Meet Georgina

In the Commercial team we are involved at every stage of a project from early inception when we are looking at an empty piece of land right through to post completion of the project. We set budgets for projects, we procure all the sub-contractors and materials and control budgets maximising value and profit at all stages of a project. A typical day can be in the office in collaborative team meetings and cost reviews, it could be on site for project reviews and procurement meetings, or it could be at home collating cost reports and forecasts.

I joined in July 2019 as Head of Commercial and was promoted to Commercial Director in January 2021.

Supportive, challenging, energetic, open and honest.

The Vistry family. It’s an amazing group of people all working towards the same goals and visions.

The Countryside Partnerships West office has gone through a number of changes as it’s still a fairly new office so it’s been great to be a part of the team and culture building. It’s been fantastic to see the employee engagement scores rise each time the survey comes out.

Vistry is a big company with a small company feel, so you never feel like a number. Our business unit feels like family but you have the full backing and might of a huge company behind you. The growth plans are exciting but carefully considered to ensure stability and in Countryside Partnerships you have the perfect blend of partner delivery, land-led delivery and open market sales.

Committed and enthusiastic people will thrive under Vistry as there are always opportunities to learn and develop. Being a team player, who has integrity at the heart of everything they do will be successful at Vistry; I have no doubt about that.

Why are you thinking about it? Just choose Vistry, you won’t regret it I promise.

Prior to construction I was in retail after I left school straight after my GCSE’s. I jumped around from job to job, from Greengrocer, to Data Entry Clerk to Travel Agent to Estate Agent and various other short-lived roles in between. During this roaming period, I realised I was looking for something that would challenge me and provide something different each day.

Whilst at the estate agents I decided to go to university as a mature student, which I then self-funded. I worked four days a week in the estate agents and did two days per week in university for the first year. It was exhausting, expensive – but rewarding. The course I enrolled on was a foundation degree in surveying which covered building surveying, quantity surveying and land surveying so gave me a good overview and something to base a career choice from. I picked quantity surveying for my second year and loved the mix of construction, measurement, law and project management knowledge and skills that I gained. I was lucky enough to gain a spot on a role rotation scheme with a main contractor and have never looked back. Every day is different, with different challenges but every day is also rewarding. You get to work with a mix of people with incredible knowledge and skill in the separate disciplines, it takes a real team effort and bringing together of people to make a project a success.

I think the huge advantage this industry brings is its diversity, you can enter at any age with any background, and if you work hard you will succeed. It’s also great in that it’s not a desk job, or an office job or a site job, it’s the mix of everything, every day is different.

The advice I would give to anyone is keep an open mind as the opportunities in this industry are vast. You could start out as a Quantity Surveyor, and end up a Construction Director one day. You could start as a Bricklayer and end up a Technical Manager.