Then and now: Angela Carney

In a new feature for Bdaily, Angela Carney, managing director of Carney Consultancy and president of the Northern Counties Builders Federation, reflects on her career, from her first role to the present day, highlighting the lessons she has learned from her personal and professional evolution. 

You are managing director of Carney Consultancy and president of the Northern Counties Builders Federation. What do your roles entail?

Day to day, I manage our team and work with our customers on the demands of their health and safety requirements.

However, with my other hats on, I help organise school and college events to promote the construction industry to young people through various outlets and projects.

I also work with the industry on improving health and safety across the board through organisations such as The Lighthouse Club, Working Well Together North East and Constructing Excellence North East.

As such, no day is the same, and most days I am spinning plates.

Did you always want to work in construction? Or did you have other ambitions when you were growing up?

From around the age of four until my teenage years, I wanted to be a civil engineer.

Then, I considered becoming a vet or doctor.

At 18, I ended up going into construction.

What was your first job – and did you enjoy it?

I worked at a farm park called Finkley Down Farm, and I loved it.

One day, I want to volunteer at Whitehouse Farm, as working with animals was the best job ever.

Were there any mentors or individuals that helped shape your career? And are you still applying lessons you learned then to your workforce of today?

Mike Bond, director at Tilbury Douglas, and a lady called Maureen, office manager back in 1990, saw something in me and gave me an opportunity to go to college and study as a civil engineer on day release.

Without them seeing something in me, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

They helped shape my career and believed in me, even when I didn’t believe in myself.

I learned from them how to be a better manager.

What attracted you to the construction sector?

I grew up around the industry and was on sites from two-years-old with my dad, both in the UK and in the Middle East.

How do you feel you’ve changed as a person over the years?

I’ve grown in my knowledge and skills of managing people.

I have also drawn on my strengths in times of heightened stress and learned the true meaning of putting on your own oxygen mask first, so you can then help others around you.

Have career roles brought new dimensions to your personality?

I’ve definitely had to learn to be more considered in my responses, and to take a step away and think before answering.

This comes with age and experience.

Learning to read people, and know when they aren’t themselves, is a key skill.

You’ve seen many changes to the employment world across your career – how do you see the workplace evolving in years to come?

I believe the hybrid way of working will become the norm, and I think it’s definitely better than everyone always being in the office for the sake of having someone at a desk.

There are certain roles that require people to be in an office, but for the likes of our consultants, it is a mix, which they can largely drive for themselves.

More meetings will be done by Teams because it works and is time efficient.

I was dubious, but it’s a way for me to work smarter and it’s better for the environment.

I think there are a lot more changes to come, and we don’t even know what they are yet, as things evolve and constantly change with the world of artificial intelligence.

I’m excited to find the ways we can work smarter with artificial intelligence and how it can improve operations.

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