In February 2007, upon passing the mandatory modules of the City & Guilds Level 5 IVQ Advanced Technician Diploma, I started my career as a Junior Façade Designer/Estimator with a small-scale specialist façade contractor based in Qatar, where I spent the first year of my career and was involved in Estimation and Design activities of small to medium scale façade projects.

I then moved to a medium scale specialist façade contractor based in Abu Dhabi – UAE, where I was employed for around 6 years in two tenures. I first joined them in March 2008 as a Façade Designer/Estimator and quickly progressed to senior level before becoming the company’s only Senior Designer/Estimator with responsibilities for liaising with clients (Main contractor), suppliers/manufacturers and managing a team of designers and estimators on the company’s day to day activities. During this period I managed to obtain the Full City & Guilds Level 5 IVQ Advanced Technician Diploma qualification after the successful completion of the optional modules. 

After my initial tenure of just below 3 years, I joined one of the leading large-scale specialist façade contractors in the Middle East region as a Façade Estimator. Although this move helped in improving my communication and social skills, I did not find my job to be challenging as expected. This is because my responsibilities and exposures were narrowed down, as I was involved in estimation related activities only due to the large size of the company and higher number of employees.

After a year of employment over there, I was approached by the ex-employer asking if I am interested in joining them back on a managerial role to lead both Design and Estimation departments. I immediately grabbed this opportunity and continued from where he left off a year ago, where my role encompassed the initial design concept stage, following the process through manufacturing, and on to site installation. This role heavily involved being site based for a number of months to provide technical support to the site installation team and problem solve installation issues. My responsibilities included the preparation of design programmes and budgets, estimation and tendering, contract negotiation, preparation of design risk assessments, review and approval of façade design, production and installation drawings and generally overseeing the design information flow between architect/main contractor, progress invoicing, subcontract designers and the installation team.

It was also my responsibility to generate solutions for design issues and site problems and general budget/programme coordination. As I identified that my own personal knowledge and skills will need to be improved in order to be a technically competent professional and to successfully overcome the challenges within the fast-growing façade engineering industry, I started the Master of Science in Architectural Engineering: Façade Engineering course in September 2014 on part time basis.