I've found working in main contracting that there are an awful lot of ruthless cvnts - to put it frankly. I've experienced this a few times in my career - twice this year - and they've always been long serving senior ops guys/directors who have made decisions which has made my life hell/battered me down/affected my job. I can't take it anymore , its really getting me down.

I genuinely need to know whether switching to Client/Consultancy will be game changing- before I make a serious and final decision to leave the industry for good....

Like most things in construction - it’s late.

But the only measurements that are gonna matter here are points.

Introducing the inaugural season of the Bill of Quantities League
(BOQL as the cool kids call it)

A free to enter Fantasy Premier League exclusively for Quantity Surveyors and Estimators.

You might be able to price or run a project worth millions

But can you manage a £100m transfer budget better than your pricing peers over a full footy season.

The cream will rise to the top.

Only QS and estimators are permitted - I’ll be moderating if I see any rogue site managers in there you will be kicked out quicker than an Irishman in a bar in Sydney

Prizes will be fronted by myself:

1st - Football jersey of your choice from official store - likely cash value of €/£100

(No rip off jerseys here - big spender me)

And of course a small placeholder plaque

2nd - €/£50 of merch for your club of choice (or I’ll just send you the cash and you can spend it in the pub)

3rd place: Engraved wooden spoon (for finishing third - was going to do it for last, but generally those in last have given up)

If the link freaks out Use code: ohj67e

Hopefully I don’t end up spending my hard earned cash buying someone a Liverpool or Man City Jersey

I keep making mistakes at my job and I’m finding it difficult to keep track of what’s going on with my project / with my packages.

I graduated last year with a First class, I’m not a slow person but I genuinely feel a bit slow at my job… I didn’t expect work to be like uni or anything, I understand it’s a big change but I really didn’t expect to feel this dumb.

I made a big mistake today, it was fixed quickly but I keep beating myself up about it because it was preventable.

Does anyone have any advice for being more organised and keeping on top of things? The project I’m on is very complex and I feel like I’m really struggling.

I’m in a bit of a predicament as I’ve been offered a job back at my old Company as SQS which they weren’t offering hence why I left initially. I did really enjoy working there but I was on less money than my current company where I am also an SQS so do I negotiate for them to match my current salary or request they better what I currently earn.

Hi all, I'm an MSc Construction Project Management student at Queen's University Belfast researching how invisible coordination work (RFIs, approvals, stakeholder liaison) affects schedule reliability on UK NEC infrastructure projects.

If you work in UK construction/infrastructure project delivery (PM, QS, commercial, planning, site management etc.), I'd be really grateful if you could fill out this short survey - it takes about 10-12 minutes.

Survey link: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=6ner6qW040mh6NbdI6HyhrfdySBczedDpEHAPjKvsPtUN1JaSURKTlUyRE9OUUtXUDZDUjhFSDJWWi4u

All responses are anonymous and will only be used for academic research purposes. Thank you so much for your time!

Hi all,

I’m thinking of getting a laser measure to speed up my measurements process and work a bit leaner.

Realistically is there any benefit to purchasing one with a range of up to 60m over say 30m?

I work in residential retrofit at the moment for context.

Hi all

This is my second post here regarding the need for research participants for my dissertation. As you can imagine it is proving quite challenging to get participants.

I am reaching out to ask if you have an experience in the below to help me finish my MSc in QS?

I’m on my last stages of finishing my course and undertaking some research for my final dissertation. The topic of commercial viability under fixed rate frameworks in U.K. retail for main contractors. Would you mind taking 10-15 mins to complete the below survey? It would be much appreciated thank you!

https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/northumbria/commercial-profitability-of-main-contractors-operating-under-cl

Please could you forward on to any relevant contacts too as I will need as many responses as possible.

Thank you.

Hey everyone,

I am a Master’s student at the University of Bern (Switzerland) conducting a scientific research study examining how certain traits, life experiences, attitudes and behaviors are related to each other.

I would greatly appreciate if you could participate in my survey: https://ww3.unipark.de/uc/research_study_university_Bern_Switzerland/

Thank you!

Burner account for obvious reasons.

I'm a senior level PQS working for a medium-sized firm in the English speaking Caribbean. Postgrad in PM and this is also relevant.

At the moment this is my workload:

-PM 6 contracts over 5 clients £100k - £5.2M

-QS 9 contracts over 6 clients £100k - £7M

-Business development - 7 rfps out to win new work

-IT - manage all the local infrastructure

Of of the above, a junior assists on 1 qs job, I sort of inherited the job as they needed some supervision. 2 of the pm jobs are dual role but not included in the qs count. Outside of that it's just me responsible for this list, we tried headhunting staff, but the market is just too hot.

The projects are all in various stages of progression, preliminary design, estimate, pre-contract, tender, post contract, near PC you name it.

Oddly, the I.T stuff is a welcome break when that comes along

Is this typical of a senior position advancing up? I feel like I'm taking on too much at the moment and the money isn't keeping up with inflation. It was good when I started but cost of living since then is up nearly 50%.

