About the author … 

Terry Nash is a Director of Gusto Construction Ltd, with responsibilities for business systems, web-presence and the company’s health & safety management system. 

Making career choices … 

How we all envy those lucky people who have always known the career they wish to pursue, have gained the right qualifications to pursue it, and now have their first job lined-up. 

Sadly, for many others the story could not be more different, as they find it difficult to imagine their future world of work, so simply go along with the path of least resistance until something turns up. This is in either the hope or expectation that, at some indeterminate point in the future, all will miraculously come right and they will somehow find themselves in exciting, enjoyable well-paid employment. 

There is a saying in business that organisations that fail to plan, plan to fail; the same could as easily be said of an individual’s career. Yes it is true that some seem to find their way seamlessly into their perfect career, but for many more others, having no plan can be a recipe for underachievement and disappointment. 

So don’t be afraid to take the time to establish how you are going to go about identifying and planning your start to the world of work. A good starting point maybe to seek the experience of people already in the work-force, on the choices they have taken. Get their opinions on the merits of working in the public and private sectors, or of working for large or small organisations. These days you can now look forward to 50-years or more in employment, so you need to enjoy it! 

Why choose construction? … 

A career in the construction industry is certainly one that should enter the equation, insofar as the private-sector is concerned. The reasons for this, apart from the satisfaction to be gained from “building things”, is that construction offers an unusually wide range of career opportunities, and encompasses employers ranging from small/local to very large/international. 

Within these businesses there are opportunities to suit all tastes, ranging from working on a construction site, which are the tip of the iceberg that forms the industry’s shop window, through the many specialists and disciplines that enable site operations to take place. In the parlance of the sector these are broadly broken down into: “Clients”, with the skills and resources needed to purchase land and commission the building works; “Designers”, who design what is to be built and obtain the necessary planning consents; “Principal Contractors”, who are responsible for the safe and timely delivery of the building works; and the “Site Operatives” that we are all used to seeing on-site. 

This spectrum of roles and responsibilities offers an exceptionally wide choice of career options, ranging from the highly-qualified and technical, to the practical and hands-on. Best of all, for anyone who would one day like to be their own boss, 

Working in the construction industry is a well-tried gateway to establishing your own business. 

Case study … 

Gusto Construction Ltd is a good example of the range and scope of career opportunities in the construction sector. 

A small house-building company that employs around 25 site operatives directly, and regularly employs a similar number of self-employed sub-contractors, Gusto Construction is invariably the Principal Contractor on the projects it delivers. This involves meeting national legislative, planning, building control, environmental and H&S requirements. 

Sister-companies, with whom Gusto Construction regularly works, are responsible for the Client and Designer roles mentioned above. This means that the site operations of even a small local building company are backed in-house by a sizeable team of architects, engineers, CAD technicians, contract managers, buyers, site managers, estimators, business administrators, marketing professionals, customer-relations managers, and IT/systems specialists. 

In other words, even based upon the requirements of a small company, the construction sector provides sufficient career choices to meet the needs of even the pickiest chooser. 

Small versus big … 

The implications of working for a large and/or international construction company usually include a higher degree of specialisation, which can lead to a role which some can find too narrow and hence frustrating; conversely, working for a smaller construction company is likely to place a higher premium on an individual’s range of skills and flexibility, and a role which provides opportunities to directly influence the activities of the business. 

This flexibility, in the Gusto Construction Ltd case study above, has enabled the company to develop a national reputation for its design and build of energy-efficient new homes, first established with its flagship Millennium Green, Collingham project completed in 2002. These homes use around 50% of the energy and 50% of the mains-water, compared to homes built to the Building Regulations of the time. 

Similarly, the recently completed Woodlands Edge development, adjacent to Lincolnshire Showground, is currently at the forefront in the region for its integrated use of design and build techniques, and use of sustainable technologies, to minimise energy consumption in these spectacular new homes. 

For more information on construction industry careers see: https://www.goconstruct.org