Senior Planning Manager – Adio Amuza
Large scale projects need careful planning and if you are good at strategy you might want to progress into this field of construction.
Senior Planning Manager – Adio Amuza works for a large contractor and has always opted to be site based.
Site based planning has its great bonuses, one it’s dynamic, you see the building getting built, you see the challenges everyday, you see the problems you get. It’s also very social and it is a lot more fun from that point of view as well.
I did most of my training in Glasgow, the course I attended was the BSc in Construction Management and was a four year sandwich course which meant you spent 2 and half years in the College/university and you had 15 months out which was invaluable experience, and a year back in. I was fortunate in my year to be sponsored by the company I worked with.
One of the projects that I worked on early on in my career was Ibrox Stadium and we had to demolish part of the building. I am a Celtic supporter so it was actually quite a lot of fun to knock down part of the rival football stadium and most of the contractors I worked with or I employed on the job were actually Celtic supporters as well, which made it even more fun.
The most challenging project I ever worked on has got to be Westminster Station.
It was 45 metres into the ground, you had to organise, plan, deliveries of materials and men - 45 metres in and at the same time, the fun thing about doing Westminster Station was the fact that we had to keep the district and circle line above us, 40 metres up, keep it going as you were tunnelling and building below them.
Recently I have been given the opportunity to mentor and train a young planner.
The beauty of that is that you learn more skills more things about yourself. Things that you used to take for granted. The experiences that you have had you can now pass on.
Yemi Fowora Planning Manager – Bovis Lease
“I have been working with Adio for about seven months altogether. We have split our roles in quite an efficient way so I am allowed a certain about of leeway to make decisions, planning decisions but I tend to consult Adio for his depth of experience amongst other things. It is quite nice to have a little bit of a shelter at the moment and I can bounce things off him on a day to day basis and when I do think the job is at risk I tend to discuss thing with him before I go and advise my team.”
Adio
It is tough, I’ve probably given a very ideal picture of construction but it is very tough but it is very rewarding.