Which construction professional does not want to get the best construction job there is? The answer is simple – none.
But that is probably as far as the simplicity goes especially if you are grappling with the dilemma of choosing between more than one job offer.
The term ‘best’ is broad, subjective, relative and to a large extent, personal. It boils down to what you want in a construction career in the context of your overall life goals.
Factors that determine ‘best’ construction jobs
Some of the factors that are often used to define the ‘best job’ include remuneration, job title, medical insurance, pension plan, allowances, a high profile employer (e.g. multinational construction company), job location, flexibility of working hours, convenience of commute and employer-sponsored training. The best construction job is the one that scores well on more than one of these factors.
Much more than just the construction job salary
Therefore, when you weigh different construction job opportunities to see which one is best, it is important that you take a holistic view. It is true that remuneration is one of (if not the) most important factors. But many UK construction professionals have made the grave error of pegging their final decision (when presented with more than one job offer) on the take-home – sometimes with disastrous consequences.
A systematic approach to selecting a UK construction job
A practical approach in making your decision would be to first list down all the above factors and then assign a weighting to each depending on how important that factor is to you. For instance, you could give a weighting of 4 to the job that offers the best remuneration and a weighting of 1 to the one with the most flexible working hours. After you score each UK construction job you are considering, compute the totals and the job with the highest overall score is theoretically your ideal job.
The importance of each factor will vary from person to person. For example, fresh graduates would probably not mind a construction job that will involve frequent travel. On the other hand, married persons would prefer a job that will not require that they regularly spend the night away from home.
Or maybe you are in a highly technical UK construction profession like engineering, already have a Construction NVQ and CSCS Card but have found it difficult to enroll for an advanced degree because of the prohibitive cost.
In that case, an employer that commits to pay for or substantially subsidize your studies would deserve serious consideration even if they are not the ones offering the highest remuneration.