Why I Dropped Out of Uni to Learn Construction on Site
I wanted to be an architect, studied town planning at QUT, then one construction management unit changed everything. Two years later I quit uni mid-degree to work full-time as a junior CA, against the director's advice. This is the uni half of my career story: the "$55k a year" comment, the take-off class with rulers and paper, and why real site and office experience taught me more than the degree ever did.
Transcript
You see, I initially wanted to be an architect that was from when I was 12 years old through to like 16. And my dad, he talked me out of it. He continuously said is too competitive and caused me to not study at uni. In 2019, I went to QUT, Queensland University of Technology here in Queensland, Brisbane, for those of you that know. And I studied town planning, urban and regional planning is what it was called.
Did two years of that and I was kind of I was young I didn't really know what I was doing I just knew I liked the built environment and the sort of planning things around it then years deep remember this a uni lecturer said halfway through it he's like controversial and honestly crazy for him to say because it's half the reason I end up dropping out and I it my intentions aren't this shallow but he said planners at best make 55k a year like ridiculous look whether you're in it or not for the money that is pennies particularly if you're to study this four-year degree it was 40,000 in hex debt which I do have then a top planner someone who's graduated and done years just to get paid that much I'm like fuck this this isn't for me then it happened to
also be around I was still thinking about it at that time and it also happened to be around that two-year mark that had to take on a second major they made us do that at QT that's when I my first ever construction management unit that is when I fell in love with the whole idea the whole to do with construction management. I could vision myself, I pictured myself on site being the main point of contact, managing just being the key person for that project and the reason that it was driven home successfully and at the same time making sure things were going ahead smoothly on site, that I'm communicating with the client, my company,
subbies, just everyone being that main reason that the project got driven home and yes it's a team effort but you have a good project manager or ca it can make a significant difference with respect to financials the physical product at the end of the day how well it's delivered that was me I just instantly dropped I didn't necessarily drop out I still had to do a portion of my degree but I was like enough of town planning let's go full throttle on construction management now I did that for another two years and then I was in a class where it was like a take-off class for example like up quantities that a project would need in this take-off class we were still using pen and paper rulers like very old school physical methods right that's when I realized there is a time and
a place for that stuff that's when I realized it really hit home to me uni is outdated and is a time and place that uni has good value and it definitely did teach me some valuable stuff but that's when I realized that throwing away money and not learning anything on site or in the office and gaining real live experience in this industry so that was half the reason the the old school mechanisms and whatever that wasn't yet up to date and me not having that live experience that I decided to drop out there a very controversial decision because at the time I was undertaking a cadetship with a fit-out company nationwide I had moved on from them go on to a commercial builder as a junior CA I told the told the guy that hired me the director there I was like look not
going to continue uni I'm going to keep being a junior CA but I would reinvest all my time all my hours and money into something that is relevant and will actually teach me I telling him at the time too that I was going to do that he said mate you're probably better off just completing it I'm like mate I know what I need to do and what's best for me and your company I was reading a negotiation book at the time too because I was like these are real fundamental interpersonal skills that uni is not teaching and that you don't really learn anywhere unless you decide to learn and you realize that it's valuable and specific to what you do in your actual job and I was like I'll read the shit out of that book rather than learn these old school sort of methods
like using ruler and shit which is now outdated by AI yes the fundamentals are good can pull out pen and paper and measure stuff but you get what I'm saying if it's not up to date then it was a waste of my time yeah that's why I dropped out so what led me to then working full-time in the industry I could work around the clock without having to worry about submitting assignments and doing extra study for things that wasn't necessarily relevant then I was able to dedicate every hour of my time money whatever it happened to be into my current job and learn the nitty-gritty of how a project works that way throughout my career it's good I did it backwards I'll get more into how the career went itself but that's more the uni side of the story yeah it was a
bit backwards but I'm very grateful I got exposure to a lot of different elements in construction from uni to site to estimation in-house, PM, whatever it happens to be in the office. And I the more exposure you have and the more time you have in the field, the smarter you can become, the more you know, and ultimately the more valuable you will be to a in whatever realm of role that you're undertaking.
That's my uni story. I'll tell you more detail on my career story in a future video. I hope you enjoyed that. Me a subscribe if you liked watching this. Thank you for watching. I appreciate you listening to me and I will see you in the next one.
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