By Elysia, who is a trainee quantity surveyor in the Council’s Capital and Major Project Delivery team
There’s a lot to being a quantity surveyor, a lot of different parts.
In the main you’re dealing with numbers - but it can range from checking that construction work has been done correctly, and that we’ve been charged for the right quantities, to estimating how much it will cost to build something like a new school.
On a typical day I would log on, check in with the contractor to make sure everything is running smoothly, then check some valuations. That can take quite a while – you can be going through a valuation for two working weeks.
It’s important that we check every last little detail because, at the end of the day, it’s public money and we have to think about it as if it was our own.
I might do an estimate, which could be for anything – for a school or for a sports hall, literally it could be anything. Then sometimes I will be out on-site checking everything is ok.
Sometimes I’ll have a full day at the laptop, sometimes it’s a full day out of the office. It changes day to day but that’s what I like – and I like to be kept busy.
I’ve been at the Council for just over a year and a half and my role is a degree apprenticeship, which means I can work while I’m learning.
It’s perfect for me because, although I’m quite good academically, I do enjoy being hands-on.
The job is living up to my expectations and the Council is such a nice organisation to work for. Everyone in my team is lovely and I get to meet lots of different people when I’m doing work for a range of teams too.
If anyone is thinking about starting a career with the Council I would say go for it – don’t be nervous because, in my experience, everyone is really supportive.
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