‘The industry is far more inclusive and welcoming than when I started’

Having gone to an all-girls school and with an interest in engineering at the time, I found a construction engineering management degree through luck. I had never heard of site management and – as I like to be different – I thought it would be a more unique type of career to choose working in a male-dominated industry with a view to bringing more female presence to it.

I wanted an active job with varying responsibilities, which my construction career has not failed to provide.

The importance of having drawings and checking works and progress on site against those drawings. I also learned the significance of building up rapport with the workforce, who were not only teaching me while I was working but also allowing me develop management and conversational skills. You are only as strong as your workforce, so it has always been important to treat them with respect.

Be patient and things will happen. I never wanted to be one to chase after the next rung on the career ladder and, from seeing how former colleagues had worked while I was on placements, I mapped out my career against a realistic timeframe that allowed me to develop the knowledge, experience and skill set I felt I needed to be able to work towards a promotion.

It gave me a new challenge to work towards, and it has helped to build up my self-confidence and keep me actively working through items on my continual professional development plan. The industry is always changing and I enjoy continuing to learn.

I have built two shopping centres and I admit I still get excited about visiting them. Part of my role included overseeing facade works and I still like to take a giggle over marking circa 60 nice and colourful drawings to append to documents I had prepared for the scaffolding tender pack. They were both delivered against tight programmes but to a high standard.

Reach out to a mentor or someone I felt could be a mentor. It is so important to have some to speak to impartially (separate to a line manager). While I do not regret some decisions I made with my career in the past, things may have been different had I consulted someone for their opinion.

There is a former contracts manager that I worked for just over 10 years ago who is now an MD at that company. I enjoyed working with him and have taken away people management skills that I continue to initiate. He seemed to have an art of working through the stresses of a project with us and, no matter how busy he was, he always made time to speak to his team as well as making us all feel valued within his team.

You will never get judged by what you do not know. Everyone has to start somewhere and develop their technical knowledge and skills. I found it extremely useful even going out on site with a senior site manager who taught me how to read bar bending schedules and rebar details. I am still friends with him now, all these years on. Even now, I still ask questions if I am ever unsure of something.

When I mentor, I like to be honest about the good and bad side of construction. Nothing is perfect – but to help make mentees resilient they need to understand challenges and know that there will always be a way for them to conquer those.

The attitude of the workforce, and the industry in general, is far more diverse and welcoming than it was when I chose my career and it is still continuing to change in a positive manner.

Possibly my Powerproject training. I was never a fan of Gantt charts at university, but now it is so useful being able to produce programmes. Whether it is for a bid document, at preconstruction stage or short-term programme, it has been so useful and versatile.

Never compare yourself to others. Everyone is unique and on their own journey. You will have your own measure of success and that should be appreciated, albeit celebrating small wins, daily gratitude or undertaking periodic self-reflection.