From Intern to Integral: Crystal's rise at Skanska and the importance of Black History Month

Crystal Campbell talks about starting out as a quantity surveyor as a mature age student, being a working mother and why Black History Month matters. 

 

Crystal Campbell, Quantity Surveyor at Skanska

 

I came into Quantity Surveying later than a lot of my classmates at university, which helps me take my career more seriously. When I started university, I was a mother and I really wanted to make something of my life for my little one and make him proud. 

After I did my A-levels, I worked for a few years. I did all sorts of jobs – a sales job for a financial company, customer service manager roles and administrative work. When I had my baby in 2019, I decided to pursue a proper career path that I could focus on and progress in. That was definitely my turning point.   

I started studying Quantity Surveying at Greenwich University as a mature student. Due to the pandemic, all my lectures were on Teams for the first year as the university was closed, as well as the nurseries. I was studying with a baby on my lap, but in my second year, we were able to go to the university, which was great. 

 

At the end of my second year, I decided I wanted to do an internship to get some practical experience, so I applied to loads of companies and Skanska invited me to start their five-stage process. It starts with tests, such as timed maths questions and competency questions. The second stage was situational questions to test our decision-making and I had to do a recorded interview for the third stage. That was intense – the questions come up on the screen and you record yourself answering. At the end, your recording is automatically sent to Skanska. 

The fourth stage was interviews with HR and the learning and development teams, and for the fifth stage, there were six finalists, including me, in a Teams meeting with breakout rooms where we were interviewed by different people, such as the commercial manager, a project surveyor and HR. We could see who we were competing with, which made me a little nervous.

To calm my nerves I reminded myself that I had done well just to get to this stage, which made me more relaxed for the interviews, so I was able to engage and answer all the questions. The process took about four or five months and I started with Skanska in July 2022. 

Two months later, I was told that the company wanted me to stay on after the year-long internship, but I had to figure out if I wanted to go back to university full-time or part-time for my final year. Between us, we decided part-time would work better because of the workload and my responsibilities. They didn’t want to set me up to fail.

I work four days a week and go to university one day a week. Skanska is paying for me to study, which makes a massive difference and I can focus on other things, rather than worrying about graduating with a really big debt. My job title is Assistant Quantity Surveyor and the work is so varied.

 

Crystal on site at Ropemaker

 

When I started, I joined a construction project towards the end, and now I am working on a project that will run until 2026. It’s completely different when you come in at the beginning of a project – there is a lot of procurement, planning and tendering, whereas at the end, there is a big focus on managing subcontractors, payments, variations and the construction process. I’m enjoying being involved in a project from the start, getting to know all the details before building begins.

I’ve found Skanska to be a really inclusive environment. Onsite, it is still very male-dominated, but the diversity within the company has improved, especially at head office. This is why Black History Month is so important – I am involved in Skanska’s One Network and we’ve started Courageous Conversations.

We have conversations in the workplace about race and the obstacles that we have had to overcome. Courageous Conversations is about helping people ask better questions and get a better understanding of each other – it’s a learning experience for all of us. We want to help people bring their whole self to work and feel included. It’s great that people are making the effort to understand different cultures and backgrounds. 

 

I’m also involved in encouraging more girls to consider construction careers. I speak to students, especially girls, about getting into the construction industry. Women can be construction managers, surveyors, engineers, plumbers, you can do whatever you want to do. It’s so important to let girls know construction is an option for them also. I like to encourage women to get involved so we have more diverse teams.

Skanska has been a great employer for me as a working mother. I’ve got a really good support system away from work, but I do have the option for flexible working if needed. During my internship, I was on a fixed-term contract. However, I have just signed a permanent contract with Skanska which means I now have job security, which is great. I have so many ambitions – I’d like to be a project surveyor by 2025 and hopefully a commercial manager by the time I’m 40. 

As a mature student, I take my job very seriously. Since becoming a mother, I am very driven and want to continue doing well so I am able to provide for him. Failure is not an option for me. I used to think it was too late to retrain and start a new career, but it is never too late to follow your dreams.

 

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