Document Controller SITE/ PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Location: United Arab Emirates
Salary: Excellent TAX FREE salary
Company: Stepp Recruitment
Sector: Commercial
Job role: Project manager
Job type: Permanent
Date posted: 22/06/2009 18:50

Document ControllerSITE/ PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Ref: A1022
Location: Abu Dhabi UAE
Date Posted: 19 June 2009
Salary: Excellent TAX FREE salary

Details:

Stepp Recruitment Limited has been placing candidates to the Middle East for almost TWENTY YEARS!! No other recruitment Company has more experience in placing CURTAIN WALLING/ CLADDING/ FACADES skilled applicants to this prosperous and stunning region of the world.

We are delighted to be working with one of our most prestigious client Curtain Walling companies in the Middle East, a company which can offer its clients complete expertise in Architectural Aluminum and Glazing product’s design, manufacture and installation and having a coveted portfolio of some of the most outstanding and architecturally award winning projects throughout the region.

Document Controller – part of a vital team assisting the Project Manager in a role that is highly computer orientated. The successful person will have intelligence and common sense and be able to document any changes to projects by recording the information and liaison with various departments to ensure awareness and implementation of any amendments. This will require an ability to read and understand drawings.

Experience Required:

Be computer literate with at least 2 years (ideally 5) experience in curtain walling and be familiar with all the components – extrusions, glass, brackets, silicon screws, nuts, etc. Able to speak clear and fluent English, so more suitable to an English, American, South African or Australian nationality. Methodical, highly organised

This is a highly pressurised, challenging role that will suit someone who has worked in the Middle or Far East previously, understand the culture, climate and working conditions. MUST be a ‘doer’ who will give everything to the role. Someone who will roll up their sleeves and go out and push. Practical experience is more important that qualifications.

A mature person who has worked in the same environment and has an acceptance of stress levels. In return you will a superb TAX FREE salary plus accommodation, with the opportunity to work alongside some of the most experienced and techncially competent people in the Curtain Wall industry and be involved in award winning, internationally acclaimed projects throughout the world. This is a GLOBAL company and prospects are superb for ambitious, hardworking, technically competent people.

To apply for this position please forward your CV in PDF or Word format by clicking the apply button.

Apply here..

Can a Project Manager Survive without Windows?

In this post, I’m not really hitting on anything too interesting or relevant about Project Management.  I’ve just been feeling led to look into PM’ing without Windows.  I know it’s possible…I’m doing it.  But it does seem to freak some people out.

My Decision

My wife has been a Mac user for nearly two years now.  She loves it – but she’s a photographer, among other things, so she’s a Photoshop pro and has found all things Photoshop have been much easier to perform on a Mac.  I’m her tech support, and I can say that my job has definitely been much easier since she got her Macbook Pro.  However, I was on the outside looking in and ‘winging it’ on everything until I was sort of forced into the world of Mac in March of this year.

My Windows Vista laptop blew through its third hard drive in just over a year (meaning, of course that it was no out of warranty!).  My wife went through her same speech again…”Why don’t you just get a Mac?”  Frustrated with my Gateway and all things Windows and knowing that I still have my backup HP laptop running Windows XP as a crutch, I decided to “just do it.”  I must say I haven’t looked back yet.

The Backlash

The backlash from my colleagues was immediate.  “How can you PM with a Mac?”  “What about running MS Project?”  “How can you survive?”  And my favorite one from my 19 yr-old son (because I had been a Windows lifer), “It’s sort of like turning an atheist to Christianity!”

Seriously though, I’ve loved it and I’ve had no loss in productivity.  My IT consulting right now is not requiring extensive use of project management scheduling software.  I have MS Office for Mac so running Word, Excel, and PowerPoint has not been an issue.  They work pretty much seamlessly with the Mac just like I’m used to in the Windows environment.

Other Options

That leaves us with the question of how to manage your projects.  How does the Project Manager survive without MS Project – especially if you’ve been using it for as many years as I have?  For me, thankfully as I said I’m not into heavy MS Project use at the moment.  That has allowed me to explore replacement options.  Open Project as a stand-alone application seems so far like a suitable replacement.  It works will both importing and exporting MS Project files and I’ve then used my XP laptop to confirm that my customers can read my project plans on their Windows machines using MS Project.

There are also many options from a web-based perspective.  These often offer more collaboration options allowing team members full insight into the project portfolios with dashboards, shared status information and resource usage across many projects.  ProjectOffice.net is my favorite so far – it’s full-featured, has built-in viewers for MS Project files and can import/export MS Project files.  There are other options out there like LiquidPlanner, Basecamp, etc. 

Summary

The Mac transition has been good for me.  For one thing, I’m now a much better and more knowledgeable tech support person for my wife.  I’ve broadened my horizons and had zero viruses at the same time.  Hopefully, I’ve evangelized a few individuals along the way who previously thought like me.  But I know I’ve cheated somewhat and may not have taken the leap without the backup XP laptop as a barely used crutch.

If you’ve recently converted, share your story.  If you’re a Windows diehard who thinks they could never live without it, then let me know.