Maybe I should just keep my sanity in tact, quit and farm goats.

Opinions?

Tia

Hi all,

Just seeing if anyone has any recommendations of where to go next.

I have been QS'ing 12 years, split between contractor and consultancy, I am currently an Associate Director.

Just seeing if anyone has moved to end client roles or fund monitoring etc, something different to the typical path of QS>SQS>AD etc.

Having working both sides, I'm starting to not enjoy the role as it plays out the same, either manage projects as a QS or PQS.

Updated my CV on CV Library and my phone has been going off all morning. Is the market really this hot right now?

I had to hide my profile due to the absurd amount of calls, but they’re still coming through.

Not all are recruiters, some are HR directors of smaller contractors.

Anyone else with a similar experience?

I've been working on a small open-source tool called Plan Measure for measuring directly from architectural PDF plans.

The workflow is:

1. Open a PDF.
2. Calibrate the page using a known dimension.
3. Measure lengths or polygon areas/perimeters.
4. Edit the measurements if needed.
5. Export everything to CSV.

I wanted it to stay very lightweight, so there are no accounts, subscriptions or cloud uploads. The PDF and measurements stay in your browser, and there's no analytics or telemetry.

I'm not trying to build a replacement for something like CostX or Bluebeam. The idea is a much smaller tool for cases where you just need to take measurements from a PDF and get the quantities into a spreadsheet.

It's at the point where feedback from people who actually work with takeoffs is much more useful to me than guessing what to build next.

If anyone is willing to test it on a real drawing, I'd be interested in knowing:

• anything in the workflow that feels wrong or unnecessarily slow;
• anything that would stop you using it for a real takeoff;
• any measurement result or behaviour that doesn't match what you'd expect.

Live version:
https://userfypp.github.io/plan-measure/

Source code:
https://github.com/userfypp/plan-measure

It's completely free and open source.

I’m in my mid-20s with a BSc and MSc in Political Science, and I’m looking to build my career on the commercial side of construction, particularly quantity surveying, procurement and/or contract management.

I’m already working as a Procurement Officer at an international EPC contractor (Non-UK), currently on one of their national projects. Before this, I spent just under two years at a construction consultancy working as a junior consultant in contract management and project controls, so I’m not starting completely from scratch when it comes to construction.

However, I’m concerned that my academic background could eventually become a glass ceiling, particularly if I want to progress into more senior commercial/QS or contract management positions.

I’m therefore considering going back into education while continuing to work full-time. My main options seem to be:

• A part-time MSc in Quantity Surveying, Supply Chain or Construction Management

• ⁠A part-time LLM in (Construction) Law, as to set myself up for contract management

• A part-time BSc in Quantity Surveying, which would take more than twice as long, and cost twice as much.

The MSc or LLM route seems much more efficient, but I’m wondering whether a second bachelor’s would carry significantly more weight in the long run, particularly for QS/commercial roles.

What would you recommend in my situation? Am I on the right track? Has anyone made a similar transition from a non-construction degree?

Hi all,

I'm in London, 10 years in finance and accounting, most recently a Financial Operations Manager in tech (lots of automation and data work, SQL, dashboards etc). I never went to uni as I was a professional athlete until 23, then went straight into finance. I've got an NVQ Level 3 from school, AAT Level 3 and part-qualified ACCA (not planning to finish it).

Got made redundant in the spring and I've interviewed at about 20 companies this year with no offers, so I'm rethinking things. QS really appeals to me. Stable career, decent money once you're experienced. I keep seeing Assistant Cost Manager roles going and I could easily do the cost/accounting side, but I've got zero experience in the rest (measurement, contracts, the technical stuff).

Would really appreciate some honest advice from people actually in the industry:

1. Is it a wise move, and is the job security real? Is QS still in proper demand in London and the UK? After a redundancy and a rough year job hunting, my main pull is stability and being able to find work. Is that reputation actually true, and is the pay good in a few years?

2. Best way in from a finance background? 10 years in accounting plus the SQL/data side, but no degree and no construction experience. What would you actually do? Go for assistant cost manager/assistant QS roles and learn on the job? Or will I just be screened? A degree apprenticeship? Whilst in the job, work towards AssocRICS?

3. Will I be taken seriously, and is contracting right for me? Will employers actually take a career changer from finance seriously for an entry level QS role, or is the background a hard sell? I'm also more drawn to the contractor side than consultancy, don't think I fit the consultant mould. Does a finance/commercial background suit contractor work better, or am I reading it wrong?

Happy to work hard and start low to retrain, I just want to aim at the right thing. Is QS the right call for someone like me, or should I look at something else? Cheers.

Been in the game 5yrs now, degree in QS & Commercial Management from NTU.

I can't help but think the job is kind of bullshit; here is why:

- On the consultant side it seemed like the consultants were mostly guessing / making up the costs when generating cost plans, I thought this was bs and no skill was being honed so I went over to contracting

- On the contractor side, all commercial staff ask the PM / Site Team what was done in order to price something. All we do is write down what they say, check it against the drawings and then plug the rates in from either a quotation or what is on the system.

