Chelsea Bolter, 31

Things haven’t exactly gone to plan for Chelsea Bolter’s career to date.

“I never in a million years thought that I would end up in the construction industry,” she says. “I thought I was going to be an opera singer.”

She studied vocal performance at Florida State University, and for a time was a performing artist in New York City. But now that she is senior director of operations at Regions Facility Services, references to “pipes” are less likely to be comments about her voice and more often a need for materials at a job site.