“And then all of sudden, next thing you know, you have this huge building lit up,” she said.

A nine-year Oncor employee, Raquel started as a new construction manager about a year ago at the company’s north Fort Worth service center.

She began as an administrative assistant for Oncor in Procurement, balancing the demands of a new job with those of a new baby. She soon became an associate buyer and then a buyer, Raquel said.

Along the way, and with assistance from Oncor, she earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and sociology from Texas Woman’s University.

“Oncor is a great company to work for,” she said. “Oncor allowed me to go back to school and finish my degree. They are very supportive of people progressing in their careers. It’s just such a team mentality here.”

Today, Raquel keeps tabs on some 80 different construction projects. She’s Oncor’s point of contact for the customer and the multiple internal groups needed to bring new electricity to a construction project.

“I try to touch a lot of projects throughout the week,” she said. “I talk to hundreds of people every week. It’s definitely a job where you need to be checking every single project at least once every two weeks.”

Staying updated also involves visiting the construction sites that start off as just places on paper. Outfitted with a hardhat, safety glasses and steel-toed boots, Raquel travels to sites to meet with customers or other Oncor employees.

“If I don’t go out and actually see it, I might not know that there’s a tree in the way of where we’re planning to put our lines,” she said. “Or there might already be some facilities there that we didn’t see on paper.”

Her mission is to always be pushing projects forward. “And my goal,” she said, “is to always be ahead of the customer’s schedule.”