my favorite subject is physics because it allows me to understand the fundamentals of nature by gathering all the concepts that have learned I'll be able to further understand how things work in our daily life I like to take up Engineering in future and Engineers play a key role in the construction industry which is one of the aspects that I would like to explore I like photography cu I see colors and then like uh they just interest me and also because of photography um that I start to take photos of buildings normally in Construction Industries you would think of oh the building is designed by an architect and like built by civil engineers but I didn't really know what a project manager does hi I'm Ser hello I'm e welcome to Sher sweets so what does a project manager do I would say that the project manager is a key link between the client which is the developer and the rest of the value chain basically the four key aspect that we take care of is the progress the equality the safety and the budget we do take care of the design stage as well as the construction stage during construction time the project manager will have to chair many meetings some of the meetings which he'll be involved with will be the site coordination meeting with clients and Consultants he will also have the chair meeting with subcontractors and the building material suppliers uh that's when the project manager will have to lead the entire value chain in completing a proper job actually being a project manager you will have to understand the different aspects of professions uh working together with you such as the Architects as well as engineers and besides that uh you have to be able to coordinate your people well because you have to handle the process of building the building from the design to the final product is this a m dominated industry like will females be at a disadvantage I wouldn't say that construction industry to be a project manager it's a male do dominated or female dominated I would say that a lot depends on the passion that you have for the construction so if you have this passion to push to drive to lead I think you can actually do a very good job yeah so what is your impression of the construction industry it's like tedious and very dangerous oh is that so it's like four part work and Construction Industries I would say over the years has matured quite a lot but in recent years like in 5 6 years ago we started a lot of this design and build projects this kind of projects whereby the project managers take the Le in the design so um our role actually has improved over the years we come in at the start we look into how we can uh better value add to the construction we are able to improve industry as a whole maybe I can show you some of the nice features that we have in this poal sites this is actually the design of the preat toilet the entire preat toilet um was designed U by our engineers and designers then we actually prefabricated an entire toilet in a factory environment um and we had all the architectural finishes like the shower screens the ceiling um the marble works all done on the factory the whole competed unit was then brought into sight and we just installed it and this is what you get I never knew that toilets can be built outside of the whole building it's quite interesting it involves a lot of technology that we wouldn't know of last time I realized that the improvements in technology have actually helped the construction industry quite a bit this preap toilets actually helped to speed up the construction process of this uh apartments and these toilets actually are better and nicer looking than those built-in ones yeah so I would say the construction industry in Singapore is still very vibrant there's a lot of jobs right now that poses a lot of challenges to project managers um there's still a large scale of Mega projects ongoing right now what kind of character would uh a person need to become a project manager and how long would it normally take you have to be outspoken for sure because I think uh you'll be dealing with people so there'll be a lot of um people management um because I think sometimes when they're going get staff when the project get too technical uh if it's too challenging uh that's when the morale may not be as high so that's when the true leader a project manager comes in um he have to motivate these people in our industry it usually takes a time of like 5 to 8 years U before you can actually be a full full pledge project manager is project management actually a very sight based job the time span will probably be like a a 50% on site and 50% back in the office uh doing our work yeah maybe I can show you a little bit more of what we do in the office a typal work day could start off with a meeting and after that we car on with a side inspection or it could be a side meeting so it's a very flexible kind of a schedule and there is no fixed time to do something things yeah is it very stressful to be a project manager well yes indeed it is a very stressful job my stress will come from tight schedules um deadlines that we have to meet one way to manage this stress is to work together as a team because being a project manager is essentially about bringing a team together and how to work under a very stressful environment to produce the results so as a team leader how do you help to motivate the rest of your team members uh one of the ways is to provide them a platform for them to perform and I would think that uh by giving them a platform you give them the opportunity for them to want to do better than what they're doing actually we also have quite a lot of ad hoc sessions uh like uh we have barbecue sessions in my place for the team uh we do team Bing sessions together in this hour bound it's important to have this Bond because uh when we actually handling a tough job uh with this Ty of unity in a team um a lot of things can done faster um things can be done easier as well I realized that being a project manager actually U requires a lot of people skills being a leader in your team you actually have to be very decisive and able to handle situations very well you'll be a role model for the rest of your team member I would think a good project manager is somebody who knows his work very well in the course of our work there's a lot of these uh detailings that we have to look into okay it could be a structureal detailing Ary detailing I detailing so when I say it must of detail is that just by looking at the drawings and onset you must able to decide for yourself if this is going to work out or not so that at the end of the day um you're able to pre and problems what motivates you to like continue in this like profession I have done many projects so and I think what really motivates me is seeing the project evolve from design to the final product and every final product to me is a satisfaction so I get very inspired by what I'm building and how I'm contributing industry so uh that is also one of the reason why I'm still in this line after 10 years there's one project that I've done um and I'm particularly part of this project and maybe I can show you around the project so this is pily condominium um it's actually one of my maiden project as a project manager actually we were doing quite a lot of these uh eco-friendly construction methodologies um we were thinking of many ways on how to actually do construction using uh lesser water um using lesser electricity so I think um we introduced quite a lot of technology for this job oh it's also one job that actually won about 22 Awards both International and local at P Emily I saw that a lot of green features are actually incorporated into the building itself which actually inspire me to learn more about Green Building so yeah it's like very interesting to me p is like my baby it was a great sense of satisfaction for me because uh it's the first job that I handed as a project manager and I was actually dealing with Millions worth in a project so um that actually gave me a lot of opportunity for me to build up my confidence in the way I actually uh manage projects so uh moving on from Park Emily I I feel that actually is made me grow up quite a lot and it's given me quite a lot more confidence now to actually manage more projects I would think that the Singapore branding and construction is not going overseas I mean there's a lot of uh Singapore firms in in design in engineering architectural firms who are going overseas like in Dubai Middle Eastern countries in China in India for example for myself I'm also involved in projects in China um changing EOS City when I'm actually doing a project management for um condominium projects I think there's many opportunities both internationally as well as locally so I mean if your interest is in construction or in uh seeing something evolve from design to a building I think this will be the industry to join after the trip with Collins actually I find that his job is pretty interesting like while you're constructing a building you can actually see it from scretch until like it grows up to a really beautiful building you'll feel very accomplished I think my personality kind of fit this job because I am very determined to finish my work and I actually like to see my hard work pay off the job of being a project manager is actually very challenging as you have to multitask and be multi-talented the construction industry provides a very Dynamic work life as well as many opportunity such as overseas projects which is why I'll consider construction industry as an option when I I choose my career in future construction is a very Dynamic industry challenge is something that really motivates me the greatest satisfaction I get from being a project manager is leaving a footprint in our industry