Project management

The aim of project management in the civil and structural engineering industry is to ensure that a project achieves its objectives to deadline and within budget.

Contractors and consultants: the different graduate jobs

A project manager (PM) can get involved at any stage of a project’s lifecycle depending on the point at which their organisation joins the proceedings.If a project is commissioned in the traditional way, a consultant’s PM will get involved at the earliest stages, once a client has identified the need for a project. They will then liaise with and report to the client directly. A contractor’s PM will oversee the construction work carried out.

Starting out in a graduate project manager career

Some employers will have a PM division or run a PM-specific graduate scheme. Graduates who join these will first be assigned to a project along with an experienced project manager. While learning the ropes of project management, you may do some hands-on work to inform your understanding of the nature of the project and to enable you to manage others more effectively.

A more common route, however, is to start out in a particular division or service area, such as highways, and work your way up to a PM role after a few years. This way is advantageous in that you will have a good technical grounding in the type of project you’ll be managing. However, people skills remain more important than technical knowledge.

Skills and qualifications

It is possible to become a project manager with any degree background but some companies may ask for a specific degree or area of expertise. All PMs need excellent communication, negotiation and organisational skills.

Professional qualification for graduate PMs

On a professional development level, it’s likely that, in future, more PMs will take appropriate professional courses and qualifications with institutions such as the Association of Project Management (APM).

Working life as a civil or structural engineering project manager

The job can be high pressured as project managers have the final say on much of the decision making – but being in such an instrumental position can be rewarding. As civil and structural engineering project managers take an overview of a project and often have budgetary control, they can take an active part in making sustainable decisions.

Louis Chau, MICE, is a project manager at Mott MacDonald. He has an MEng in structural engineering from the University of Hong Kong and has been working in project management for four years.