About Sian
I’m in my second year of studying a Bachelor of Construction Management and Property at the University of New South Wales.
This cadetship is my first full-time job. Last year, I worked in retail.
I’ve pretty much grown up in the construction industry. Both my parents were engineers and then my dad moved into a project manager role. In Year 12, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. My parents said I’d shown interest in their work and recommended I try out a construction management degree. The rest is history!
"There are ways of looking at something on-site and seeing those opportunities that come with experience. I’m here to understand how a job goes from start to finish and then, I will be able to make better decisions and solve problems more." - Sian on the importance of gaining experience.
What is a cadetship?
A cadetship is like an internship over about two years. Though, it can be more fluid than that. If you find that you’re pretty interested in one aspect, you can talk with your manager and say, “Oh, can I spend a bit more time in this area?” or if you might say, “Oh, I’m not enjoying a lot of this, so can I move on to my next module?”
At Taylor’s, we rotate through different modules. Currently I’m going through a contract administrator role, with aspects of site engineering in there as well. You can go through work health and safety rotations, and estimating is another. It gives you the opportunity to shadow senior people, you learn what’s done in a typical day, and then they give you tasks that reflect what they usually do. There’s a lot to learn.
During the uni holidays, I work a five-day week and when uni is in session, I do one day at uni and work four days.
Each week is different as the site progresses because you focus on other things. I’m usually on-site at seven o’clock in the morning and I’ll leave for home at about five o’clock in the afternoon. On a Tuesday, I’ll typically do a task observation which involves going out on-site looking at a Stay Safe Work Method Statement of a sub-contractor and ensuring they’re doing the right thing.
It’s an essential part of the Work Health and Safety requirements. Every sub-contractor that comes on-site has a Stay Safe Work Method Statement to go through. It says what they will do on-site and how to do it safely. My role is to go out and ensure they are following that method statement and not doing anything could possibly put them in danger.
On a Friday, I send a report to the client telling them what we’ve done for the week and what’s coming up. I balance my week so I’m 50% in the office and 50% out on-site, shadowing people. I’m on the North Sydney Public School redevelopment full-time.
The best part of the cadetship is the practical aspects. There’s always something new happening on site. As soon as I got out of school, I knew I didn’t want to be sitting in an office all day. I wanted to be able to go out and meet new people. I get to talk to people constantly and everyone I meet on-site is friendly. They’re willing to help me learn what they’re doing and what their role is, which in turn helps me understand what’s going on with the project and the industry.
As a part of the cadetship, you visit other sites to see what is happening and learn what’s different about your site. I’ve been to a couple of jobs, which are at places you don’t always get to go to such as Sydney Olympic Aquatic Centre. There I got to go under the pool and into all the treatment tanks. It’s just a cool place where few people get to go.
One of the most important things is a willingness to learn. I’m constantly looking out on site and questioning, “Oh, what’s this? Like? Why? Why would you do it this way? Why wouldn’t you do it that way?” You need to embrace putting ideas out there and getting feedback as you learn from your mistakes. You’ve got to be resilient as well because in construction, things aren’t going to go your way all the time.
Problem-solving is a great attribute but it’s also something you can learn as you go. There are ways of looking at something on-site and seeing those opportunities that come with experience. I’m here to understand how a job goes from start to finish and then I will be able to make better decisions and refine my problem-solving skills.
Why is the construction industry (or your job) the one to be in?
New things are happening all the time. What I’m doing right now is commercial. You’ve got residential, don’t forget infrastructure. So there’s no getting bored.
- They’re always willing to get another perspective. They are eager to listen and understand what avenue you’re coming from and why you think the way you do. That way, they can have a comprehensive understanding of the problem.
- They have the plan to progress you and your career. It’s a good thing to ask at a job interview “I’ll be in this role now, but if I do well in this role, where do you see me progressing to after that?"
- They’ve got to be supportive because I’m on-site for up to 10 hours a day. The construction industry’s days can be long, but they’re interesting days. A good employer understands the importance of a good work-life balance.
There’s a push for women to get out onto site and move away from office-based roles. We’ve got a lot of female design managers taking that extra step, becoming a site engineer, and progressing into a project manager role.
My mum is my biggest supporter. If she thought I wasn’t going to be able to handle it or was picking the wrong avenue, she would have told me. When I first started working in this job the design manager helped me a lot. She is a big advocate for women in construction and told me that we could sort it out together if anybody gave me a hard time. But it’s not just the women on site who are here to help. I’m on a site full of men, and they don’t treat me differently. They’ve been supportive of what I say and answer any questions and always willing to help. It’s great to see my work support system grow since I entered the job.
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"When I left school, a lot of my friends and others were moving into office-based roles. They were going into law and business and stuff like that. And I was like, I don’t want to do that. I’m going to get into the construction industry. And I did get a bit of pushback, like, “Are you sure about that?” Like, “Have you really thought this through?”. And those are the voices you need to not listen to" - Sian on her advice when joining the construction industry.
What’s the next career-wise?
I finish my degree at the end of next year and following the end of my cadetship, I go into a graduate role at Taylor’s for two years. It’s a transition period where you’ve gone from learning everything to taking on a bit more responsibility in what you do, which I’m excited for.
When I first approached the subject of “Oh, maybe I want to start looking into the construction industry”, my mum sent me some websites about TAFE and VET courses. She said, “Do you want to do a trade? Do you want to learn to be a sparky or a plumber? What avenue do you want to go down?” and I went from there.
At school, I was lucky to have career advisers who had a specific way of looking at things and offered ideas. Reaching out to people can help as well. I’ve found in this industry a massive willingness to teach, to pass down your knowledge to somebody else. So reach out to someone, maybe an industry professional, and there are always talks available where people are willing to help you take that first step into the industry.