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The Memoirs of a Trainee Quantity Surveyor

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AsleepInYorkshire
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The Memoirs of a Trainee Quantity Surveyor

#407827

Postby AsleepInYorkshire » April 28th, 2021, 10:05 pm

Space Invaders, wine bars and the new Ford Escort MK III. The world was moving on at a pace. And I had a new job earning a salary of £2,000 per annum which I believe was about £140 month take home. Heady days.

I worked on a site with over 200 men. It was manic.

Yet in the midst of all this I soon realised I had to work smart if I was to obtain a company car, a Ford Escort MK III. I had no plan. Just a simple want. A company car. A Ford Escort MKIII.

I was at the bottom of a huge ladder of succession. The Senior QS pulled up every morning in his company vehicle. A Ford Cortina. It looked great. He drifted in late most mornings. And we all wanted his salary. Just a nudge over £10K per year. And a fully fuelled company car.

But I had my heart set on that MK III. It was a stunning looking car. Not only that it went like [expletive deleted] of a shovel.

I soon realised my place in this huge world. I was an ass licking tea boy who had to shine out. As the Senior QS pulled up each morning I made him a cup of tea. Not because I had to. I wanted to. He was a good boss. One of few I've had over 40 years (but that's off topic). He used to bring one of the assistant QS's in with him. So two cups of tea were always waiting. Then there was turning the paraffin heater on in his office so it was cosy when he arrived.

But I needed to work far smarter than that. He was fond of the odd bet on the ponies. He kept some betting slips in his top draw and would occasionally pop off to the bookies to put a bet on. When he used to bet £5 I was staggered.

One day I left him a cup of tea on his desk with a betting slip next to it and the paper open at the racing page. He put his head around the corner and looked at me and said thank you. At dinner time he took me to the bookies. The first time I'd ever been in one.

So I thought what the heck ... and this is the truth I used a small pencil as a pin and stuck it on the paper. Atlantic Traveller and (iirc) the odds were 17/2 (but don't quote me). And I went all out and put 50p each way on it. It won :shock:

They were golden days. Most of my life lay in front of me. I was only 18.

I did eventually get that MK III when I was 20. It wasn't new. I didn't care. It was a fully expensed company vehicle. I'd arrived. I was on my way. Look out success here I come.

AiY

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Re: The Memoirs of a Trainee Quantity Surveyor

#407850

Postby brightncheerful » April 28th, 2021, 11:25 pm

i was 17 when i left school and a week later started work as a junior in a firm of surveyors in central London. At the interview for the job, I sat down in front of a man who was seated at a desk. he told me his name, i told him mine, he said they had already selected a person for the job so i stood up and said I was wasting my time, he told me to sit down. The interview last a couple of hours and the end of it he offered me the job, saying that the person they'd selected wasn't ideal. Years later, my father told me he'd pulled a few strings to get me the interview; I never told him I wasn't pleased he had done, I thought I'd got in off my own bat.

I enjoyed my time there, just over 4 years. the firm was multi-disciplined, including an architect's department. I started in the town planning department which mostly acted for some well-known developers. i was involved in major developments including London's Brent Cross Shopping Centre, and Eldon Square, Newcastle upon-Tyne. My job was mainly colouring plans and I enjoyed sitting at an easel colourwashing (using a small paintbrush to guide watercolours down an area to be coloured: the colour must be consistent for the duration so as well as a steady hand also means ensuring the correct volume of water for the colour). i was disappointed not to be entrusted to colour the parchment plans for a private member's bill in Parliament which required legislation to build on a disused cemetery but I did accompanying my immediate boss and his colleagues on a land use survey in Cardiff where we had to visit every single property in the city centre to note what it was used for. i was considered too young to check out the night-time use in some areas, red light district apparently. I remember on one occasion we all went to a restaurant in Stockport and when it came to paying the sizeable bill we did so with luncheon vouchers, 2/6d each voucher. The only time I was allowed much free rein was when i accompanied a surveyor on a land use survey of Saffron Walden (Essex) town centre which if my memory serves me right has about over 140 listed buildings.

i started at £400 a year and reckoned that if i didn't spend any money for 2 years then i could afford to buy my dream car, an MGB for £800. I lacked the discipline which was as well because after 2 years the price had gone up so I took to dreaming about something else. Years later i remembers telling a friend I'd always wanted a Ferrari so she bought me a telephone in the shape of a Ferrari which i still have and which satisfied the desire.

I never wanted to be a chartered surveyor, my father was but he wanted me to have a qualification so he suggested the Chartered Auctioneers' institute which mostly comprised people who were not auctioneers. Subsequently the CAI merged with the RICS so had I got beyond the first stage and qualified then i would've become a chartered surveyor. Actually if my father hadn't been sniffy, I should have joined the Society of Valuers and Auctioneers which i could've done on the strength of my 5 o-levels and no other exams as the SVA was subsequently taken over by the RICS. Anyhow, i don't have any exam-based qualifications so am qualified by experience.

The firm's office hours were 9am to 5.30pm. I was never a fan of early mornings so gradually it was noted that my time-keeping was lax: noticed mainly by my frequently arriving at the same time as one of the senior partners of the firm and standing next to him in the lift. After a while, the office hours were changed to 9.30am to 5.30pm and when the firm gave me a contract of employment I was offered the choice of either 10am to 6pm or 10:30am to 6.30pm. i opted for 10am but invariably got it at 10.30am, having done some errands before arrival. Also I used to have my lunch hour starting at Noon rather than 1pm as did everyone else because by the time I returned from lunch i could have another hour before everyone else returned from their lunch.

It was claustrophobia on the London tube that in the end got so bad that i couldn't travel to work sensibly. I quit but not knowing what else to do my father offered me a job in his estate agency. He couldn't afford to pay me as much as i'd been earning before (about £1000 a year) but he could offer me a company car, a Fiat 124 I jumped at the opportunity to have car of my own. To cut another story, i took about 6 weeks of dealing with the general public every day to make me realise i wasn't cut out for residential estate agency in a NW London suburb, especially after the experience I'd had at my first job, so in 1975 I set up my own firm dealing with commercial property and couple of years later as a consequence of a conference i went to at which one of the speakers said something that inspired me to want to fill a gap in the market i decided to specialise in rent review and business tenancy advice which at the time was pioneering because the only competitors, chartered surveyors, were not allowed to call themselves 'specialists'.


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