Maxwell Retter

7.00 AM 

I wake up and get ready for the day with a coffee in one hand and my emails in the other. Call me crazy but I’m normally pretty excited to see what awaits for me in my day and inbox.

8.00 AM 

I shoot out the door, a quick stroll to the site for a site meeting. Pretty stoked to be involved with building a new office for a major Government client! A quick meeting and a walk around the site with the contractor and client, then it’s time to make my way back to the office.  

10.00 AM 

Time for coffee number two with a cheeky biscuit (or two) to get me ready for the most stressful part of the day – the daily quiz with my team. We’re a competitive bunch here!  

12.00 PM 

Before I know it, lunch time rolls around and a group of us wander down Lambton Quay in search of finding something to bring back to office to have with the others. Being the competitive Project Managers we are, there are normally a few of us floating around for a game of table tennis or darts.

2.00 PM 

I head off to my second meeting of the day – a project control group meeting with another client of mine (Victoria University Faculty of Architecture and Design). Quite a privilege to be able to work where I studied, and with the people who helped me through it all. Can’t wait to make my mark on this project.

3.00 PM 

Our meeting wraps up and it’s time to head back to the office. The great thing about our office is most of our sites and clients are all in walking distance. Nice stroll down Cuba Street and I’m back in the office. Today’s afternoon consists of reviewing potential design changes and variations that my architect has submitted and how they might fit in the programme. If approved, I carry on and issue these to the contractor through Contract Instructions.

4.30 PM

I have a coordination meeting with my architect and services engineer on one of my projects at their nearby office. These are normally really interesting and are the exact reason I wanted to become a PM – to get in the midst of it all! But of course, a meeting at this time with some work mates is likely to end in a beer while talking about the project and its possibilities. Bit of pie in the sky thinking never hurts to get the creative juices flowing!

5:30 PM

I head back to the office to find my team members wrapping up their day and getting ready for the big event of the day – our game of corporate touch rugby. It’s pretty cool to be able to get outside of the realms of work and blow a bit of steam off with your colleagues on the sports field. We are really big on this kind of thing which makes working here a blast and always a good time!