Updating Results
Menu

Turner & Townsend Australia

  • 1,000 - 50,000 employees

Eric Grandinger

As an assistant PM in the business I play a key supporting role on some of our larger commissions and these tasks naturally vary depending on the stage of any given project.

What's your job about?

Turner & Townsend are a global and diversified company, servicing clients across natural resources, infrastructure and real estate, with a growing focus on providing strategic front-end advisory regarding client’s capital project and program set-up and delivery.

As an assistant PM in the business I play a key supporting role on some of our larger commissions and these tasks naturally vary depending on the stage of any given project. In the project delivery phase, day to day tasks may include client-side reporting on progress, analysing options with the consultant team and the contractor to address key risks and issues, maintaining a project program and dashboard, running site meetings and mitigating interface risk by strengthening key channels of communication. I have also been entrusted with being the main client interface on a number of smaller commissions, including strategic advisory pieces culminating in executive-level reporting outputs, as well as end-to-end project management of a number of commercial fit-out projects.

What's your background?

I grew up in Germany, Ireland and Australia which accumulatively has had a major impact in shaping me into a progressive, open-minded individual.

The three internships I threw myself into during my studies were a key factor in determining my infancy career trajectory. Two of these were with Turner & Townsend in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore which not only kindled a passion for the construction industry but also exposed me to the broad range of interfaces and stakeholder groups involved on any capital project and furthermore how these stakeholders need to be consulted and managed to ensure their buy into the project’s success.

I have been working full time with Turner & Townsend for about 18 months off the back of my two internships abroad. These enabled a smooth transition into a full-time role with the established familiarity of processes, systems and key individuals in our region.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

I’m a firm believer in the mantra of passion trumping prior to education in many things in life and suggest that the global construction industry has been lacking for quite some time is rejuvenation and fresh ideas. Diversity doesn’t only extend to gender but also to cultural and educational backgrounds and I believe a mix will markedly improve a company’s performance, innovation agenda and reputation in the long term.

Being a people person is generally a given. A mentor once told me that a key role of a Project Manager is being the Chief Motivation Officer on a project or even an extended program of work that goes on for five years +. Being able to build a culture of trust and transparency and openly celebrating successes at key project milestones should not be underappreciated in the toolkit of a competent PM.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

I am really enjoying the knowledge sharing that is taking place in project management and construction at the moment. Our industry has finally realised that we are in this together to improve the communities we live in and therefore sharing industry best practice through seminars, workshops and panel discussions has come into focus more recently. Building on this sentiment I have become involved in several industry organisations and local chapters in WA including the Property Council of Australia Future Directions committee as well as the Australian Institute of Project Management WA Council. As part of my involvement on these committees, I regularly strive to give back and contribute through university guest lectures, MC-ing panel discussions and planning of social events.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

  • Start the dialogue with industry the minute you set foot on campus. Often what students mistakenly do is neglect industry engagement until their penultimate year, with a head-down mentality securing the degree but often at the cost of the bigger picture.
  • One of the things employers most appreciate in graduates is appreciating what I call “the lights being on”. This goes beyond merely accumulating the credit points for a sound GPA at the completion of your degree, but extends to building up a breadth of knowledge regarding industry-level trends, key projects underway, market sentiment across private and public sectors and some of the innovative services and tools disrupting how we have planned and delivered built environment assets in the past.
  • Align your career with your passions as best you can. This may be progressive as your career develops but in Project Management know that you are rarely pigeon-holed however have a wealth of options available given the wide array of interfaces you will be exposed to over the course of your career, including as a graduate.