Safeguarding against next construction recession or downturn

CBear1993

I’m currently a mid 20s Quantity surveyor in Dublin. Pays well enough at €60K and I’ve just about 5 years experience.

I’m trying to future-proof myself against the next downturn that will inevitably come (and also have an escape plan to get out of construction or start my own thing)

Are there any construction professionals on here who done the same - masters or postgrads for 1 year (couldn’t see myself doing any more than that) part time to turn to after the last downturn in 2009 onwards?

Don’t like quantity surveying at all anyway to be honest. Would rather get out of it before I’m 30 which is optimistic. And it wouldn’t be a career in construction industry full stop.

I’d be interested to hear any recommendations on courses online or that through the universities here. I’ve looked most of them up.

CBear1993

If only I had have taken action on this then, the construction recession is HERE and I’m laughing away to myself that I didn’t do a thing...

A BIM masters me thinks.

Jimmy Bottlehead

There's a good lesson to be learned here though; don't wait on opportunity to find you. Go find it. And also, listen to your gut/heart.

CBear1993

You’re spot on. Even at the start of the year or March when this ****e came in I could be 3 months into an online course now.

Will have to put the head down and figure out what’s best- no universities in Ireland are guaranteed to even open in September - could all be online to Christmas 2020.

CBear1993

Is that Udemy worth a go? Or are the courses on it flaky - as in the credentials of the people posting them.

Make It Real

Great attitude - well done for feeling the itch, seeing the risk and doing something about it!

I think I'd suggest stepping back a bit from looking at actual university courses etc for now though.

Instead, go and explore what you'd really love to do as a job. Look wide, deep, at loads of options, no matter how crazy!
Then really know what you're good at, what transferable skills you have, the reality of re-training / career options etc.

It's a bit of work, but needn't be endless and it will account for the biggest part of your life for the decades until you retire.

BTW, I think there's great value in doing short, cheap "tasters" of different careers. Either courses, open days, day in a life videos, talking to people already having that role etc. It gives great insight, makes it real, with no major commitment.

Hope this helps and let me know if I can do anything for you!

CBear1993

Believe me. I spent the last 12-18 months trying the whole self exploring thing ha. And even saw a career coach in Dublin - what a waste of money that was!!

Nelbert

CBear1993 wrote: »

Believe me. I spent the last 12-18 months trying the whole self exploring thing ha. And even saw a career coach in Dublin - what a waste of money that was!!

Springboard courses due to be announced in the coming weeks. That could give you some low cost options for further education but if it's a full career change you need to be sure of direction to commit to a postgrad...

From experience went in to a PgDip in Data Analytics with Springboard, followed in to MSc and have just completed a PgCert in ops managment as the data and ops crossover is the goal. Applied after an Xmas and new year period of reflection and realised I needed a change. I'm not quite in the role I want career wise just yet but I'm a lot happier and have a much better sense of my strengths and where I want to go.

I started within a week of applying.... Was a bit of a whirlwind for the first week or two of lectures till I got back in the swing of college!

CBear1993

Yeah I dont know what to do as only way out of this industry I can see is a postgrad or online course! But then that means entering another industry and starting on ****e wages.. has to be done maybe. Im coming 27 soon and no kids so should maybe bite the bullet

CBear1993

Would anyone advise against software engineering / data analytics?

Cautious that it might just be the “in fashion” degree to do over the last few years, and will become obsolete as technology moves on in the present.

I’d imagine the competition for a masters would be high for one in September.

Also contemplating about whether to go for full time vs part time for chosen postgrad 2020/2021 academic year.

Full time - get it out of the way, depending on how many days of attendance could still get a job 2/3 days week in current industry.. part time is a slow slow burn and a hard slog. Did it in the past

Nelbert

CBear1993 wrote: »

Would anyone advise against software engineering / data analytics?

Cautious that it might just be the “in fashion” degree to do over the last few years, and will become obsolete as technology moves on in the present.

I’d imagine the competition for a masters would be high for one in September.

Also contemplating about whether to go for full time vs part time for chosen postgrad 2020/2021 academic year.

