10 Tips to Start Your Construction Career

1
10 Tips to Start Your Construction Career  
2
Know Yourself

• Some people are cut out to be professionals and
  some are not. And it takes time there are no
  short-cuts. The qualities you need to go down
  this route include certain skills, attitudes and
  resources. Be honest with yourself and ask do you
  really like numbers and the urban environment
  because that is what quantity surveying is all
  about.

3
Plan But be Flexible

• You need to think about this long before taking
  the traditional route to get a degree. The best
  plan is to look ten years ahead and consider your
  likes and dislikes, what resources you have and
  what is realistic. If you dont go down the
  university route, dont panic as education can be
  picked up along the way via part-time study and
  the Internet and probably a phone app in a few
  years time. You need to start early and think
  broadly. There are many practical skills
  necessary to be a successful QS. Summer
  experience in a local shop learning how to sell
  and develop your people skills is never wasted.
  Using a gap year to travel the world may equal
  out with that summer job as a show of your
  experiences. Theres a fine line between which is
  more desirable.
• .

4
 Be Hard Core

• Clients are buying services from professionals
  and nothing else. What will you be selling to
  these clients when you are a working quantity
  surveyor? You must be able to identify skills
  that the market wants and you must ensure you
  have those skills. This is part of the earlier
  planning process and knowing what you are capable
  of doing. These skills are usually universal
  technical disciplines such as finance,
  quantification, law, estimating and economics. It
  takes years of repetition to develop these
  skills, and specialising too early or focusing on
  soft glam subjects (dare I say
  sustainability) is very dangerous. You must
  have hard, technical, analytical skills to be a
  successful professional.
• I would add that you dont accept an expat job
  until you have these skills under your belt as
  expat jobs are notorious for a lack of core skill
  training and distracting people from reality!

5
Soft Skills are Critical

• Despite an era when we depend on machines, you
  must be able to deal with and manage people.
  Developing your people skills is an essential
  quality you will need as a QS. You will need to
  be able to connect with people from all walks of
  life and get them to do things. This is
  definitely not an easy task.

6
Network

• You need to build a network. This means a
  collection of people and organisations that can
  provide you with advice, mentoring, jobs and good
  old fashioned support particularly if things go
  wrong. You cannot afford to be an island no
  professional quantity surveyor is. You need to
  develop your professional network to grow your
  career. Be nice and say hello to everyone.

7
Be Proactive, Show Spark

• There are thousands of people applying for your
  dream job. The competition in the professional
  market is intense and getting harder. Think about
  how an employer bombarded with CVs will pick out
  yours. One thing you can do is take the
  initiative and do something that shows your
  passion or that you are prepared to take some
  initiative and leaves you standing a cut above
  the rest.
• An example of this is a young woman I interviewed
  some years ago. She told me that as the result of
  the film The Life of David Gale she had started
  her own advocacy group against capital
  punishment. Things like that stick in a potential
  employers memory and make the candidate stand
  out.

8
Presentation is Everything

• Yes it still holds true everything you do,
  speak, wear, tattoo, write says something about
  you. In fact it is even more important that you
  learn to manage this now as the Internet and
  social media mean that this information about you
  is available to employers too. If you want to be
  a professional you have to act like one.

9
Work Hard

• I know it sounds obvious but if you want to
  succeed you need to work hard for it. It cant be
  avoided and you will almost certainly have to
  work hard at things you dont like or enjoy. You
  need to be aware of this and able to motivate
  yourself as you will have to get through the
  paperwork and spreadsheets that are the lot of
  quantity surveyors.

10
Focus but See the Big Picture

• Focus your analytical skills like a laser to
  provide key insights, but also presenting the big
  picture for clients is a great and necessary
  ability for a QS. I would advise you to develop
  some practical skills such as DIY, to read widely
  and have plenty of variety in your life as well
  as time to reflect. These are all helpful ways to
  develop and train yourself to see the big and the
  small.

11
Never be Afraid

• A professional is a master of discipline and is
  not afraid to show his mastery. This can be
  easier said than done when surrounded by other
  professionals or when you have to give bad news,
  but this is what you are being paid for. Its
  about getting outside your comfort zone.

12
Contact
us Location 10 Ripplevale Cir, Carramar WA
6031, AustraliaEmail info_at_measuremanage.com.au
Website https//measuremanage.com.auPhone
0498 202 445