For three years I worked as a site manager for Geelong Homes. After being given the opportunity to take the leap from the office to site I have taken it with both hands and now run a number of homes around the Geelong and Surfcoast area. I’m a very hands on person so the challenge of being a site manager has been an extremely rewarding and educational experience. Using clickhome as a construction tool I have been able to expand my technical skill set and advance my organisation skills which has proven to be integral in my growth.

For four years I worked as a sales/production estimator for Hamlan Homes. In this role I have had a number of new and challenging experiences including preparing contractual sales costings including the incorporation of set margin targets and supporting the implementation of new software and the internal rebuilding of our estimating database. In the sales environment I have been given the opportunity to correlate all building information including soil reports, wind ratings and engineering to cost accurate building contracts for our clients, in both standard and custom homes.My roll involves producing accurate take offs from architectural plans including both material quantities and margin based costings. This role has given me extensive experience in liaising with suppliers and subcontractors assuring all costings and material quantities are accurate and delivered on time. I have been given the opportunity to engage with construction supervisors, working closely on custom builds throughout the construction process. This has given me an extensive understanding of the construction process including trade forecasting and a greater understanding of how construction supervisors organise and coordinate the build from site inspection to handover.

Between January 2011 and January 2013 I worked as an estimator/supervisor for Bay Building Services, a company specializing in insurance related repair work. As an estimator/supervisor I was constantly on the road, attending people’s homes, assessing building claims and assisting distraught customers. As Bay Building Services is classified as a residential and commercial builder I was introduced to a number of different working environments which has allowed me to gain a greater understand across a number of different fields. My day to day duties included assessing building damage, quantifying materials, writing reports for insurance companies, preparing cost budgets for repairs and supervising trades whilst repairs are being carried out. As all jobs were provided directly to the insurance companies I was given the opportunity to arrange fixed price contracts with suppliers to allow better forecasting of quotes and more competitive margins.

Between February 2008 and December 2010 I worked as a production estimator for Dennis Family Homes. During this time I performed tasks including interpreting both engineering and building plans, raising purchase orders for onsite jobs, producing excel formula based take off sheets and interacting with both suppliers and subcontractors.In this role I was given the opportunity to engage in training once a month with a construction supervisor. During this training I gained practical knowledge of construction methods that allowed me to read building plans with more detail and better understanding of complex building techniques.

Starting in June 2006 and working through to January 2008 I started my estimating career as a Trainee Estimator for JG King Homes. Estimating duties included producing purchase orders for external suppliers, completion estimates and learning the Timberline and WMS estimating packages. I was introduced to producing margin reports and achieving end of month quotas including achieving set margin goals and efficiency time lines. This role gave me great exposure to conversing with external suppliers, building supervisors and subcontractors.