Tomorrow’s Leaders opens doors to hub committee opportunities

While starting his career in construction, James Sargeant MCIOB joined CIOB Tomorrow’s Leaders as a way to improve his knowledge and expand his network. Eight years on, this has led to him this year becoming vice-chair of the CIOB Maidstone hub. 

His route into construction is synonymous with the career paths of many in the sector. Initially unsure about what he wanted to do after finishing school, he took a few years out before deciding to pursue a law degree. “I don't know why, I just landed on law,” he says. “I thought a law degree is useful, it'll help me open doors.” 

After briefly considering a career in the police, a friend offered him a job at his uncle’s construction firm, an SME specialising in re-lining underground fuel storage tanks for petrol stations.

“It’s a relatively small contractor with 20 or 30 guys, so I found myself being jack of all trades, master of none,” James says. His roles ranged from acting as the company’s legal department to working onsite, as well as occasionally hosting clients in the company’s corporate box at Chelsea. 

“I did that for a few years, and thought, oh, I like this, I'll keep doing it,” he says.

He was then approached in 2016 by construction law firm Quigg Golden, who were acquired by HF earlier this year, who offered him a position as a junior associate. Now an associate director at HF, James says none of it was a thought-out plan. “It was all just a series of fortunate events that got me here, which I think is the same for least half the people in construction,” he says. “They just kind of fell into it and realised this is fun.” 

CIOB Membership 

After starting with Quigg Golden, he was encouraged to join an institution, with many of the staff members of The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). As his degree wasn’t construction related, he was told that CIOB was the best fit based on his experience and education.

His motivation for joining CIOB was two-fold, he says. “I knew a lot about building petrol stations, but not a lot else, so I figured the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) events would be good to go along to. And secondly, I figured I'm now moving into the legal side of things, I need to start building up my client base. So I thought to myself, well, what better way to go out and meet all the local key players than to get involved with the CIOB?” 

He quickly joined the CIOB Novus group (which evolved into the Tomorrow’s Leaders community) which further increased the networking opportunities. 

“It's not an overnight thing, you don't just go to your first CIOB meeting and all of a sudden you know everybody, it takes time,” he says. “You have to go to all the CPDs, be a face, go to the dinners, go to the networking events. But the more you put yourself out there, the more work comes off the back of it.”

The connections he made through CIOB have even led to job offers, and also a network of people who support each other in their work.

“There's people that I know through the CIOB that will ring me for a quick bit of legal advice, and I obviously won't charge them,” he says. “It's kind of a mates’ thing. But equally, if I get stuck on something technical and I need to know how a steel frame is erected, or something like that, I can just ring them up.

“It's often not a case of what you know, it's who you know, and all the people that you need to know are at the CIOB events. So it's very handy.”

Natural progression 

After sitting as a member on the Novus group, James moved on to become vice-chair and then chair of the group, before becoming the Tomorrow’s Leaders Representative for Maidstone when the Tomorrow’s Leaders Community was launched. 

After handing over the role to current Tomorrow’s Leader Representative Lindsay Platt MCIOB at the end of his two-year tenure, he was offered a seat on the main Maidstone Hub Committee and earlier this year became the committee’s vice-chair, highlighting the route that TL can provide. “It's all been a seamless path for me, which I think we're good at in Maidstone,” he says. 

James has followed in the footsteps of Adam Mitchell FCIOB, who was the chair of the Novus group when James was vice-chair, and is now chair of the Maidstone Hub Committee. “It's kind of a natural progression, and hopefully, I guess I might end up being chair when Adam's tenure finishes in a few years,” James says.

Advice for new Tomorrow’s Leaders 

Recognising the support he was given during his progression from Tomorrow’s Leaders to hub vice-chair, James says he continues to give advice to new Tomorrow’s Leaders coming through. 

Earlier this year he hosted a Tomorrow’s Leader on a month-long placement after he expressed an interest in expanding his knowledge of the legal side of things. “There is that avenue there for them to always pick the phone up, not just to me but to the rest of the committee, and it's a good relationship we've got with them,” James says. 

The hub committee and Tomorrow’s Leaders Champions also meet regularly to ensure the link between them remains strong. “We try and do [a few] meetings per year where we get everyone together. When we're trying to come up with our next years’ worth of programme, we'll do meetings together. 

“It's very much not an ‘us and them’ sort of culture. And the idea is to keep the talent joining Tomorrow’s Leaders, opening future opportunities to join as a Hub Committee member.” 

The biggest piece of advice he gives to new Tomorrow’s Leaders is to get their CIOB chartership, he says. “It's all well and good just being involved with Tomorrow’s Leaders but if you want to join the Hub committee in a role outside of Tomorrow’s Leaders and you want to be properly involved with CIOB, you've got to work towards getting your chartership,” he says.