I enjoy the commercial aspect of my job, it’s important to me that projects achieve our targets which I find satisfying when things come in on budget and have been successfully managed.
Department:
Operations
Job title:
Senior M&E Project Manager
What does your job involve?
I oversee large scale projects for Watkins, for example the high rise residential projects.
How long have you been working for Watkins?
12 years!
Have you risen through the ranks?
I’ve been here since I was 19, I’ve been focussed and driven to achieve more and progressed to where I am now. I believe if you work hard and put your mind to it, you can get to where you want to be in your career.
Do you do a lot of training?
I’ve been working for Watkins for 12 years, I was originally an apprentice and then came into the office as a junior / trainee engineer and completed a HND in Building Services for four years and after that began working as a project engineer, progressing to Senior M&E Project Manager.
What’s next?
There’s only one more position to go to above where I am and I’d love to work towards this eventually.
Do you go out on site a lot?
I do, I go once or twice a month but our team of engineers go twice a week. We work on multiple projects – there are currently 9 or 10 live projects and I support the 8 engineers who go to site and will review the installation, understand where we are with the project, liaise with clients on the construction team through to quantity surveying teams. I deal with client QS’s quite a lot but also am getting involved more with the commercial side of the business, in particular post-tender or pre-contract to negotiate and win the contracts
What’s the favourite part about what you do?
I enjoy the commercial aspect of my job, it’s important to me that projects achieve our targets which I find satisfying when things come in on budget and have been successfully managed. I really enjoy the management side – so I’m not just managing projects but managing a team of people and sections of the business. I enjoy liaising with clients and building relationships with them.
What’s the best thing about working for Watkins?
This could be a long answer! Probably the freedom I’ve been given over the last few years to expand my department and the operations side of things but also to be able to grow into my role and undertake the training to get there.
There’s a huge value placed on training here, four of the engineers in my team are completing their HNDs and one has just started university. It always feels like there’s room to grow and develop. Watkins has a real family feel to it, there’s different generations of family here, we’re not a massive corporate business and people stay, we have lots of employees who have been here the same length of time as me or longer. Everyone is also really approachable and open minded.
