Chris, Contract Manager

Chris first worked with Sykes whilst on work experience from school. From there Chris was offered a carpentry apprenticeship, with his training including periods at Buckingham Palace, Royal Courts of Justice and London School of Economics.

Now 33, Chris is a Contracts Manager at London School of Economics, managing a team on our Measured Term Contract for building works.

Chris has previously managed term contracts at HM Tower of London and University College London.

What are your memories of the 2-week work placement at Sykes when you were 15 years old?
My first memory was sitting in reception waiting to be collected by a member of staff and feeling really relaxed. I was shown around the offices, being greeted by members of the team from all departments.

I was in the office with Accounts for two days followed by three days on-site helping to measure and collect information to issue quotations. The second week was spent on the tools with a carpenter at the Royal Courts of Justice and Foreign & Commonwealth Offices.

What appealed about a carpentry apprenticeship when you were considering a career and where did you spend the apprenticeship?
I only really took an interest in sports and hands-on working whilst at school if I’m honest. I felt at ease and in my comfort zone and believed the best thing for me was a career working with my hands knowing I can look back and say, “I built that” and for me carpentry was the best fit.

My apprenticeship was served on a number of Sykes contracts including Buckingham Palace, V&A Museum, Royal Courts of Justice, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London School of Economics and the Old Admiralty Building.

How did the move into site management come about?
I was working at the UCLH and an opportunity for some additional out-of-hours work came up, which I put myself forward for. This involved supervision of sub-contractors and as the weeks went on, my responsibility increased. This led to a supervisory role on a project at Somerset House, controlling the carpenters and painters, organising labour and day to day management duties. Again, responsibility kept increasing and I was moved over to the Royal Academy of Arts on a minor works and maintenance contract in a role as working foreman. When the Site Manager moved to another project, I put my name forward to, and took charge of the contract. This later led to projects with the likes of Queen Mary University before I took on the management of a measured term contract with HM Tower of London.

What are you most proud of in your career to date?
I’m proud that I have followed in my Dad’s footsteps in gaining a trade and moving up into management, knowing that I can carry out any task with confidence and not be fazed by the job at hand.

What do you think sets Sykes apart from other contractors?
For me, knowing that there is room to progress within the business.

You are known throughout the company not just by the operatives you work with daily, but senior managers know you by face and name not just your employee number.

Getting to work in such iconic buildings every day, that people travel to from across the world.

 

Oscar, Electrical Apprentice

And what year are you for the apprenticeship?
I am now in my third year.

What are some of the more interesting places you’ve worked in?
Oh, interesting places. I’ve worked in the Old Bailey, which was quite interesting for me. I’ve also worked in the Guildhall. I think they’re the main two big ones I’ve worked in.

What part of your apprenticeship do you think is the most challenging?
The most challenging bit? You have to pay attention to a lot of the things you’re doing. If you miss something, you miss, I don’t know, a lot, if that makes sense. There’s a lot of processes and everything’s very intricate.

What are the more rewarding or interesting things you’ve done?
The big thing I like is everything’s different. I’m never really doing the same thing for more than a couple of days. Everything is always new, what I’m doing. I’m learning things every day.

What do you think sets Sykes apart from other contractors? Or why did you choose Sykes to do an apprenticeship with instead of another company?
Well I suppose because Sykes has a lot of versatile work. As I said before everything’s different. The people in my college in different firms are doing the same thing repetitively and they come in and they say they’re not really learning a lot. I think with Sykes everyone’s really nice. There’s a lot of work it’s all reasonably local so you’re not, going all over the country.

What advice do you think you’d give for someone who’s considering doing an apprenticeship or just starting one?
I’d say pay attention to every little thing that you’re told, try and keep that in mind, try and be on time to everything. Take pride in your work, make sure you actually enjoy what you’re doing.

Do you think this apprenticeship will prepare you for your future career?
Definitely, yeah. Yeah. Because with Sykes, you learn a whole lot of electrics. Like, you get a little bit of domestic. But you get loads of commercial work and you do every single spectrum of electrics, I would say, or most of it, anyway. So, no matter what I want to do in the future, do my apprenticeship with Sykes, I’ll probably be covered for, like, 90% of the things I want to do. Or could do.