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Graduate type 1: The raw recruit

“The industry has to recognise that graduates are the future, professional accreditation is what matters”

Darryn Byrne, a graduate project manager with EC Harris, is one year into the firm’s two-year training programme. He completed his BSc at the Bartlett, UCL, last summer. Byrne is finding the transition tough, but that’s the way he likes it. “Being involved with pre-start meetings with 10 or 12 clients around the table, there’s structural engineers with 40 years’ experience there as well, you’ve got your builders with huge amounts of knowhow and ability, and you’ve got me, someone half their age asking all the necessary questions. It was daunting at first, but I’m fine with it now.”

Byrne began to settle into his role on realising that lacking his colleagues’ technical knowledge was not a problem and that having these people on the team was an asset. “You can’t know everything on a building project. Learning to listen, learning to delegate; it’s all part of being a manager.”

As you would expect of a young graduate, Byrne considers his academic training essential, claiming that it’s the only true validation of a manager’s commitment and understanding of the industry. In fact, before deciding on a university education, Byrne had the opportunity to become a carpenter and considered building his way up through the trades towards management, but he felt this would have prejudiced his mindset and narrowed his perspective.

However, he accepts that a degree is only a starting point.
“It’s not a case of stepping off a production line and you’re ready to go. You don’t get respect instantly and I don’t expect it. You’ve got to build up a skills base, a confidence, an appreciation for different approaches in getting things done. You can’t get that from university.”
Recalling his first project, a design and build two-stage tender, he reveals that while some aspects of the contract framework were familiar, much of it was a mystery because it had been tailored specifically for the project. Byrne was forced to ask himself: What does it mean in the real world? “That’s the challenge for me,” he says. “It’s this real life element that keeps me excited. It keeps me going in fact.”

As far as the type of work he would like to do, Byrne appears broadminded, as well as altruistic: “It doesn’t have to be a high-profile, marketable project, the Olympics or whatever. For me, it’s about working in a team.”

At the moment, Byrne is involved with three London-based refurbishment and renovation projects. “They are all quick turnaround, fast track, design and build projects, to the value of £1m. For me, that’s a huge responsibility.

“But in five years there might be another two noughts on that,” he adds, revealing the young graduate outlook familiar to employers.

Employers’ comment

Most contractors find young graduates to be overly confident when they first start work. They say expectations are too high and new recruits are often shocked at the junior roles they’re given. “When we ask them where they think they’ll be in five years many think they’ll be running £60m projects. It’s not realistic,” says Anthony Cotterill, career development boss at Shepherd Construction, which takes young graduates from courses at Loughborough and Salford.

The number of staff hired from construction management courses at Wilmott Dixon has dropped to less than 20% of the firm’s graduate uptake this year. “We’ve found it difficult to get quality from the universities,” says Chrissy Chadney, the firm’s personnel director. “I’m not sure what the degree courses have to offer us.”

Simi Gandhi at Bovis Lend Lease, however, praises the soft skills such graduates bring to the mix. “They’re more rounded and great at dealing with clients and other managers,” she says. “But they do think they can rule the world!”

Wates training manager Anthony Surley, praises young graduates’ intelligence and curiosity and adds: “They’re enthusiastic and have a willingness to learn.”

BSc straight from University

• A firm believer in academic training
• Enthusiastic about employer
• Open minded about career development
• Intimidated by others’ technical ability
• Thinks the industry is full of dinosaurs
• Looking for rapid rise through the ranks

Graduate type 2: The outsider

“sometimes people do try to pull the wool over your eyes – occasionally you have to give it back”

Employed by Wilmott Dixon, Matt Keen is in the first cohort of students on the CIOB course that transforms random graduates into construction professionals. Nearing completion, he hopes to gain chartered status early next year. Reflecting on the sudden switch between work and educational environments that the block release post-grad degree entails, he says: “On the Monday everyone is still on the phone to work making sure everything they left on Friday is being done!”

Keen was studying a degree in computing and management when he realised that making buildings was actually a lot of fun. A stint working on a construction site while still at university was the catalyst.

He started as a labourer but a savvy manager soon recognised his capabilities and decided he’d be more use co-ordinating the decorators.

“I knew I wanted to stay in the management sector and realised construction was a real possibility,”
says Keen.

Before he graduated from his degree in computing and management he was snapped up by Wilmott Dixon and is now based in Cambridge where he’s in charge of site operations for a new build of 25 houses valued at £3.2m. It forms part of a large development on the edge of the town that will provide 800 new houses, of which Wilmott Dixon is building nearly 300. He’s clearly in the thick of it.

The biggest hurdle ‘going live’, however, was not management, but language. Learning the appropriate terminology and working out what people call different bits of equipment – and then communicating clearly on site – was a challenge. “They’ve been doing this for years and I’ve come from a non-construction background... it’s not easy,” he says. “Trying to manage that relationship with the subs is tricky, they can be strange beasts at the best of times. But if you get a good rapport then things become immeasurably easier.”

Keen wants to stay with Wilmott Dixon to develop his career and he is grateful for the faith it initially showed in him. “They recognised my potential and gave me a chance,” he says. But in five years where will he be? “Still here, as a contracts manager hopefully. I’m looking for a strategic role.”

Employers’ comment:

Chrissie Chadney of Wilmott Dixon is a fan of of non-cog graduates. “Generally they’ve done their research and made an informed decision to enter the construction industry.

The MD prefers them to other types, they show more humility and are easier to shape.” She adds that this year, Wilmott Dixon has taken on 10 graduate trainees from a variety of backgrounds including Irish history and sports science backgrounds, outnumbering the construction management graduates employed in the same period.

