s Pre-Apprenticeship training, and what was the experience like for you?
My mom sent me a link about the Construction Ready program at Westside Works. I grew up on Atlanta’s north side around Sandy Springs, but I have a lot of family connections on the west side. I had been visiting there since I was a kid, so it was nice to go there every day and experience the west side as an adult.

The first thing I noticed was the diversity of age in the program. We had people as young as 20 to one who was in his 60s. There were all levels of experience, but everybody wanted to learn. I liked being in that environment, being among different people who wanted a different opportunity in life.

Westside Works is our longest-running training site. What was it like going through the Pre-Apprenticeship program at their facility?
The environment was very welcoming and very clean. The staff there are some of the most welcoming and kind people I’ve met. They emphasized not only getting a job, but getting the right type of job, and they emphasized that job satisfaction is a huge aspect of a career. I appreciate their philosophy.

Your first employer match didn’t work out, but you quickly connected with EGA. How did that opportunity come about?
At the hiring fair, I met with a project manager from EGA. I asked her what I could do to improve my resume, and I ended up sending it to her. I was able to get an interview there, and I started work on March 31, 2025.

What kind of work have you been doing since joining the company?
I was a project coordinator from March of 2025 until about September of 2025. That was an entry-level role that was primarily in the office, where I was communicating with various materials vendors and equipment vendors, scheduling, making budgets, and generally supporting the project manager.

Then I was sent to my first project, Centennial Yards in downtown Atlanta, as a project engineer, which is essentially designing the systems that we are installing and tracking material deliveries and being a middleman of communication between our guys in the field and our project managers in the office. Now I’m in the superintendent role, and officially I will be promoted to that position in November when we have our job evaluations.

What do you enjoy about your work with EGA?
I love the diversity of this job. I’ve been able to meet a lot of different people. I like that the construction industry is very [precise], especially on a job site. It forces me to have a clear answer to a problem. I think that’s helped me develop, because as somebody coming from the artist industry with more of a creative mindset, there’s a lot more nuance in how you approach situations.

I also appreciate the safety consciousness of the construction industry. It’s essential that everyone be safe and considerate of everyone who’s working around them. And I like working as a team to build something that I know other people will eventually use every day.

How would you say Construction Ready has impacted you for the better?
It prepared me for the kinds of conditions that I would be working in, especially with the emphasis on safety. That’s not only a part of the construction industry, it’s something I’ve taken into my everyday life as well. The program helped me recognize the importance of safety and how many little things we have to care about.

We also had a short lesson on reading blueprints. That caught my interest because there’s some artistry included in that. I wanted to see if there was a career path where I would be interacting with more blueprints, and that’s the one I’ve ended up going down. I definitely appreciate Construction Ready.