What shall I train as? Quantity Surveyor or Health & Safety Officer.

[PorshainthePorsche]

Hi, I thought I’d come & ask you successful ladies for some career advice, hoping some of you would be kind enough to share your 2 cents.

I’m turning 23 soon & need to really fix up. I left school at 16 had a few low skilled jobs, went to college for 3 days & dropped out lol, 18 I found the world of self employment & fell in love with my chosen job thinking I’d want to do it till I was old HA! Yeah right.

For the past few years I’ve been saying I want a career, I’m thinking Quantity surveyor or Health & Safety officer or project management or HGV driving.
The world is my oyster I have no responsibilities other than my car & a few meagre bills at home.
I like being around people & socialising for a few hours, I’m VERY detail oriented & I excel in consulting & helping people get stuff done. If I do something I’m gonna be the best but I’m at a cross roads & a bit confused which road to take.

I guess I’m looking for first hand accounts & experiences really, salary, work life balance, path into it, did you regret or love your decision.

Thanks ladies.

I love how everyone completely ignored HGV driver 🤣🤣 that bad huh. I liked the sound of it as well lol

With the greatest of respect you sound very immature. No well paid job is going to involve you just reading the safety booklet and then checking people are following it.

Thanks for the opinion. Do you know what it involves & are you willing to enlighten me or?

I’m just gonna have to go to uni then ain’t I. No choice in the matter if I want one of these as a career. Thanks

I was going to say HGV driver. AI is getting rid of lots of jobs these days, particularly office based ones, but unless automated cars become a mainstream thing long distance drivers will always be needed. Just been on a coach trip where the driver doubled up as the guide ( sort of) so there are other opportunities, plus I think there is a shortage of HGV drivers.

This.

Good luck go getter. Any idea how more people of your age can be more like you?

You didn’t show any interest in HGV driver in your narrative.

That didnt suggest you were actually interested.

Given youve said you want a more 9-5 job that might not be overly compatible with a lot of driving jobs. Worth looking around locally, eg in my area they are very keen to recruit bus drivers and will train you.

My 24 year old son is in health and safety and earning a great salary for his age. he seems to enjoy it although there is lots of travelling in the role he is in.

Thanks for replying. Did he go to uni, do the IOSH or both?

…I’m 22. Dunno if you missed that. I’m obviously not gonna be “mature”, code for devoid of joke & spirit. Nobody in real life has ever called me immature but I guess the opinion of 2 strangers on the internet means I must be. I love how you got that from an anonymous post asking about different career paths. No wonder young people feel so beat down. Anyways thanks for the help & advice that you contributed 💕

Realise that the economy is in a shambles & if they want a chance at the life previous generations had/have then don’t do what I did & carry on your education, side hustles can be exactly that, side hustles.

So what do you do now then?

Yeah I thought that last night, AI could technically (hopefully not) overtake Quantity surveying if it’s basically handling money & making sure projects are on budget for contractor/client. It’s so difficult & jarring because so many careers are hard to get into & get recognition in then AI comes along & practically makes whole industries non existent. They’ve stopped recruiting new lawyers at the Big 3 companies now, lawyers are struggling to get jobs 🤦‍♀️

I understand you feeling a bit prickly towards people you may feel haven't given you positive suggestions. But here you are using "mature" as an insult on a site that is predominantly women older than you.

The roles you have posted about will require you to get people to do things they don't necessarily want to do (within the time/safety precursor etc that you want them to). You will need to be an expert at communicating with people, being firm, encouraging, setting boundaries, being diplomatic. Can you do that or will you get snippy with them like you have here?

From what you’ve said you might also like town planning.

I used “mature” because it’s opposite of the word “immature”…the word that they used. Not as a dig to older women Jesus.
I believe in giving people back the same energy they give me so if you’re condescending, unhelpful & snippy then guess what, you’re getting it back. I was taught to think before you speak because you may not be able to handle what you get back. I was polite, I asked a question in a light hearted way & I got called immature with no constructive criticism behind it.

But maybe you’re right, maybe I should stick to being self employed because if that was a little insight into office politics & fake “diplomacy” then I’m out 🤣 any customer coming to me with snippiness gets told where to go & I’m known for that so you’ve probably got a point.

I’ll look into that too. Thankyou

My DS has just started his first QS job in a grad role. He did 4yrs at uni to get a QS degree. His company have a grad programme to help him gets his RICS membership - likely at least another 2 years.
There is an 18 yo apprentice who the company is sponsoring through his degree - 6years p/t and then RICS after that.

Oh wow that’s great. I’m really gonna have to look at getting back into further education.

Have you got any qualifications beyond GCSEs? And English and maths at at least grade C/4?

If not, you're probably looking at an access to education course before even considering a degree, which will possibly need a foundation year as well.

I'm a H&S manager and at times mentor those starting out. I have worked in construction for over 30 years having started out as an Engineer with a degree (yes almost unheard of being female on site back then). I followed the NEBOSH route ending up being Chartered. It took about 10 years start to finish of exams and portfolios, but you can get your first job with a 2 week course. Having a trade or Engineering background is a huge advantage if you want to work in construction as it gains you more 'instant' respectbut not necessarily essential.
You need to be engaging, be able to talk to the guys but also the directors. You can't be 'snobby' and think you know best. You have to be able to draw on everyone's experience but also be able to say 'No, you are not doing that' and have them listen to you.
It is not just checking against the rule book, it's being able to know the rules and the law and also know how to adapt them to a massive variety of scenarios. You also need to be able to write well and concisely as you will be writing the rules and they need to be easy to follow. That said at first you will just be following the rules.
In my opinion you know you've made it when you get a call before a project starts asking you to help plan it, because they know it will save them time and money in the long term and you may well have some good ideas to help them on the build.
Another up and coming profession to look at is quality management. More and more accreditations are being asked for and quality assurance with regards building, especially to do with the Building Safety Act

I was in health and safety in my 20’s - worked in a related industry so took a nebosh qualification in order to move into site management and health and safety. Work life balance really depends on where you work - I had two different roles in h&s, one where I was regionally based so it was run of the mill stuff but a lot of travel. Another was site based, huge site, lots of potentials for things to go wrong so was far more stressful. This was a 24hr site too so often got call outs in the middle of the night.

Much preferred the project management role I moved into but I didn’t do it for long due to maternity leave.

I’m not sure I would recommend H&S if you aren’t already in a related field and know you would enjoy it.

He did an apprenticeship. Then has done extra study.

Also, I 100% agree with @Lovetoridemybicycle - being approachable and friendly is a huge part of H&S, one day you might be dealing with a group of lads on a building site and the next with a boardroom full of directors. It’s no good impressing the bosses if you can’t get people on the ground to follow your direction.