Full time - get it out of the way, depending on how many days of attendance could still get a job 2/3 days week in current industry.. part time is a slow slow burn and a hard slog. Did it in the past

I'd recommend either. Data Analytics is applicable to any business, yes you can get really tech heavy with predictive modelling etc but the analytics part of it has many applications in my opinion.

I completed my MSc last year in data analytics, have used it in work for forecasting time series, and some predictive and simulation exercises for other bits in work (a bit of a follow on from my research project).

But perhaps the most visual element is my departmental monthly report to senior management is run from 2 scripts that pull in activity data and summarise it in to a word doc. This takes 2 mins start to finish with a nice output of summary tables and trend graphs from previous 18 months.
Previously this took my boss a day or two per month, was prone to errors and wasn't as detailed and structured. One of the other departments quickly followed suit so now I generate one for each department.

CBear1993

Thanks for that! That actually sounds very interesting, I like having the ability to make systems and processes more efficient and faster for others and myself.

How would you describe the difference between DA and Softw Eng ?

Nelbert

CBear1993 wrote: »

Thanks for that! That actually sounds very interesting, I like having the ability to make systems and processes more efficient and faster for others and myself.

How would you describe the difference between DA and Softw Eng ?

Software engineering is typically more traditional coding / building an application.

Data Analytics can often be more investigative in nature, what is is related to what, what is our future service demand likely to be.

Of course putting predictive analytics in to production is where the lines cross and you'll often have the pair work side by side with analytics to develop the model and software engineering used to embed the predictive function in to an application or platform.

It's building / exploring for me, that is just one person's view though.... Different people like the different challenges associated with both.

CBear1993

Thanks for that. Will have to decide now whether to go at it full time or PT.

Is a PG Cert/PgDip as acceptable as a masters? I.e will it make any difference when applying to employers whether you stayed on the extra semester for the masters. Think just the 2 would do me

Nelbert

CBear1993 wrote: »

Thanks for that. Will have to decide now whether to go at it full time or PT.

Is a PG Cert/PgDip as acceptable as a masters? I.e will it make any difference when applying to employers whether you stayed on the extra semester for the masters. Think just the 2 would do me

The most enjoyable part of the MSc for me was taking what I'd learned and being supported to do independent research for the thesis. Different strokes for different folks.

From my personal experience masters carries a lot more weight than diploma, whether that's justified or not.

Springboard likely to have the PgDip up soon and it provided me a very low cost avenue to the MSc.

CBear1993

So effectively, you do your PgDip then come back the next year or at any stage and do another say; 3 months to finish the masters,

CBear1993

Nelbert wrote: »

The most enjoyable part of the MSc for me was taking what I'd learned and being supported to do independent research for the thesis. Different strokes for different folks.

From my personal experience masters carries a lot more weight than diploma, whether that's justified or not.

Springboard likely to have the PgDip up soon and it provided me a very low cost avenue to the MSc.

Thanks again for your info. So the Higher diploma in data analytics is level 8 and open to people from any background.

The postgrad diploma in data analytics is level 9. It requires a level 8 degree in a cognate discipline although they said they will consider RPEL (recognised prior learning or something)

I asked NCI this evening their admissions team if my QS degree at level 8 would get me in as our profession requires high level of numeracy and cost reporting, excel sheets etc

But I got this response that has made me think I’ll have to start with the level 8 Higher diploma?

Once you make your application and we receive your results we would be best able to advise you on if your entry requirements and what programme is best suited. The Postgraduate in Data Analytics is for those who already have substantial technical and mathematical skills. In terms of the mathematics, we would expect that applicants have completed Statistic modules from a previous academic programme. Also, for those coming from a non-computing background, we would also expect that they have actively processed large datasets / used databases at a technical level (e.g. programming / familiarity with database querying at a SQL level). Applicants are expected to have completed programming modules previously and are required to evidence prior programming experience as part of their application (e.g via academic transcripts or recognised certification).

CBear1993

Anyone viewed springboard website ? Courses for 2020 reopen for applications this Thurs 25th june. The courses are on a downloadable excel file at the moment which is quite annoying, very little info. Just wondering how soon they fill up as it would take a bit of the day thursday studying them, a brochure or more info on each course would be needed big time.

I logged into the online open evening and it was fairly terrible to be honest...