Ong-Seng Goburdhun & partners: 2015

 

Ong-Seng Goburdhun & partners offer full range of quantity surveying, cost planning, insurance claims, property valuation and project management services.

 

My stay at the firm was truly a unique and enjoyable experience. One of the two founder members, Mr Satish Goburdhun interviewed me and accepted my application to work for his company for the duration of 120 hours from the 22nd of June to the 10th of July 2015. I was placed under the supervision of Mr Mohabeer who is a partner of the company.

 

On my first day I was presented to all the staffs of the company who gave me warm welcome. They gave me a priced Bill of quantities to help me familiarize myself with the work. One of the staff was busy preparing a tender for a religious building project. Since I was studying measurement and design appraisal 1 (MDA) at UCT, I was able to help him in measuring basic items like wall finishes, floor finishes, volume of concrete etc. He was reluctant to give me more complicated items and elements to measure. But thanks to him I was able to put my MDA knowledge into practice and I can proudly say they were satisfied with my work. The whole of the first week was spent in measuring items for this particular project.

 

The next two weeks I was given the opportunity to work on a different project. It was a Rs75.9m bank building project which had just finished practical completion. There were still some variation works to be evaluated. I was able to attend regular site meetings between the quantity surveyors and the contractor, something which I never experienced before. I was more than happy to assist them in the evaluation of the variation works and in site surveys and site measurements. They would from time to time test my knowledge by presenting me a scenario i'm not familiar with. I always thought in a pragmatic way and gave rational answers. They were pleased with my effort and determination.  

 

The knowledge gained from working in this company is priceless. It was an honour to have worked for them. They taught me how the construction industry actually functions. I could not have read an architect’s drawing properly with just 4 months of MDA program, but they taught me how to look for important details in specific drawings, something which came to use when doing this year’s Cost Engineering project.