This is where it gets a little complicated as quantity surveyors and estimators can also work out of a site office as a part of the contracts team during procurement and ongoing construction. These types of gigs normally come up with tier 1 & tier 2 builders.
Sometime in your career – you will need the services of a recruiter. Keeping employed may be the reason that you are pointed in one direction or another.
I am a Late 60’s vintage so I have family and kids – being out of work for any duration is simply not an option. Now the next background note – my vintage of building staff are normally have been around the block and are generally multi-skilled.
So this is the thing – I have found in busy times employers just wanted a body who could do a job. But when things slow down – having someone who can wear a lot of hats is always a benefit to anyone’s business.
Generally, you want to find work at the start of the upward cycle not the end of the busy cycle.
But if you happen to be on the market in busy times you can normally find work reasonably easy however if the work dries up or doesn’t go ahead – the building industry can be brutal.
You may find yourself in the position that you are sitting in from of a recruiter and they ask you the question – Do you see yourself in pre-contracts or contracts? Be careful as it may be the difference between them helping or telling you pretty lies.
I was asked that question about 20 years ago – are you pre-contracts or contracts? I scratched my head and said both. 20/20 – Not my greatest moment – I remember the face of the recruiter was baffled and she had no idea how to market me. Round peg / square hole kind thing. Basically, a total failure but a very good lesson though.
The second thing was - "To understand your clients client".
Just to paint you a picture – I was looking for work, married with kids and my wife was also finishing a teachers degree. I let you fill in the gaps but being out of work just wasn’t going to cut it. The building industry was in a pretty bad in my immediate vicinity so I was also looking far and a wide to follow the work. I had just flown interstate and pretty much tanked my first recruiter interview.
I had another meeting with a different recruiter the following day as a backup – Re-jigged my resume to suit what the market was looking for (dumb myself down a tad) and was employed the following week.
Now that was over twenty years ago – HR and recruitment have come a long way, But the industry has moved to more specialized, especially when you want a role in tier 1 & 2 building company. It is not a hard and fast rule but you need to have plenty of experience and a track record even to get a look into tier 1 & 2 genre builders. But it is nice when you get there.
Now if you want a little more flexibility – often in medium-sized tier 3 building companies (who often punch above their weight class) – you may get to swim in both sides of the fence and wear many hats.
I will always recommend that you try new genres and do different roles within your core training. In estimating you often get a cadet that spends some time in the estimating trenches and then moves onto contract administration and then goes onto project engineering or project management. Estimators are a rare breed and it has been an industry problem to replenish the estimating ranks. Estimator wages have steadily increased in the last decade to react to the staff shortage.
But my experience – those people who try it all, (estimating, CA, PM, Supervision, etc) end up being the solid long term players in the industry.
If you get the opportunity to explore the different genres from design to building etc
Do so. Its good fun and It is all experience.
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