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As part of the #BuildingEquality Campaign, Patricia Power, of Patricia Power Quantity Surveying and Project Management, shares her story as a woman in construction.
I always had a love for building and construction form an early age. I lived in the country side and I remember from a young age there seemed to be a lot of single dwellings being built within the area, and myself and my sister would love watching them advance, and even visit these sites in the evenings when the workers went home to check progress.
I ended up in an all-girls secondary school which didn’t lend itself to initiating any real construction related/ technical subjects. So, when completing the CAO form, I found I gravitated towards the technical /construction related courses.
I studied Geo – Surveying in DIT Bolton Street for 2 years and at the start of year 3 diverted over to the Construction Economics Degree course, which immediately I loved and knew it was an area that I was comfortable in and it gave me a great grounding for the overall construction and business side of the industry. So having spent 6 years in Bolton Street and graduating with an honours degree, I was ready for the working world, and joined professional quantity surveying practices and specialised in large mixed use projects, becoming a partner and growing one of the smaller QS practices and growing this to the larger scale.
Then in late 2010 an opportunity to become involved as the co-presenter and QS to Architect Dermot Bannon on the RTE TV Show Room To Improve came along. I worked on this TV show for 5 series, and this gave me the opportunity to enter the specialised residential section, specialising in upgrades, refurbishments, extensions and new build bespoke dwellings.
I now run my own professional quantity surveying and project management practice, this allows me work in a sector I love and enjoy and grants me the flexibility to be my own boss, have a home office and control the work life balance.
To learn more about the #BuildingEquality campaign and to share your own story, please visit our dedicated page here