Trainee Construction Manager Review

It provided me with a great insight into a professional working environment and the construction industry. I now have a different outlook on much of the world, purely from observing a lot of the behind-the-scenes work which goes into buildings and infrastructure, which I would not have known about had it not been for this experience.

My team were extremely friendly and made me feel included from day one. It makes a work environment 100x better if your colleagues are enjoyable to be around and that was definitely the case. In meetings I was asked if I had anything to add etc just like everyone else and that made me feel valued. I was also provided with my own work mobile phone and laptop/desktop on my first day and that made me feel like a legitimate member of the team.

Any questions I had were answered there and then. Anything which I wanted to do or see in particular was granted to me and I was supported all throughout my placement. I felt comfortable asking even "silly" questions to clarify my understanding, as things were often abbreviated because they use them day-to-day where as I wouldn't know what they meant. But I quickly came up to speed with the lingo

I had a mix of busy and non-busy days. They got busier as time went on but that was partly due to me being pro-active and asking to get involved with things. I never had a day where I was completely immersed in work all day. The nature of the work/industry means that the managers were very busy and often didn't have time to sit down and think of things for me to do. But even the less busy days were good training for me because I would assess the volume of tasks I had to do in a day and plan my time, prioritise tasks accordingly and decide when it would be appropriate to do any slightly off-task things - all of which are skills useful for the rest of my working life.

The timing of the holiday season actually served me quite well as when certain members of the team went on holiday, some of their duties shifted to me. For a period I was managing the windows being installed into the building; checking in with the subcontractors on their progress, their supervisor would then report to me with any issues, and I would chase up delays. When my line manager went on holiday I was also running the daily briefing meetings in his place, whereby the supervisor of each subcontractor would list all of the tasks their team would carry out that day. I would then type up the minutes and send them round to everyone involved.

One of the main things I have picked up from being surrounded by professionals is how much you can get done in an hour, a day. Prior to this placement I would start off my days late and slowly, but it is the complete opposite in this office - so much is done even before lunchtime. So I'm going to try and keep this time perspective with me in my final two years at university, particularly when it comes to revising for exams. It's also been useful to see some of the theory from my course in practice. It becomes more a case of visualising a situation and using initiative rather than memorising information. I have also managed to learn a bit about quantity surveying whilst being on placement and how to use specialist equipment which I know will be a part of my studies next year so that puts me at a headstart. Finally, I have had some exposure to BIM (Building Information Modelling) which will be the basis of my 3rd year research project and dissertation so I'll also have a headstart on that.

It is generally quite relaxed though lots still gets done, which I admire. It never feels too serious which made it easy to integrate from the beginning. Everyone in the office has a good sense of humour which always helps. Our door is always open and people are constantly coming in with different queries so there's always something going on.

It's been well organised all throughout. We had a welcome event as well as an end of placement event which were useful. I had a site induction and was handed an induction booklet straight away and I was also given a work phone and laptop so they expected my arrival. The recruitment process was smooth and the level of contact before starting was fairly frequent.

Mace have hundreds of online training and learning modules. As part of our induction there were certain ones we were required to complete but then throughout the rest of my time there I picked more to do for my own development. There is everything from advanced Excel skills to increasing productivity. I think they are well made; a good investment by Mace.

I am looking forward to completing an industrial placement next year with Mace, though in a different department which is more in line with my career ambitions. Perks such as reimbursed travel expenses really do draw me in more than other companies do. They are also a company with a big international presence which is exciting for future prospects.

I did not feel connected to my fellow placements students - it's my one criticism of the programme. We were all placed on different projects so I was the only placement student on my team and it would have been nice to have one or two with me, just because they are more relatable. We met at the welcome event though I did not really stay in touch with anyone, however I have stayed a bit more connected with some since the end of placement event. The company tried an app called Yammer in an attempt to connect us all but it didn't really work.

My project happened to be in a very upmarket part of London and with London itself already being more expensive than average, the prices were pretty high. Nonetheless, after having to pay out high prices for a couple of lunches, it did then encourage me to be more organized and bring lunch from home. If based in London though, I don't really think much could be done about this.

It was a lively atmosphere on most evenings of the week actually, particularly Fridays and Saturdays of course. It was fun to go out but mega expensive but I didn't mind that for a short-term placement, was just making the most of being in Central London, and could meet up with many of my uni friends also on placement with other companies.

Mace encourage everyone to undertake one or two 'Mace Days' a year, which is a day out of office to do some volunteering. It's heavily encouraged and opportunities are advertised every now and then. However you can also arrange your own volunteering day if you wished. In the time I was there, there were also two after-work socials arranged; 5-a-side football and bowling, which was a nice idea.