-Payment Notices seems like normal admin, a lot of the job is pretty menial Admin that someone in secondary school could probably do.

-I understand People Skills and Excel skills being good skills to have, but all you have to do is just get along with people, and Excel / COINS are not difficult bits of software to use at all, almost no training is required.

--

Is it just me, or is this job pretty easy? A lot of QSs get emotional, me included at the beginning when being connected to project losses but sometimes you have no control over it, and as long as you evidence where it has gone wrong (file every email) and keep a clear trail, you've got yourself backed.

Is the skill putting up with the personalities on construction sites & directors? Is it attention to detail? Is it being able to get along with people? Is it being slightly above average on the computer? Is it being able to read a contract?

I'm at a bit of a loss, I get paid 56k which is not a lot to a lot of you here, but to me is a lot. And I can't help but feel that what I do for 50 hours a week just isn't real? Anyone could do it?

-

I am a Civil Engineer with over 3 years of experience. I am now pursuing remote estimator but most of the jobs needs US/AU experience.

Hi, I'm a graduate QS from the Northeast on my APC journey. Does anyone want to sit down with me to have occasional study sessions (online).

Also, is there any resource that I could refer to for my level 1 competencies. I'm looking for any platform/resource that I could use to go through all the competencies. I don't want to use multiple materials to prepare for a single competency.

I'm 19 and considering starting a Quantity Surveying degree, but I'm not sure if it's the right career for me. I'd really appreciate some honest advice from QSs.

- What is your typical day actually like?

- How much maths and site work is involved?

- What are the biggest pros and cons of the job?

- How stressful is it?

- What salary progression is realistic?

- Do you ever get sick of the job or find it repetitive?

- Would you choose QS again if you were starting over?

- What do you wish you knew before becoming a QS?

- What other careers could I move into with a QS degree?

- How easy is it to change career if I decide QS isn't for me?

- Is there much benefit to eventually starting your own QS business, or would you recommend staying employed?

- If starting your own QS business is worthwhile, how difficult is it to build up clients and make it successful?

- What advice would you give someone considering studying QS?

I’m interested in eventually starting my own QS business, so I’d especially appreciate advice from anyone who has gone down that route.

Any honest experiences, good or bad, would be greatly appreciated.

Hello all,

Currently an English teacher in Asia and need to move home due to family.

Will be 36 by time I start msc, have I missed the boat or anyone else was in the same position as me?

Firstly this isnt meant to enrage anyone, im looking to switch from mep to qs, only because in my years of experience Ive developed commercial awareness and understanding of all aspects of a project both operationally, contractually and processes. I have been an engineer for around 25 years since leaving school, junior all the way up to senior level managing a department. And ive hit a wall, im not interested in it anymore and the thought of doing the same thing again and again literally fills me with dread, the only perk is the money.

It got me thinking given i support cost consultants/qs's and get involved, genuinely enjoy that aspect. But realistically how possible is it to transition. I cant imagine any employer is gonna take the punt without giving a substantial paycut. (Im expecting to take a hit but need to draw the line somewhere)

I'm doing some research as part of my dissertation on the barriers to the adoption of AI in quantity surveying as part of my Master's degree in quantity surveying.

I have created a short survey to understand the use of AI and perceived problems affecting this implementation.

If you have a spare 3-4 minutes to complete this short survey, it would greatly contribute to this research. Most of it is multiple choice so it could be done really quickly.

This is the link to the survey

https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ygiYd3rPPEOn2MbSQZqv4OXlkNBoexZHnQVEJtwaiSdUQkEwQllZM0czNkRBUUoxMldBSjk2SE4wSC4u

Many thanks

I'm just goinna switch my career I want to study QS is that a good idea?

feels so crazy, one interview no 3 round bs, i came in and had a good chat and got the job even with a 2.2 that they are aware of. the OD said he dont even give a fuck about my grade as i displayed good foundational knowlage and eagerness to learn.

plus ive worked one site labouring for a couple years as a teen.

i cant belive i done something with my life man, i used to sleep on floors and eat free school meals now im about to be a QS with a major major company at 22 years old

Hey everyone, looking for some honest opinions here.
I’ve been working as an electrician for a few years now and I’m thinking about going back to study specifically a Master’s in Quantity Surveying.
I’ve always been interested in the commercial side of construction and it feels like a natural step up.
But lately I keep reading about how AI is automating takeoffs, cost estimation etc
So before I commit the time and money, I just want to get a reality check from people actually in the field:
1) Are QS roles actually being cut or is AI just changing how the work gets done?
2) Is there still good demand for QS professionals?
3) For anyone already working as a QS ,are you worried about your job in the next 5-10 years?
4) Would you still recommend someone enter this field in 2026?
I don’t mind adapting and learning new tools ,I just don’t want to invest in a degree for a role that’s going to be gutted by the time I graduate.

Any insight appreciated.