President/Owner of Firm
Jennifer Powers
Place of Birth Long Beach, CA
Lived most in your life
In California, the last 20 years in Sacramento, with a 4-year stint in New York
Recruitment Specialties and Geographies
Jennifer specializes in heavy civil construction, transportation (such as rail) and underground construction. Her geography is Northern CA and Washington State- however, she recruits nationwide as necessary.
Recruiter’s Background
Jennifer worked for Caltrans (CA DOT) for 5 years before working for self-performing heavy civil construction firms for 8 years. She became a recruiter in construction in 2005.
About your Team
Jennifer leads our heavy civil construction team. We have split the Western US into territories so that we have an up-to-the-minute pulse on what is happening in the market.
What sets you apart?
J Powers Inc recruiters are able to place a candidate for every 1.5 first-time interviews we arrange. The national average is 1 placement per 8 first-time interviews. We have been able to significantly reduce this ratio due to our quality control and a well defined, office-wide, recruiting process.
Our clients say, “we love working with you because you don’t waste our time sending the wrong candidates.”
Key to success
Focus on what the client and candidate need.
What is the one thing you would tell your younger self?
Things work out for the best on their own, so don’t stress!
Senior Executive Recruiter
Jenna Flanagan
Education B.S. Business Administration and Human Resources; California State University, Sacramento.
Place of Birth Roseville, CA
Lived most in your life
Placer County, CA
Recruitment Specialties and Geographies
Jenna specializes in executive level recruitment in the heavy civil construction industry. While she works a national desk, her specialty is working with clients and candidates west of the Rockies with a special emphasis in Southern California.
Recruiter’s Background
Jenna started working at J Powers Recruiting in 2012 as an executive recruiter. Prior to working with JPR, she worked at one of the largest recruiting firms in the nation, Management Recruiters International. It was there she worked under the direction of her current boss, Jennifer Powers, developing clients and placing executive level positions in the construction, engineering, and public industries.
About your Team
Jenna started working with Jennifer Powers in 2006 and has been on and off her team since. “We have a professional relationship built on mutual respect, hard work, and talent. She has been the single-most important person in my professional development, and I am fortunate to continue to work under her heavy civil division.”
What sets you apart?
Jenna prides herself on being loyal, determined and has, over time, developed a certain level of grit that has allowed her to be successful in recruitment for over 10 years.
Key to success
If you just stay quiet, listen, and focus on what you can do to help a person, rather than what they can do for you, you will always come out ahead.
What is the one thing you would tell your younger self?
Learn to handle fear and overcome it. It is a pathway to success. For every difficult situation, you learn, grow, and further develop the type of person you are meant to be.
Something surprising about you
She started her last semester of college 3 days after she gave birth to her second son. Getting her degree was one of most important professional achievements of her life.
Executive Assistant - Office Manager
Gina Academia
Education B.S. Business and Secretarial Administration
Place of Birth Manila, Philippines
Lived most in your life
Elk Grove, CA
Gina’s Specialties
Gina is a seasoned executive assistant with over 25 years in the field. She has extensive experience with all administrative tasks, including planning, scheduling, and correspondence.
Background
Having held positions in all fields, Gina is able to tailor her skills to meet the needs of various clients. She has increased efficiency in several of her assigned roles and is very effective at office management. As a senior assistant, she emphasized having specific skill sets in the realms of analysis, savings, organizational efficiency, and planning. She also planned several events including a company open house, golf tournaments, employee training programs and activities. Gina interacts directly with potential and existing clients and has increased customer satisfaction ratings at several companies.
About your Team
Gina helps with research in the field of heavy civil construction, transportation, rail, roads and bridges.
What sets you apart?
Gina is the first person one meets when they enter our office, and her job is to create the first impression for the organization. Having an optimistic outlook is critical to her; to keep morale high and be a positive influence in the office.
On a daily basis, she is faced with endless requests from employees, and her goal is to continue to prioritize requests and to anticipate recurring requests. She strives to move forward the overall success of the organization. Having an active interest in the company’s well-being allows her to identify and improve areas of office life that will promote the company’s future success.
As the point of contact for questions about company policies and more, she is big on efficient, coherent and effective communication, whether it is face-to-face conversation, on a call, via email or via instant message. Her goal is to carefully and clearly communicate successfully with her peers.
Her ultimate job is always to be available. When there is an issue in the office, she solves it. Her goal is to have a successful and productive office environment.
Key to success
“Executive level support and office management is my forte. I believe in partnership and a long‐term collaboration with my manager and colleagues. I view my accomplishments as mutual– the success of my manager and my teammates are a reflection on myself and vice versa. Thus, there is a true atmosphere of teamwork and solidarity between us. I am blessed to be part of J Powers, Inc. because I’m surrounded by amazing people who bring so much positive energy to the company.”
What is the one thing you would tell your younger self?
Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Something surprising about you
I was born and raised in the Philippines, and my dad is from Spain- I am 50% Spanish and 50% Filipino.
Senior Account Executive
Fianna Dietrich
Education B.S Landscape Architecture; University of California, Davis
Place of Birth Sacramento, CA
Lived most in your life
Fianna has spent most of her adult life in Northern California. She has also resided in Connecticut, New Mexico, and Arizona.
Recruitment Specialties and Geographies
Fianna specializes in wastewater, water, and underground / general construction and engineering
Recruiter’s Background
Fianna began working with J. Powers Recruiting in January of 2015 with an interest in starting a new and different career. Since then, her focus has been wastewater, water, and underground utilities. She has recruited for heavy civil construction, wastewater, California High-Speed Rail Authority, electrical companies and San Francisco State University. She works throughout North America, and beyond, with clients and candidates including, but not limited to: C-level individuals, managers, engineers, project managers, and estimators. She has played a pivotal role in sourcing thousands of potential candidates for over a dozen retained and contingent searches.
What sets you apart?
Fianna’s long history in the high-end hospitality industry has provided her with the ability to work under pressure while maintaining the highest-level customer relations.
She enjoys bringing the right people together and providing outstanding support. She utilizes her experience and knowledge to provide the best match for executives to the culture, values, and ideals of her clients.
Key to success
Listening is the first key to success. Actively listening to another’s experience can be inspiring, and allows you to better build new relationships while nurturing existing relationships. Taking yourself out of the equation, even for just a short time, can be eye-opening.
Speak with integrity. Make sure that your words are impeccable and understood. Instead of assuming people understand, teach them. We all communicate in different ways; making sure you are understood is often overlooked and may, in turn, limit your success.
Leave your desk. Meet in person. Do some things the old school way. Technology isn’t personal. You’ll thank yourself, and your relationships will too.
Have fun! Success doesn’t have to be serious. We spend most of our lives working towards success; so, laugh a little and remember the days are long but the years are short!
What is the one thing you would tell your younger self?
Live in the moment. Don’t drown yourself with fear of change for the future. If it’s meant to be, it will be.
Something surprising about you
If there’s a cooking competition, she will win. Her timing is on point, and so are her knife skills.
Director of Civil Engineering, Senior Account Manager
Nora Wood, CSAM
Education B.S. Advertising; California State University, San Jose
Place of Birth Albany, NY
Lived most in your life
Nora spent her early years on the East Coast, and in Japan. Hawaii was home for middle and high school. She moved to Kansas for the first half of college, finishing her BS in the Bay Area of California. She spent 10 years in San Luis Obispo, where she started recruiting. She then moved to Portland, OR for three years, and now resides permanently in Sacramento.
Recruitment Specialties and Geographies
Nora manages our civil engineering and construction management practices Nationwide. She specializes in transportation, (highway/roadway, rail, rail systems, bridge), and design-build project managers across all disciplines. While she is most known for placing seller-doer project managers, practice builders, area managers, and regional to national practice leaders, she thrives on discovering design engineers and construction management professionals on all levels that are hard to find, very specialized, and/or extremely rare.
Recruiter’s Background
Nora attributes her outgoing and “no fear” positive nature in all social gatherings- and cold calling recruitment- to growing up in a Marine Corps family. She attended 10 different schools between K-12, three of them occurring in one year in Okinawa, Japan.
She began her career recruiting professional engineers in 2005, with Management Recruiters International. For the 13 years prior to joining J Powers Inc., she and Jennifer Powers were at different MRI recruiting offices, yet collaborated with each other, sharing candidates between their respective offices to better serve their client’s needs and candidate’s desires. They both achieved the MRI Network’s Pacesetter designation, ranking in the top 5% of all recruiters. Nora also carries the prized CSAM designation reserved for a select few recruiting professionals who have met rigorous performance and knowledge requirements.
Recognizing that she and Jennifer shared the same practices of transparency, and creative measures to please both clients and candidates, resulting in long term relationships with both, Nora moved from Portland to join Jennifer’s team at JPI in 2018.
Key to success
Nora’s record of career placements is based on matching a candidate’s motives, skills, and future plans with her client’s specific needs. She has a strict policy requiring both sides to lay out all information, pro and con, at the outset. This has created, and continues to ensure, successful matches of personalities, strengths, company, and culture, and has resulted in long- term placements.
She has a guiding mantra from the U. S. Navy SEABEES: “The difficult we do now, the impossible takes a little longer.” Her success with difficult assignments in civil engineering stems from her appetite for embracing challenges, combined with the employment of a highly focused approach. The greater the challenge, the more excited she becomes. Her clients and candidates reap the benefits of this attitude. She is still in touch with, and advises many of the engineers she has known since entering the industry in 2005.
Something surprising about you
I am a die-hard sand volleyball player.
Associate Recruiter
Naomi Loretz
Education B.S. Psychology, minor Political Science; University of California, Davis
Place of Birth Sacramento, CA
Lived most in your life
Naomi’s family were wandering souls while she was growing up, and she has lived throughout the United States.
