Top Tips For A Rewarding Career In Quantity Surveying

No-one wants to be stuck in a dead end job regardless of what they are doing.  Fortunately, there are a number of tips that you can use which will help you have a rewarding and successful career in quantity surveying.

Know Yourself

There are some people who are made to be professionals and there are other people who are not.  The reason for this is that it takes a lot of time and there are no shortcuts that you can take.  To go down this route you need to have certain skills, resources and a certain attitude.  This is why you need to be honest with yourself and consider if you actually like urban environments and numbers because that is what this career path is all about. A quantity surveyor is integral to projects as this post from PSR shows.

Have A Plan But Be Flexible

Before you take the traditional route of completing a degree, you need to take some time to think about this.  You need to plan ahead and consider what your likes and dislikes are as well as the resources you have available.  It is important that you are realistic when you plan.  You do not have to go the university route as the education that you need can be picked up along the way through part-time study.

It is also important that you start thinking about this early and broadly.  There are a lot of practical skills that you need as a QS and summer experience can help with this.  People skills are important so you should consider some local store experience or you could take a gap year to gain these skills.  The choice is yours and there is a fine line between which will be more desirable.

Be Hard Core

Your clients are going to be buying a service from a professional and nothing else.  This means that you need to consider what you are going to be selling your clients as a quantity surveyor.  You need to be able to determine what skills are most important to the market and ensure that you actually have these skills.  This will be part of the earlier steps you have taken when you planned your career path.

The skills that are most appealing are generally the universal technical ones such as quantification, finance, law, economics and estimating.  It is important to note that it can take years to develop these skills and specializing too early or focusing on trend subjects is dangerous.  You need to have technical and analytic skills if you want to be a successful professional.

Soft Skills Are Vital

Despite an increasing reliance on technology, you need to be able to manage and deal with people.  People skills are considered soft skills and are very important to your success as a QS.  You will need to be able to connect with people from various walks of life and get them to do what you want them to.  This is not an easy task, but having the necessary soft skills can make it easier.

Do Not Forget To Network

Building a network is very important.  This means that you are going to be part of a collection of people and organizations which provide mentoring, advice, jobs and support when you need it.  No person is an island and you cannot afford to be.  It is very important that you actively develop your professional network in order to grow your career.  To start networking, all you have to do is be nice and greet everyone.

Be Proactive

There are going to be a lot of people applying to your dream job and the competition in the professional market is only increasing.  You need to consider that an employer will be inundated with CVs just like yours.  The only thing that you can do is take the initiative and show your passion for the job.  Being proactive will help you stand out from the crowd of applicants.

Presentation Is Everything

There are a lot of people who believe that this has changed, but the presentation is still very important in the professional world.  Everything that you do says something about you and this includes what you wear, the tattoos you have and what you say.  It is very important that you manage what is presented to the world particularly with the ease of access to information on the internet.  If you want to be a professional, you need to act like one even on your personal Facebook account.

Work Hard

It may seem obvious, but you need to work hard if you want to succeed in your career.  This cannot be avoided and you will have to work hard at the things that you do not like just as much as the things that you do.  Knowing that you need to work hard is important because it gives you time to be able to motivate yourself.

Focus And Remember The Big Picture

Your analytical skills need to be focused on key insights, but you should never lose sight of the big picture that you need to present to clients.  This is a very important skill for a successful QS.  To hone this skill you should look at DIY projects and read a lot to broaden the variety in your life.  There are a lot of other ways that you can train yourself to be able to focus on the small details and the big picture at the same time

Do Not Be Afraid

A professional is a master of discipline and will not be afraid to show that they have mastered something.  Of course, this is often easier said than done when you are surrounded by other professionals.  However, you should not be afraid to show what you have worked hard to master.