Our team stories
Take a look at what some of our team have to say about working at Survey Solutions and how they have developed their careers.
Sandrine Whitmore
Senior Trainer
Remote
“When I left the world of archaeology in 2008, I naively didn’t realise that the surveying industry would be very different. In archaeology, the workforce was and still is mixed with a fairly even split between males and females.
When I transferred from the archaeology team to the survey team of my company, I was the only woman in a small team of 6. I went to UCL to undertake an MSc in Surveying and again I was in a minority. When I joined Survey Solutions in 2016, I was the only woman in the Norwich office. For many months, I worked on a large construction site where I was the only woman on site! The surveying profession (and construction industry more widely) are male dominated and Survey Solutions was no different.
The facts cannot be sugar-coated, gender discrimination does exist in surveying and I have been subject to such discrimination on many occasions, turning up on site with a young male trainee to assist you with the work and finding that the site foreman ignores you and assumes that the young trainee is the person he needs to deal with has not been an uncommon experience. That said you also meet peers and managers that see your talents and that respect and support you and which has allowed my career to progress from Surveyor to Senior Surveyor and now Senior Trainer.
Why do we have such a gender gap? Could we recruit more women? Yes, but at present few women apply for survey jobs. I now go to universities and colleges, and I have found that young women only make up about 10% of the groups I talk to. This goes much deeper, young women are not encouraged to be in the construction industry, and they don’t see women in these roles so they don’t imagine they can do it!
But guess what! Surveying is a great profession, no two days are the same, one gets to travel, to see and work in different parts of the country, from urban environments to the countryside, from modern buildings to historic ones, each site presenting different technical challenges, challenges that can be thought through and overcome whatever the surveyor’s gender. Women can make great surveyors!
In my relatively new role as Senior Trainer, I endeavour to prove that surveying is a great career for women, I will encourage young girls and women to choose this profession. I am a member of the CICES and now I also am an examiner. I am part of the CICES Women’s forum. It is a tough choice of career for sure with its ups and downs, but it is also hugely rewarding. Let’s make a change and promote women in surveying and the construction industry more generally!”