Building or Quantity Surveying?

Hi Q_M,

Thanks for the post. Are you some type of surveyor yourself?

My main priority is to secure work abroad as I would love to work on project in Southeast Asia/Middle East.

I don't want to let the Maths put me off studying a QS course though because I know with hard work I could definitely pull it off. Coming from a non-cognate background makes the technical side a lot more scary but I'm willing to put in the effort to reap good results.

In the long term I want to develop properties with my father (who is a builder) so need a good wage coming in.

I am so confused and need to choose a course so I can complete some applications. My likely choice is London South Bank uni as it would mean I would not need to move away from home.

Great stuff!

Thanks so much for your help. Having read some more about the Building Surveying masters course I'll be doing (potentially) it would appear that there is a lot more variety in the job than I first thought.

To be honest I don't want to be earning bucket loads of money - I just want a decent wage and to be happy in what I'm doing. I've not really looked into becoming an Technical Architect but will definitely do so now.

Thanks for your honest advice Q_M!

Elo

I'm currently working as an Assistant Architect/Architectural Technologist with a conservation company. We have Building surveyors in the office and we sometimes deal with QS guys on our larger projects (such as major railway stations). I am also going to do Architectural Technology at uni in september and will probably swap accross to Architecture in my first year as I've realised I'd probably do better at that.

Maths will be important but to be honest...alot of it is done with computers these days.

Developing properties with your father sounds interesting but the problem I see there is, he will have no need for a QS unless he really is a large scale builder. A building surveyor on the other hand (or Architect/Architectural Technolist) would be extremly useful, as they have a real knowledge of how buildings are put together. When you say "develop buidlings" I assume this means existing buildings? If so again BS/AT would be useful as they have the knowledge of HOW to design, HOW to get around problems and HOW to do the build and to work out whats wrong with an existing building. A QS won't be able to do this.

Wage...a good QS will get more.

I've written a bit of an essay here but if you looking at long term working with your father, or indeed design and development of any sort, do a technical course such as AT or BS. A QS just counts bricks to be hoenst - and on a smaller scale (I'd say under 250, 000 to be safe) a BS or AT can do that anyway.

Hope this helps, Q_M.

Jeez QS' always seem to get bullied by everyone else in the industry lol.

I thought long and hard about whether to do QS or BS, and chose to do BS as the job just seems so much more interesting. QS may find it easier to get work abroad, but depending on who you work for in BS then it's just as easy. I believe there are building surveyors in UAE with EC Harris?

I remember emailing the QS department at Loughborough and they just said it's basic trigonometry and algebra at the most, and all you need is a C at GCSE in Maths. I did a couple of modules on quantity surveying and it was extremely dull, but a piece of piss.

Search for case studies in the RICS site, I remember reading a building surveyor who worked all over Asia and New Zealand.

The case studies sound like a good idea fret so I'll check those out asap.

The decision has been made. Sent off my applications today - I chose BS (LSBU, Nottingham Trent, and LJMU) in the end so fingers cross I've made the right choice

Hi oh-my-diddy

Could you offer any advice for someone going on a RICS accredited Quantity Surveying course next september?

Out of curiosity what uni are you at?

Hi, just remeber to quiote me so i know somone's replied to my post, otherwise i might not see your post.

Anyway, I don't know what kind of specific advice you would want but where i am is Kingston University. The QS course here is RICS and CIOB accredited which not many uni's have. The course isn't outrageously hard, specially in the first year. If you have done A levels you'll sail through first year. Then theres a big jump to second year where it gets harder and then in the third year is about the same but you also have a dissertation to do lol.

However, just to add, the faculty is currently in the process of restructuring the entire course in order to make it more manageable. The changes will come into effect this september so obviously i can't comment on what kind of stuff they'll be doing in the future.

I have offers for year 2 entry at Salford and Liverpool John Moore universities, have you had any luck finding work for when you graduate.