HOW TO MOVE FROM A SITE ROLE TO OFFICE BASED

29 June

Tired of being site based?

At work from 7 am on site in the rain on a Saturday morning... Pushing around subcontractors and dealing with design issues too late in the program...

The most attractive aspects of your experience to Project Management companies are...

You have been exposed to a wide range of projects and/or trades.
You understand the complexities of building, pricing of materials and probably the AS4000 contract.
Your skill in MS project and Aconex is at a high level, and you may have had experience in knowing what it feels like to behind in the program or over budget.

How does this benefit a client-side project management firm you may be asking yourself?

Firstly, to move into a project management role, you need to present well - one of my best clients decides within 30 seconds how well you are going to represent his business.

Your communication and writing skills need to be exceptional - you are now representing a professional firm attending PCG meetings with a design team / main contractor and consulting engineers - AND the client - sometimes you may even be in charge, all ears awaiting your direction.

Contracts, project scope, and tender documents - as a client-side project manager you step in at the start of the project, the client may be in the process of deciding the budget, what the project will look like and when it needs to be completed. Your vision, your financial acumen and ability to identify the best trades all come into play. Setting up the project could be where your understanding of different construction methods or materials, assist in the cost and quality of the project.

The delivery phase, now how do you assist in the process? ... the main contractor is appointed. Firstly it is a good point to mention remember your project manager on the last job you worked on as a project engineer well... he is now reporting to you as the clients representative - it has happened. Given your knowledge of being based on site you will have a pretty good understanding of what a project should look like - both in progress, materials in the scope and even a safe site layout. Your ability to quickly identify what is looking good and what may need attention is very valuable to the projects overall performance in time, cost, and quality.

Should you wish to discuss moving from a Contract Administrator, Project Engineer or a site based role in a professional project management firm I am happy to chat about the process and role in more detail.