But Anthony Cotteril at Shepherd Construction says non-cogs require an extra level of training. “We’ve done it before with limited success,” he says. “We prefer to recruit from the specific degree courses.” However, he does concede that the firm has had an increase in applications from people looking for a career change.

Elsewhere, Bovis shows genuine faith in the alchemical nature of non-cog training and values the fact that such graduates have shown genuine interest in what insiders often consider an embattled industry.

Nevertheless, Simi Ghandi of Bovis’s HR team points out that it’s a lot harder for non-cogs to settle in to their new environment but says help is always at hand: “Their colleagues understand the difficulties and help them to adapt.”

Non-cog

• Easy to ‘shape’
• Determined to be involved
• Loves the construction industry
• Daunted by technical issues
• Could require extra training
• May not suit construction culture
    

Graduate type 3: The old hand

“Employers realise that you’ve passed through your party years and are looking to knuckle down”

“I used to be a carpenter but I was involved in a serious motorcycle accident which left me unable to continue,” explains Robert Matthews, a first-class graduate of South Bank University. “It was under some duress that I decided to go into construction management.”

Duress? He’s just being honest. Matthews loved being a tradesman and calling it quits was tough. But training as a construction manager allowed him to maintain a link with the site and allowed him to build upon his existing skills.
A mature student on the construction management degree course, Matthews felt his experience gave him an advantage over his younger peers. As an example he says some of his classmates couldn’t foresee problems stemming from the trades, such as how they were organised and sequenced. “The
co-ordination factor is difficult to understand until you’ve had a few years on site and made a few mistakes. I’m lucky enough to have gone through that process as a carpenter.”

Matthews has been working with Wallis Interiors, part of the Kier Group, for a year. He’s engaged with £1.8m-worth of refurbishment work at the University of East London’s Docklands campus. “It’s the most stressful sector within construction – you don’t get the flow you’d get with a new build project,” he says.

Despite his background, management can still be testing, as Matthews makes clear: “When there’s a problem, I’m careful what I say. You can say the wrong thing and get a kick under the table from your site or contracts manager because you’ve given away too much. Sometimes they’ll keep you away from that side of things!”

And whereas many of the younger graduates feel they should be positioned higher up the hierarchy when they begin their professional lives, Matthews, perhaps because of his maturity, perhaps because of his trade experience, is more at ease with his current position of assistant site manager. “It’s about respecting Kier’s management structure and the way it defines certain roles,” he says.

Matthews is already thinking about how he can develop his career. First up is getting his head around all the skills present on site: “Can you imagine being able to talk in depth with every single trade?“ he says, adding, “And if there was a course on producing environmentally sound buildings, I’d do it.”

Employer’s comment:

Some employers think mature students, along with non-cogs, offer the most potential. The reason is that they have made an informed decision about working in the industry and are prepared get on with the job. “We understand that people change focus in their careers. We appreciate that, we want our managers to be flexible,” says Anthony Cotteril of Shepherd Construction, who believes that having a few extra years behind you is probably quite useful.

Matthews himself says that during interviews he was aware employers detecting an extra level of confidence that comes from a commitment to their chosen career. “They realise that you’re more settled, that you’ve passed through your party years and are looking to knuckle down.”

Chrissie Chadey of Wilmott Dixon, however, expresses little interest in mature graduates, especially those who’ve come from the trades. “Typically, they find it difficult to adjust to management on graduating, and can feel intimidated by the bright young things they work alongside.”

Mature student

• Appreciates university education
• Quick to settle in job role
• Sees career as a lifetime commitment
• Baggage from previous career
• Unsettled by younger hi-flyers
• Can lack ambition

  

Graduate type 4: Ahead by a distance

“Clients get satisfaction knowing they’re dealing with someone who is academically trained and experienced”

Distance learning is for committed individuals only, according to Lee Johnson, regional manager with Cardy Construction. If you can find 20 hours a week, outside working hours of course, to complete coursework using videos and huge amounts of printed material then go for it, he says.

Add to that three face-to-face lecture sessions a year and you begin to realise this is not something that can be done in front of Eastenders once a week. But that’s not all: “There’s exams and a thesis to do as well,” says Johnson.

Johnson’s route to becoming an academically trained construction manager has been a long one but also serves as a great example of how to shape a career in construction. Rather than stepping on to the “leave school, go to uni, get a job” treadmill, he chose to mix career with education throughout his working life. Since 1991 Cardy has sponsored Johnson through several courses; an ONC, an HNC and a distance learning BSc with the College of Estates Management and Reading University. In return he’s worked hard and aims to stay with the firm for a while yet.

But why bother go to university when he was already doing well with Cardy? When he began his degree in 2002 he already occupied a senior role. It’s a simple answer – he wanted the professional status. “As a senior manager clients get satisfaction knowing they’re dealing with someone who’s academically trained as well as practically experienced.”

It’s not just about cutting it with clients though; Johnson wants to feed his newfound expertise back into the firm which has placed so much faith in him over the years. “I’m now shaping the regional manager role, together with my directors. We’re developing the office to look after bigger projects and clients. The course enabled me to do that.”

Employers’ comment:
If you’re hiring someone with a distance learning degree in construction management it’s highly likely that they’ll already have a number of “site years” in the can. Great, you think, that’ll do nicely, no training required. But looked at another way, it could mean they’ve already been brainwashed by the management practices of their previous employer and consequently lack the flexibility your outfit needs.

Anthony Cotteril of Shepherd Construction says there has been a rise in the number of graduates who have taken this route applying for work at the York-headquartered firm. “We don’t bother putting them on our training programme,” he says. “And because of their experience we can even consider them for roles other than construction management, as assistant quantity surveyors for example.”

Distance learner

• No need for additional training
• Already has years of experience
• A real company player
• Set in their ways
• Imbued with previous corporate culture