PROFILE: My unconventional career - Neo Matheba

Certified Facilities Professional Neo Matheba tells us about his journey towards his unconventional career

My initial career ambition was to become a Professional Quantity Surveyor because I witnessed that most families in townships constructed their homes out of pocket with little financial assistance from banks, my parents were no different. This approach meant houses were built gradually over time ranging from months to years to complete. I spent the majority of my adolescent and young adult years seeing my parents struggle to complete the family house with many contractors producing poor workmanship, abandoning the project halfway and running with the little money my parents had. My interest in Quantity Surveying grew from this struggle.

My career journey has been unconventional because I enrolled in university to study Quantity Surveying and ultimately become a PrQS, but I changed my mind halfway through my studies to Construction Management intending to be a PrCM. Today, I am tasked with conceptualizing and implementing corporate real estate and facilities management strategies; quite different from what I initially intended to become.

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The journey of my unconventional career started when I couldn’t find any work after graduating with my CM degree. The stress and pressure of being a university graduate without a job cannot be explained. Fortunately for me, a good friend of mine helped me and a few other friends find work as facilities condition assessors; a far cry from what I intended to become.

Little did I know that this will be the start of a new career path that has been nothing but beautiful. I have been fortunate in my career thus far and have had the opportunity to work on projects ranging from security management, business continuity and disaster management, property developments, property management, refurbishment to maintenance in South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, Tunisia, India and the UAE.

In my current role, I am a Senior Manager responsible for a portfolio of corporate buildings for the City of Joburg Property Company SOC Limited, an entity of the City of Joburg. I am learning that the public sector is quite different in terms of how they view and manage their real estate and execute maintenance of assets. Most striking, is the vastly different organizational culture and red tape that appears to stifle progress.

I can summarize the key features for success towards an unconventional career as follows

• Always be willing and ready to learn new things.
• Adaptability, especially in the current business climate, is key.
• Remain humble and work your socks off.
• Do the things that make you happy, life is not always about work.

Neo Matheba is a Certified Facilities Professional with the South African Facilities Management Association (SAFMA) and has over 14 years of experience in corporate real estate and facilities management (CREFM). He is currently a Senior Manager at the Joburg Property Company responsible for leasing and building management of a property portfolio. Neo has experience working in both the private and public sectors, as well as exposure to different CREFM projects outside South Africa.

He is also a Green Star Accredited Professional with the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA), and is currently working towards becoming a Chartered Facilities Management Surveyor (MRICS) with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). Neo has a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) as well as a Master of Science in the Built Environment specialising in Facilities Management.

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