Finding your place - in a world of Quantity Surveying

"As most Australian QS’s would say, “I fell into quantity surveying” and I am no exception. In my first year of studying a Bachelor of Construction Project Management at UTS, I received an email from the Director of the Built Environment at UTS about an opportunity for first year students. It was an invitation to apply for a bursary with the RICS, and if successful, the candidate would be placed at a consultancy firm for 4 weeks. Not often were these opportunities directed at first year students, and not often were they paid placements. So, I looked into it, and the RICS, and decided to apply! To my surprise, I was selected and so began my QS journey.

"I joined my first consultancy in February 2011, eager to get some hands-on experience. Since leaving school and studying Construction Project Management, I was convinced that I would be a Project Manager. That first four weeks I learnt the basics of what a Quantity Surveyor does and supported on some live projects including performing measurement take-off on Cost X, which at the time was a brand-new digital take-off software. Afterwards, I was offered a Cadetship to work part time while I finished off my degree. This is when I realised (with some encouragement from my colleagues and mentors at the time) that I would MUCH prefer to work as a QS, then as a PM. In fact, I like numbers, I like structure, and I thoroughly enjoy completing tasks, all of which a QS is in control of. I also appreciated that it was a specialist role and that when you look after your clients' financials, you would always be needed. An associate at an RICS conference I went to recently, put it best - As a QS “we protect a client's money, whilst making sure everyone gets paid fairly”, and this sat well with me.

"When I graduated from University, I moved from a Cadet to a permanent full time Quantity Surveyor working on various projects from Defence to Hospitals and Universities. It was in 2018, I decided to make the move to the United States, San Francsico specifically, to join my girlfriend (now wife) who had moved to pursue her own career. During this time, I was fortunate to work with the largest technology companies in the world, that call the Bay Area home, including Apple, Google and Meta.

"My first assignment was with Apple in their pre-construction estimating team for their retail flagship stores (think George St in Sydney, that is Australia's equivalent). It was an incredible experience to work with some of the brightest architectural minds and to have the task of "estimating" some of these cutting-edge designs. I then worked for Google as the LEAD QS on a couple of large commercial real estate projects (think mixed-use campuses seen in the movie "The Intern"). My final placement, and the one I grew the most professionally from, was when I consulted full time to Meta. I was responsible for cost management on their North American portfolio. This exposed me to managing a portfolio of projects and implementing cost management best practices at a larger scale, proving instrumental in my growth. Throughout this period of working overseas, the RICS was a trusted and familiar support - I obtained my MRICS and joined the NorCal RICS committee.

"That’s the thing with Quantity Surveying and Cost Management, your foundational skills can allow you to grow in different streams and move around the world and you can count on the RICS being there. It is typically considered a specialist occupation, so working visas are easier to acquire. The QS passport is real.

"After 6 years in San Francisco, we then made the decision to move back to our home city, Sydney. With my experience in the US, an opportunity came up for me to join Linesight, and I jumped on it. Linesight is the go-to consultancy firm in highly technical spaces, most notably for Data Centres (DCs) and Life Sciences. Even at this stage of my career I am still learning so much. Most recently about the technical elements of DCs from in-house experts at the company, something I am truly grateful for. As many QSs would have experienced, my career has ebbed and flowed as opportunities have arisen, and I have tried to give everything my best shot. I have always questioned “could this be done better or more efficiently”? And I encourage my team and prospecting colleagues to do the same. Linesight is once again supporting the RICS bursary / scholarship and we are looking forward to kick starting someone's QS journey in Feb 2026.

"Thank you to the RICS for the bursary that started my professional journey, and to my mentors over the years who have given me the time and guidance to develop. Thank you for encouraging me to stick to Quantity Surveying, I would have been a terrible PM."