When I first set foot on a construction site, I had no idea just how much impact that experience would have. So much has happened in a relatively short space of time – including awards I never imagined I’d win and experiences that have shaped me.
This blog is a chance to share that journey; how it started, what I’ve learned as I work towards my RICS chartership and why I’m more excited than ever about the future – and I hope it will inspire others.
My career so far
2026 will mark my third year at Kier which is exciting. My journey at Kier actually started when I joined the Musgrove Park Hospital Surgical Centre team for my industrial placement, working on the project from the ground up. I absolutely loved seeing the work I did turn into reality onsite, and, when I returned to uni for my final year, I was really pleased to get the opportunity to stay at Kier part-time.
After I graduated I came back to a full-time role as a graduate quantity surveyor, and now they are supporting me in achieving my RICS chartership. This means that despite being done with uni I’m now able to learn and grow quicker in my career, picking up skills and advice to help me progress. I’ve done almost everything I need to in terms of competencies, getting them signed off by counsellors – many of whom have turned out to work at Kier too – and then all I need to do is my case study, final exam and interview.
I’m only three years in, but I’ve achieved some incredible things in my career so far. I’m really proud of these achievements and I know many of them I wouldn’t have been able to do without the support Kier has given me.
Last year was incredible: I won the CICES Robin Jones Award, the Constructing Excellence Bristol Club Prize and the Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence at my university too. Cherry on top – I also won the Emerging Talent Award at Kier!
This has opened up so many doors for me. I’ve been invited to be a committee member and junior board member for Constructing Excellence Bristol and the Tomorrow’s Leaders panel for the CICES. These are all fantastic opportunities which I feel so privileged to be a part of and help shape the future of the industry.
I wouldn’t have been able to achieve all this without Kier. I’m passionate about diversity and inclusion and it’s the work I’ve been doing in this space that supported my award submissions. Kier gave me the platform and the support to do more.
Why quantity surveying?
If I’m completely honest, what first attracted me was the money! But what’s kept me in quantity surveying, and at Kier, is the overwhelming sense of purpose building for your community gives you. I was actually an estate agent in a past life. I did that for about five years, but I wanted to be a building surveyor. I went to university, and it was in one of my first lectures that the programme leader was talking about all the different roles in construction, including quantity surveying.
That sparked my interest, I started looking into it and it sounded exactly like my sort of thing. I like being organised, I like negotiating, talking to people and building relationships. Which is all stuff you do as a quantity surveyor. One day you’re scheduling scaffolding, another day you’re procuring office space and the equipment to go with it. I love the variation.
I was also just fascinated by construction. I would always be peeking into construction sites, seeing what was going on, wondering what it was going to become and now I just get to see it every day, and it never gets old.
You know what you’re working towards, and every time a wall gets put up or a roof goes on, you can see how the work you’re doing is leading to something big. To everyone else it looks like this huge building popped out of nowhere but when you’re part of the team, you know the work that went into it. I’m always so proud to be part of it and I love spotting other Kier projects whilst I’m out.
Why chartership?
The question should be “why not” in my opinion. Honestly feels like a no-brainer.
It’s extremely important to me and my progression. You don’t have to get chartered, but it’s just a great way to show the rest of the world that you’re competent and an expert. Plus, Kier gives you £1,000 as a well done when you become a full chartered member and who doesn’t want that?!
A chartership is a professional qualification that stays with you for your whole career. It’s always going to benefit me, as well as Kier, so if Kier is offering to support me through it, paying for my membership, giving me the opportunities to try new things so I can sign it off as a competency, there’s literally no reason to not get chartered.
Balancing chartership and the day job
Because a chartership is basically just evidence of everything you would normally be doing day-to-day I haven’t found it difficult to balance.
One of the more difficult elements is finding a councellor to sign it off. Councellors are already chartered, and can sign off a competency to say, “yep I can verify Avais has done this”.
They can be hard to come by, but so often it’s turned out I’ll be sitting two desks away from one at Kier! I’ve got a counsellor on the project I’m currently on and she’s brilliant – always asking any questions I have and generally supporting me through my chartership journey. My current focus is now getting my written case study done. This is essentially an essay about one competency of your choosing. I’ve chosen a bit of a controversial one: the conflict between operational and commercial teams in the construction industry. But I think the panel is going to find it interesting – and more importantly it’s something I’m interested in too. I’m working hard towards chartership, but choosing an area that interests me has kept me on track and engaged.
This stage of my career feels like just the beginning. I’m more determined than ever to make a meaningful impact on the construction industry and the communities we serve. Kier has given me the platform, the confidence and the opportunities to grow and I’m so excited to continue pushing myself, learning and contributing to the industry I love. With chartership in sight, I’m ready for whatever comes next.
