“I realised that my passion lay in buildings and property development,” she says, “I followed my BSc in Property Development up with an Honours degree in Quantity Surveying, and then went to work in construction as a quantity surveyor.”
The experience of being onsite was life changing for Preeantha. “I just fell in love with learning – and specifically learning by seeing. The people I worked with on my first job shaped me into who I am today on a professional front. The construction industry is a very fast paced, vocal environment where people will have a lot of heated discussions with each other. But it’s also an environment that values comradery in a way you can’t understand until you’ve experienced it – every decision is crucial, nothing is personal, and everyone is working towards the same goal.”
Preeantha says she still drives past her first building and feels extreme pride in the final product. “I learned more in my first few months on a construction site than I ever learned at university, and the passion for learning and working as part of a team is still with me today,” she explains. “It’s about doing what’s best for the project, and personal feelings and triviality don’t have a place in it.”
The transition from construction to consulting at WSP has been an important one for Preeantha. From a job satisfaction and learning point of view, she says it’s the best career decision she’s ever made. “There’s just so much to learn from everyone in a multidisciplinary firm like this - and that’s always been very important to me.”
Preeantha is a big advocate for women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and says this was one of the things that impressed her about WSP. “The women that I work with in the Property & Buildings team are just such powerhouses,” she says. “I was interviewed by two strong women for my current role, and it was immediately clear that WSP is not a company that just talks about the importance of women in the workplace. The company genuinely is committed to achieving gender and equity balance in our workforce.”
She says it’s been amazing to watch the construction and engineering environment transform in the last decade. “I was one of the only females on site when I first started working. But there were a lot of young women studying engineering, and I often had aspiring women engineers shadowing me on site. It’s been wonderful watching these women enter the workplace and the transformation of the industry.”
Preeantha’s day-to-day work focuses on the commercial aspects of multidisciplinary projects within property and buildings, particularly with regards to derisking projects before tenders are submitted. “My workload has been heavily based in large value tender submissions across public and private sector building projects, analysing current projects and assisting the team become more commercially astute has been a major part of my role.”
In her spare time, she likes to spend time with her fiancé and her two English bulldogs, travels to KwaZulu Natal to visit her family, and has recently taken up pilates and yoga. She’s also been dabbling in golf. “There are a lot of golf days in this industry, and I felt that too often women aren’t invited or prioritised – mainly because many don’t play, which is fair enough,” she chuckles. “But the value of the networking opportunity is undeniable, so I decided to try my hand at it. And I have to admit, I get it! The mental strength, the humility you learn and the competition against yourself - its consuming!”
