Iowa State University · Class of 2027

Dominic Siwiec

Construction engineering student, field engineer, and builder of things that probably shouldn't have worked.

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Dominic SiwiecPhoto
Dominic Siwiec on the boardwalkPhoto
Dominic Siwiec at the lakePhoto

Who I am

I'm a Construction Engineering student at Iowa State University with an emphasis on the mechanical side of the field. My goal is to get good at optimizing infrastructure: figuring out where a process is wasting time or money, then rebuilding it so it doesn't.

That interest didn't start in a classroom. It started with a family iMac, a YouTube channel, and a stubborn habit of not accepting that something couldn't be done. I installed Windows on a Mac because the software I wanted wouldn't run otherwise. I taught myself Blender in a weekend because someone mentioned there was money in it. I bought a car with a blown head gasket because I wanted to know if I could fix it.

A few of those turned into real businesses: reselling repaired consoles and custom-built gaming PCs, then a Roblox development group that has pulled in millions of visits across its titles. Along the way I've run teams of developers and editors, which is where the project-management side of my brain got its first real workout.

These days I'm applying that same approach to construction: quantity takeoffs, scheduling, cost tracking, and finding better ways to move data between systems without losing half of it. The subject changed. The method didn't.

Dominic Siwiec looking out over the valleyPhoto

Where I've worked

From lifeguard stands to preconstruction planning, a few years of learning how teams, schedules, and customers actually work.

Jan 2026Aug 2026

Field Engineer / Project Management Intern

McGough

Des Moines, Iowa. On-site, full-time co-op.

  • Supported preconstruction planning on large-scale projects through detailed quantity takeoffs, drawing analysis, and estimating support.
  • Documented daily activities, reviewed drawings and RFIs, and helped resolve field issues to keep timelines on track.
  • Built and maintained takeoff and cost-tracking spreadsheets in Bluebeam Revu and Excel that fed budgeting and procurement decisions.
  • Researched and developed a streamlined process for moving schedule data between scheduling platforms and Primavera P6 without losing schedule integrity.
  • Pursued FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot certification to support drone-assisted site documentation and progress tracking.

Aug 2024May 2025

Merchandise Associate

Hy-Vee, Inc.

  • Handled product flow and shelf assembly efficiently during high-volume shifts.
  • Worked as part of a floor team focused on customer service.

Apr 2022Mar 2024

Aquatics Supervisor

Life Time Fitness

  • Managed the facility's aquatics department and its staffing.
  • Handled member service with an emphasis on retention.
  • Responded to and rescued swimmers in distress.

Feb 2020May 2020

Salesperson

Revived Exteriors Inc

  • Learned the full service portfolio alongside a sales team.
  • Delivered personalized consultations and handled customer concerns directly.

Education

Iowa State University

B.S. Construction Engineering, Aug 2023 to Dec 2027

Mechanical emphasis. Active in AGC, MCA, Baja SAE, Swim Club, and Polish Club.

Huntley High School

High School Diploma, Aug 2019 to May 2023

3.9 GPA. Varsity swimming, ski and snowboard, and the Seal of Biliteracy in Polish.

The garage

Things I've built on my own

None of these were assignments. Each one started because I wanted to know whether I could pull it off.

Almost everything I know about tech traces back to that channel. Which microphone actually sounds better, how to light a shot, what components matter and why, how to build a thumbnail in Photoshop that people click. I also spent a lot of time reverse-engineering the algorithm itself, running analytics tools, A/B testing thumbnails and titles against each other, and reading retention curves to work out what the platform was actually rewarding instead of guessing at it.

My niche targets a younger, fast-moving audience, which meant long editing sessions to keep the pacing tight. That's where I learned real discipline. The CPM eventually made it hard to justify as a primary income source, so I stepped back, but I still post for the community I built, and hitting 100K subscribers is a goal I haven't let go of.

Latest stream, @GingisDojo

The YouTube channel

I started recording videos on an iPad in fourth grade. That moved to the family iMac, which is where things got interesting: macOS wouldn't run the software I needed, so I installed Windows on it myself just to unlock the tools.

Subscribers (last count)

18,400

2,822,000 total views 92 videos

Toward the 100K plaque18% there

  • Video editing
  • Photoshop
  • Analytics
  • Audience growth
Visit the channel
Roblox game development ~6MRobux earned from UGC items

Game development

Roblox development and UGC

While I was streaming, someone floated the idea of making UGC items to sell in the Roblox marketplace under the niche my channel already covered. I gave myself a day to figure it out, taught myself Blender from scratch, modeled a handful of items, and published them under my group. Those items went on to earn roughly 6 million Robux.

That revenue became the foundation for publishing full games. The titles I've put out have collectively pulled in millions of visits.

  • Lua
  • Blender
  • Roblox Studio
  • Team management
See the games
Custom gaming PC buildsPhoto

Hardware and resale

Console repair and gaming PC builds

This is the one that started everything else. Right after I got my job at Life Time, the PS5 and Xbox Series X launched, and both shipped with the same weak point: the HDMI port was poorly seated and would fail. So I learned to desolder and reflow the port back onto the motherboard.

