Brooke James

I am a Construction Advisor in Civil Construction.

When I left school, I was like many others in my year and didn’t quite know what I wanted to do next. After many conversations with my parents, we thought I’d enjoy being a beauty therapist, so I went and completed a Diploma in Beauty Therapy. I worked in the industry for 2 years and did enjoy it, but it wasn’t a passion.

From there I travelled overseas twice and moved through a job in a Physiotherapy Clinic as a Practice Manager and then at the Commonwealth Games in Queensland as Fleet Coordinator.

All the roles I worked in I always gave 110% and was rewarded or progressed but I found myself still searching. Once I moved back from Queensland to Melbourne, I landed a job in Construction, working in an Administration role. I worked in Construction in mainly Administration roles such as Office Management and Executive Assistant, before moving into my current role as Construction Advisor alongside other engineers and have now completed a Diploma of Project Management.

Never in my dreams, did I think I would be working as an Engineer without studying at university, especially since I didn’t even know what engineering was in high school or that I would one day absolutely love it!

A Construction Advisor is a site-based role. The day starts with a pre-start meeting with around 40-100 people to hear the supervisors discuss the works that are happening on site that day.

During a day a Construction Advisor is responsible for:

• Cost tracking daily works completed
• Carrying our quality checks and preparing inspections for earthwork testings
• Assisting in look ahead programming for the upcoming works to be completed
• Managing and building relationships with Subcontractors on site
• Quantity take offs and forecasting of upcoming cost of works
• Assisting the foreman on site
• Ordering materials like concrete and steel