Gerald
Name: Gerald Chiduku
Role: Graduate Site Engineer
Business Unit: Construction
What does your day look like?
It’s Monday morning, you wake up and are about to start your day. What does your morning consist of before you arrive at work?
It is a non-RDO day so time to go to Geelong.
5:15am wake up and I am on the road by 6am. I have a coffee in hand to keep me awake for the 1hour drive to Geelong.
By the time I park the car, I check my emails on the 10min walk to the office.
I say my hello’s and good mornings, and catch up with everyone at the coffee machine.
I go through my to-do list and emails for an hour, before heading out to site for a progress walk and status the current works. After logging some Enablon observations, it is back to the desk to resolve outstanding steel design queries with the contractor and consultants.
I spend most of my time coordinating and resolving façade interfacing details – this is a special project with 3 different contractors each doing specialist trades. Glazing, façade cladding, and glass reinforced concrete.
Between meetings, replying to emails and reviewing details with shop drawings, it is the end of the day and back on the road (anywhere between 6-7pm).
You arrive on site/in the office, how do you begin your day? How do you prepare for the day ahead, what does this include?
I arrive at the office any time between 7-to-7:30am, catch up on emails for an hour followed by a site walk.
The rest of the day, on either side of lunch, I will be in meetings or taking phone calls from contractors asking questions, details, or a status of shop drawings for consultant review.
Project is coming along nicely.
Given the amount of detail and work in the façade design, coordination across the trades takes up most of my time to ensure the deliverable outcomes match the design intent.
Morning
I keep a detailed to do list, which I update almost every day, with short term and long-term tasks, this list usually dictates how my day and week will be spent.
I have on going meetings with the subcontractors I’m working with, where I track their progress as well as their adherence to Lendlease requirements and in these meetings, we brainstorm ideas around how to best approach challenges on site, confined space and work sequencing.
As a graduate, we have a lot of training modules to complete. I have goals set with my line manager, both on workday and when on site. I assist other package managers and on occasion, am set assignments within these packages which allows me to learn more and develop my skills and knowledge base on different subjects. I try to attend and request as much training and upskilling as possible – Lendlease does an incredible job of hosting and promoting training and development opportunities.
Lunch
Lunch is usually a team gathering event, where we all take a break together - it’s a fantastic way to boost team cohesion. At other times, we all enjoy participating in a quiz together.
Afternoon
I have regular interactions with clients and consultants for RFI’s and receive a lot of support from my team – it's all part of the learning experience and one that has proven to be worthwhile throughout my time in the Graduate Program. Lendlease has a high volume of processes and procedures; it helps that we have clear directives that we are required to tick off on things like subcontractor engagement, work activities and internal processes.
You have finished work for the day, what do you do in the evenings to relax and unwind? Does this include any post work activities?
Dinner with the family is my ongoing relax and unwinding method. Because I get home so late, I refuse to take my laptop home to do anymore.
Key Takeaways
From my time in the office and my time on site I have been in awe of the amount of team work that goes into the work we do, I have received and given support to the package managers, the commercial managers, the estimating teams, safety teams, and subcontractors just being surrounded by all these different disciplines has given me a deeper understanding and appreciation of how a project is planned and executed which goes to show how such a symbiotic relationship leads to successful project delivery. Workday and tele training are great tools to keep up to date and learning of the different disciplines and packages I have to deal with, LLC has provided a lot of access to continuous leaning, I’m currently looking forward to some upcoming training sessions. After work I relax by creating music, seeing my friends on my weekends I often visit my family.
- Client Focus: Building strong client relationships is key to long-term success agreed!