Surveying the scene

AGILE reader, beam up onto the roof of a major construction site. See the panoramic views spreading out beneath you. Become part of the clanging, clashing world that is a large building in progress. See the steel girders, the tall scaffolding, the swinging cranes and the men in hard hats.

Do you spot a quantity surveyor in there on site? Is that Paul Mitchell, of Patterson Kempster & Shortall?

It's very important, says Mitchell, that the design team, the quantity surveyor, the architect and the various engineers, work hand in hand and have a good working relationship. "You are a cost consultant and you perform cost control throughout the construction process," he says, explaining in general terms the work of a quantity surveyor with a consultancy company such as PKS, one of the longest-standing companies in the country which has been in existence for the past 135 years.

"We set up a cost control system, we produce a document called a bill of quantities. We'd use that as the basis of our cost control throughout the building process. And then you have the final account which is usually negotiated. You have to be fair but stern, and you have to be quite diplomatic. You're not there just to say no.

"Like any job you're meeting and negotiating with people," he says, making it sound so simple and straight-forward. "It comes down to personality. There's a certain skill to that, to negotiating. That comes into it a lot. It's not just your academic ability."

Mitchell's career is going according to plan. He completed his final exams last year and was awarded a diploma in construction economics by DIT and a bachelor of science (surveying) by Trinity College, Dublin. He began working with PKS last April and is currently gaining experience in a range of areas, working on projects such as the redevelopment of Connolly Station, office fit-outs in the Irish Financial Services Centre and development plans for Limerick Regional Hospital.

He faces an examination to become a member of the Society of Chartered Surveyors and must also produce an account of his two to three years' work which must be supervised. "Experience is really important in that regard," he says. He is keeping a diary which will be submitted for assessment as part of the examination.

ALTHOUGH he had no burning ambition to become a quantity surveyor while he was at school at Davitt College in Castlebar, Co Mayo, the description of the four-year construction economics course in the DIT Bolton Street prospectus appealed to him. "There was a great cross-section of subjects," he says, "from business to accounting right across to technical drawing. That drew me to it a bit."

Mitchell studied 10 subjects in first year - construction law, construction studies, economics and financial management, tender documentation and professional development and quantitative methods. There were 40 in his class, including a small number of girls - "it seems to be the proportion throughout, both in industry and in college".

In fourth year students sit part of their exams in January and then concentrate on their theses which are submitted for inclusion in the final examination results. Mitchell's dissertation was on listed buildings in Dublin. He was awarded first class honours in his final exam results.