James Riley Trainee, London

I started my quantity surveying apprenticeship with Currie & Brown in August 2016. My experience previous to this included six months’ roofing and six months’ steel erecting at the London stadium, which provided me with valuable experience of working on site. Although I enjoyed working on site, I didn’t want this to be my career and I was not a fan of the freezing, early mornings! I diverted my attention towards architecture and quantity surveying, and because I enjoy maths I decided to go for quantity surveying, and I am pleased with the choice I made.

I was attracted to Currie & Brown because they have offices all over the world and an impressive variety of projects, so I knew I would be able to gain a lot of experience from the company and set up a successful career.

I have been lucky enough to gain experience working in the public sector as well as infrastructure, which has broadened my construction knowledge and allowed me to work on projects where my roles and responsibilities are quite different.

I am currently studying for my degree in quantity surveying, so I hope to pass that and then work towards becoming chartered. Once I am chartered, I hope to help grow the infrastructure business in our company and lead some of my own projects.