Joe Marais:

Career Story

How did you start your career with Bureau Veritas?

Bureau Veritas reached out to me to discuss a potential role a few years ago; I already had experience of working in consultancy and I was in a position where I wanted a change of scene. In 2016, I attended an interview and I have been with the company since the start of 2017.

What do some of your day-to-day activities involve?

Every day is usually different for me. A typical day can range from attending on-site meetings with clients or a full day of monitoring and logging results obtained from observations before they are sent to the lab to be tested.

Other days I may be involved with report writing and interpreting results from the labs and applying these results to the observations we have made previously, as well as trying to find correlations between the data and observations made on-site.

I can then determine the compliance required in regards to the workplace exposure limits and if any concerns are flagged up at this stage, I would provide recommendations as to how the client can improve or control operator exposure. There are quantitative and qualitative aspects to working on site; quantitative being purely reliant on data, whereas qualitative is more focused on observations that are made.

How do you think working under different management levels of the business has helped you?

One of the biggest advantages is working with managers who are distinctive in how they work and their management style. For instance, I had the opportunity to work with a manager that was very technical and had a lot of technical experience in his field and he was brilliant. My current manager has more experience in the commercial of the business and always pushes me to go out there and find what works best for me, which I find motivating. I think there is an important synergy between the two types of management styles, because in my role it can be complicated to promote the services as it is heavily technical. I feel that having the technical knowledge and commercial awareness allows me to confidently engage with clients about our service offering.

In your opinion, do you believe that Bureau Veritas is a positive place for career development?

Absolutely. Bureau Veritas is a global company, with such a wide, diverse service offering which means that there is a great level of opportunity available. This allows me to cross-skill and have a multidisciplinary role because I can be competent in different areas of the business.  

For example, can complement other services from acoustics and vibration to air quality to mechanical LEV inspections; it’s brilliant because I can develop better relationships with those teams, which is great from a career progression perspective because I can put myself out there and demonstrate my capabilities.

Are there other areas of the business you would be interested in exploring? If yes, which area and why?

Something that has always been interesting to me is customer relationships. I’m particularly fond of the idea of eventually taking on an account management role because I enjoy management. I think a role in this field will certainly enhance the skills I already have.

I also feel that it would be a good role in learning how to manage both my workload and also a variety of different services to ensure that the account runs smoothly, whilst being sure to maintain and build relationships with our clients.

I’d like to finish off with one question; if you were stuck on a desert island with your boss, which one item would you like to have with you?

A good book that can ignite a conversation.