That skill let me buy broken, nearly-new consoles for very little, repair them, and resell them at a real margin alongside my day job. Once I had capital, I moved up to building gaming PCs, sourcing discounted parts, keeping a stock of cables and cheap components, and assembling machines that cost less to build than they sold for.

After a few months of that, I had enough saved to justify buying a project car.

White custom gaming PC buildPhoto
Red custom gaming PC buildPhoto
Gaming PC build in progressPhoto
  • Soldering
  • Hardware repair
  • PC building
  • Sourcing
This funded the 2005 WRX
2005 Subaru Impreza WRX in rally bluePhoto

Full rebuild

2005 Subaru Impreza WRX

Bought at 2 AM in Chicago with a known head gasket leak, then stripped to a shell. Engine swap, rust repair and welding, full interior teardown, a bolt-in roll cage, body filler and block sanding, and a respray in rally blue.

It's the project that taught me the most, mostly because almost nothing about it went smoothly.

  • Engine swap
  • Welding
  • Bodywork
  • Paint
Read the full build
2019 Subaru WRX in blackPhoto

Interior rebuild

2019 Subaru WRX

Bought at auction in Colorado completely stripped of its interior, sight unseen. I flew out, learned to drive manual in a school parking lot that afternoon, and drove it home to Illinois.

Then rebuilt the interior piece by piece from junkyard parts, sorted out the wiring, and brought it back to stock. It's my daily now, on black TE37s, and the car I plan to build into a rally car.

  • Interior restoration
  • Wiring
  • Maintenance
  • Parts sourcing
Read the full build
Swimming butterfly in competitionPhoto

Twelve years in the water

The thing that shaped how I handle everything else.

12

Years of competitive swimming

100 fly

School record, Huntley High School

Age 12

First state qualifier, 200 fly

I started swimming at eleven, which is late by competitive standards. Before that it was soccer, mostly because my dad loved it, and neither my brother nor I ever really did. What my parents cared about was that we played something that would challenge us and build discipline, so they landed on competitive swimming.

I started at the Woodstock Dolphins, which ran lessons for beginners. Working up through the ranks into the competitive practices was a completely different animal. Anyone who's done it knows what I mean: swim practice teaches you to focus because it doesn't give you any other option.

That carried through every team I swam for after: SAGE YMCA, the YMCA in DeKalb, Reach Aquatics, and my high school team. The 6 AM practices are what shaped me most. Summer practices outside in the cold were brutal in their own way. Swimming changed me physically, but the part people miss is the mental side, doing the same set over and over, for hours, in conditions nobody would choose.

It paid off. At twelve I qualified for the state championships in the 200 fly, and more followed from there. I closed out my career by breaking my high school's 100 fly record and going to state with my relay team. After that I decided the era was over and hung up the cap.

I still swim occasionally with the club team at Iowa State, though most of my training now is calisthenics and just staying active. I don't regret a single part of it.

View my times on SwimCloud

Teams

  1. Woodstock Dolphins
  2. SAGE YMCA of Metro Chicago
  3. YMCA, DeKalb, Illinois
  4. Reach Aquatics
  5. Huntley High School
  6. Iowa State Swim Club
Breaking the school 100 fly recordPhoto
State relay teamPhoto
On the blocksPhoto

The next finish line

I hung up the cap. I didn't stop training.

First target

Half Ironman

70.3

  • 1.2mile swim
  • 56mile bike
  • 13.1mile run

The version that fits around school.

After graduation

Full Ironman

140.6

  • 2.4mile swim
  • 112mile bike
  • 26.2mile run

The one that's actually on the list.

Twelve years of competitive swimming ended with a school record and a state meet, and then nothing. No season to train for, no clock to answer to. It took about a year to admit I missed having something on the calendar that scared me a little.

So the plan is an Ironman. Not someday in the abstract. A real one, with an entry fee and a start line.

I trained for it last year and got a long way into a program before reality caught up. What stopped me was never the training. It was the cost. Entry fees, a bike worth riding 112 miles, a wetsuit, travel, lodging. Endurance racing is expensive in a way nobody mentions when you first get the idea in your head.

So I'm approaching it the same way I'd approach any build. Start with the half, the 70.3, while I'm still in school and the logistics are manageable. Then move up to the full distance after graduation, once I have the income and the schedule to train for it properly instead of squeezing it around everything else.

Right now I'm in the unglamorous part: pricing the whole thing out. What an entry actually runs, what equipment I genuinely need versus what the sport would like me to buy, what a real training block costs in hours, and how far ahead I need to start putting money aside. I'd rather solve that on a spreadsheet than let it end the attempt a second time.

It's on the bucket list for a simple reason. I want to be able to say I did it once.

Where it stands

  • Trained a full block last year
  • Stopped by cost, not by fitness
  • Costing out entry and gear
  • Half first, while in school
  • Full distance after college

Next up: the rally build

When the 2019's stock engine gives out, it becomes a rally car. Forged short block, big brakes, real suspension.

See the build plan
Four-view render of the planned black rally-liveried Subaru WRX STIPhoto

Get in touch

Open to internship and full-time conversations in construction engineering, or just talk to me about Subarus.

dominic.siwiec@gmail.com Connect on LinkedIn