Professional Quantity Surveyor Malepeli Malataliana tells us about her new work experience in Ireland.
I have recently started a new job in Ireland where we do a lot of residential and commercial projects since Ireland has a housing crisis. We do monitoring for lenders and borrowers. My responsibility is to ensure that what a developer is asking for from the bank is market related and that the developer is held accountable for what he borrowed. We also do a lot of rehabilitation projects, e.g. an old architecturally beautiful church being converted into a restaurant/library/market. New shopping centers as well as government projects.
The differences between South Africa and Ireland are obviously the different contracts and from that emanates a lot of differences. The construction world here is also fast paced. Construction programmes are very short and have to be met. Most projects have their payment runs every fortnight, not the usual 30 days. The client pays within a week at most including government clients. One client might have about five or more projects running concurrently so it is very easy to make mistakes. I work for a multi disciplinary company so what other teams do ultimately ends up on my desk for costing purposes.
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Meetings, all meetings are short. 45min is the longest meeting I have been to. I love that. Also going to the site seems optional since we use technology that allows us to see the site and do valuation while we are in the office. That is nice to have.
In my observation I believe the South African Industry can emulate from Ireland for instance the turnaround time We cannot wait for a signature for three months. Construction site safety is taken extremely seriously. There is a course called Safe Pass that everyone on site must attend. Lack of proof of attendance of this course may hinder new employment.
On the other hand I also believe the contract documentation used in SA is incredible. Particularly the JBCC. It outlines responsibilities so well. No blurred lines.
My experience in Ireland so far has been great, except that I am dealing with country culture shock and work environment culture shock. All at a very fast pace. My advice to any hardhatPROFESSIONALS considering work experience out of South Africa is to do it at the earliest convenience. It is a step-up on acquiring knowledge.
Malepeli Malataliana is a Professional Quantity Surveyor (PrQS) currently working in Ireland she has experience in both Project Management and Quantity Surveying. Even though she has worked in both the private sector and public sector, she prefers working in the private sector because of its focus on efficiency. She also has a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) where she specialized in Management and Strategy her future goal is a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA)
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