Hello friends 👋 This week I’m going to briefly go through the Design Economics and Cost Planning competency. It’s probably the competency that I am most comfortable with at present because I have logged a lot of experience against this topic over the last three or so years. I will be only covering Level 1 in this post! To become a chartered quantity surveyor, you have to be certified to a Level 3 status for the following 6 competencies: Commercial management (of construction

Hello friends 👋 I hope everyone is doing well and adjusting to the “new normal”. This week I want to talk about my experience with the software that I tend to use as a QS and I want to know what you guys are using too! Microsoft Office: This is a pretty obvious one, I am sure everyone in the world uses Microsoft tools in some form or another. a) Outlook – Emails. Lots and lots of emails. Pretty self-explanatory at this point. b) Word – Used for reports, minutes and bid wri

Hello friends 👋 This will be my sixth newsletter in a row! I am currently writing this whilst sitting in my car in a hospital car park and I needed to do something ‘productive’. I’ve been struggling with getting motivated to do particular tasks even though I know I need to do them. At uni, if I knew had an assignment due in 3 weeks I wouldn’t really get down to writing until I was a few days before the deadline. Terrible I know – but I’m sure many of you can relate. I think

Hello friends 👋 If, like me, you decided to become a QS after you already completed your first undergraduate degree, and you want to get chartered by the RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors), you must complete a conversion course. It’s really important that the course you sign up for is accredited by the RICS. Most of the large consultant QS firms that offer graduate programs will sponsor non-cognate graduates to undertake the conversion course. Bear in mind – whe

Hello friends! 👋 I started in the construction field with no previous construction experience/knowledge. I was therefore referred to as a “non-cognate” graduate i.e. someone with a background that is mostly unrelated to the proposed field (I was a law graduate going into the construction sector). When you first start your job as a (non-cognate) QS, everything is a mystery – at least it was for me anyway. What attracted me to my graduate scheme was that the firm offered to sp

Hello folks! 👋 Have you ever felt like you were working for/towards something, but in your heart felt that there was no future in it for you? That’s how I felt after studying Law for 3 years at a relatively good UK university. During A-Levels (I did Maths, Economics & History) I didn’t really know what I wanted to do at university. I knew I wasn’t good enough to do 3 years of Maths. I knew all the good Economics courses required you to be very good at Maths – which I wasn’t.