Recruitment Specialties and Geographies
Naomi works in tandem with Jennifer Powers in heavy civil construction. While they work throughout the Country, she has a particular love for Texas and the Northwest Region.
Recruiter’s Background
Naomi has a background as a small business operator. Her experience in event planning and marketing allows her to have an aerial view of business needs, and aides in moving processes forward.
About your Team
Naomi’s group specializes in the field of transportation construction.
What sets you apart?
Naomi is focused on the details, but never loses sight of the bigger picture, that we are here to provide a value to our clients and candidates that goes beyond details, and encompasses the needs and concerns of multifaceted individuals.
Key to success
A constant commitment to learning more and becoming better.
What is the one thing you would tell your younger self?
Invest in Apple.
Search Consultant
Jessica Trudell
Place of Birth Northridge, CA
Lived most in your life
Placerville, CA and Sacramento, CA
Recruitment Specialties and Geographies
Jessica specializes in executive level recruitment in the civil engineering industry. She works with clients and candidates on the West Coast and specializes in water and environmental.
Recruiter’s Background
Jessica started working at J Powers Recruiting in 2020 as a Recruiting Development Representative, assisting Nora Wood, and was quickly promoted to Search Consultant. She has experience in restaurant management and liability insurance claims investigation.
What sets you apart?
Jessica is a fully engaged recruiter with a personal interest in improving the lives of her candidates and ensuring she has a clear understanding of exactly what her Clients are looking for in a new employee.
Key to success
Practice unconditional friendliness. Every encounter is a chance to share yourself with another person. Listen, empathize, and help.
What is the one thing you would tell your younger self?
Opportunities arise when we least expect them.
Something surprising about you.
Jessica is a great team player but has historically enjoyed solo activities such as horseback riding, ballet, and downhill skiing. She is an avid reader and can answer most of your questions about the Song of Ice and Fire book series (Game of Thrones).
Account Executive Recruiter
Christopher Morgan
Education B.A. English; California State University, Sacramento
Place of Birth Napa, CA
Lived most in your life
Chris has lived mostly in Northern California and has spent the last decade in Sacramento.
Recruitment Specialties and Geographies
Chris specializes in placing bridge engineers and project managers on the West Coast, and in the Western United States.
Recruiter’s Background
Chris worked for many years both in the newspaper and high-end hospitality industry, where he cultivated his skills in communication and persuasion. The newspaper work taught him to be focused and detailed; while working in hospitality honed his speaking ability and taught him how to make connections with anyone.
About your Team
Chris’s team works in the transportation industry and specializes in placing executive level seller-doers and designers across the United States.
What sets you apart?
Chris loves the engineering world. Speaking to people who create our infrastructure is rewarding in itself. He is committed to finding out what motivates each and every person in his industry, and how he can help them realize their goals.
Key to success
Focus on details, but never lose sight of the forest for the trees!
What is the one thing you would tell your younger self?
You’ll never have more time than you do right now!
Something surprising about you
I am a former Uno champion, but a six-year-old now holds the title.
Researcher and Catch All
Gabrielle Dietrich
Education B.A. Women’s Studies; University of Califonia, Santa Cruz,
Certified Biodynamic/Organic Farm Manager; Emerson College, UK
CLEC; University of California, San Diego
Place of Birth Sacramento, CA
Lived most in your life
Sacramento; with some years in Santa Cruz, England, New Zealand and Sweden
Recruitment Specialties and Geographies
Gabrielle takes a support role for the recruiters at J Powers. She works hard finding the needle in the haystack for searches throughout industries and regions.
Recruiter’s Background
Gabrielle grew up in a large family, and left to pursue a degree and see the world. She has education and experience in many varied fields.
She has lived and worked as a Biodynamic/organic farmer, gardener and beekeeper in England, New Zealand, Sweden and Sacramento- and feels that a more global perspective helps her navigate and fine tune her understanding of needs, and different communication styles.
Now a mom of two young girls, juggling tasks efficiently and getting jobs done well, and on time, are crucial for staying ahead of the game!
What sets you apart?
Having lived and worked with such a varied group of people over the years, as well as in hard physical labor- Gabrielle takes most of what gets thrown at her in stride and with humor. No job is insurmountable, and she is unafraid to get the help and guidance she needs to complete a job to its highest potential.
She has a deep love of figuring out problems and solving puzzles. She has a highly critical eye that seeks to make processes more efficient, and easy for others to take over.
Key to success
Don’t take anything personally. How you do one thing is how you do everything.
What is the one thing you would tell your younger self?
Travel more! Life is to be lived! Save more of your earnings in your 20s and buy property!
Something surprising about you
She has been kicked by cows, had hundreds of bees sting her thighs while moving a hive at night, slept on haystacks, assisted lambing in heels and done wheelies on tractors.
