How to be successful in male-dominated property industry with Star Projects London founder, Julia Starzyk

Q: I really like how you want to inspire other women to consider construction, and that it’s not all about muddy boots. How much of the job is about muddy boots??

JS: Muddy boots can be an exciting part of the role and it’s where I started. I entered the industry quite randomly, as I originally was looking for an office job. “Oh, that’s brilliant and sounds interesting,” was my reaction when I became a Junior Project Manager. I did not realise that the office was on-site! I ran around site to ensure everything ran smoothly. I developed in the position and started to look more into the financial, programming, and planning sides of things. Previously equipped with muddy boots and a hard hat, I then spent more time in the office strategizing. I think it all depends on the route you want to take and your ability to try things out.??

Q: Was your first role 11 years ago??

JS: Yes. Back in Poland, I failed my architecture exams, and then tried studying building engineering for a bit (I hated every second). I then came to London in the summer and, for me, that summer hasn’t ended yet.?

Q: What initially attracted you to the Assistant Site Manager-type role??

JS: I enjoy getting on with things. I have never really had to stop and start. My first project was quite complex, but I enjoyed it. It was a big apartment in Chancery Lane – very futuristic and modernistic at the time. I had to learn the hard way to find my way out of everything that had to be done. This was challenging for me, but also very interesting that I had to try things out first before I knew they worked.?

Q: Are there usually female toilets on-site??

JS: I usually work on smaller developments or projects. Toilets are usually shared, and I am yet to visit a site where female toilets are a thing. If there are such facilities, they are usually unisex visitor’s toilets.

Q: The lack of women’s loos on-site is often an issue I hear when talking to women in construction. Women have different requirements to men, and it seems there’s a long way to go yet.?

?You started 11 years ago as assistant site manager. At what point along your journey did you begin enjoying certain aspects and wanted to continue??

JS: The Chancery Lane project was a huge success. The clients were absolutely over the moon. For the company, I did a couple more projects and then moved onto the next opportunity.?

I then worked for a firm with different setups and completely different clientele. About three years down the line, we had a project that ended up not going to plan. Not every project is a good one or starts the way it should. I think the project architect was an absolute star. He was clearly very experienced in his role and well-versed in specialist spatial work. The house was a masterpiece. Sadly, the architect’s project and client management skills were pretty dire. He could not say no, or clearly explain the facts to the client. This resulted in three adjudication processes with the client, a lot of drama, and a lot of stress.?

Lawyers got involved and we had to put witness statements together. Although the whole project team was criticised, I was particularly under heavy fire by the client. What was said, I will not forget. I heard that girls should not be doing roles like this, that I am underqualified, and that I should not be undertaking a function of this calibre. At the time, I took it very personally. And, at that moment, I grew. I wanted to show them that I am experienced and the fact that I am a woman has nothing to do with it.?

I applied for my second master’s degree in construction project management. I never wanted to be in that position again.?

Q: Do you think your experience has driven an underlying fear of being under-qualified? Is a third master’s degree on the cards?

JS: A PhD could be an option eventually, but I am also interested in the intersection of human psychology and marketing. If I found a subject of interest that would resonate with me, then I would pursue further study. In terms of additional qualifications for my role, I have learned so much and have seen where things have gone wrong. I have had to react quickly to solve complex issues, and this cannot necessarily be taught. I am confident I can handle a lot of stuff going wrong now.?

I also want to explore human nature and how females can support each other in this industry. I don’t think there is much out there. Interestingly, having spoken to several people working in the industry in the seventies and eighties, a lot has changed. Sure, things have improved, but there is a long way to go.?

Q: When starting a project, are there any clear indicators that highlight when there is not a good start, or that there will be challenges???

JS: Of any project, the ultimate goal is what the client wants to achieve. If they are keeping a budget, then I am very strict.?

At the moment, I am involved in a nice development project for a lovely couple of clients. I know the architects well and so I said, “No problem. Let’s work together on that.” A little into the project and we had a surprise from a Thames Water surveyor: a shared drainage running across the whole garden. Although nobody knew about this, we managed the risk before entering into a contract with builders and construction companies. “What could be the implications?”, “How would we manage changes to the foundations or anything that might follow up from such discoveries?”, were key questions.?

If the ultimate goal was to carry out the development as soon as possible and the budget was not limited, then it would have been an entirely different story. There are three qualities that every client should consider: time, cost, and quality. You can always have two out of three. Therefore, you need to ask yourself which two are most important? The third will be a form of compromise.?

Q: That’s an excellent point. Reflecting on the developments I have done, you are right. There always must be a compromise on one of those. You can have a low-value product and skimp on the finish, but it is delivered on time and on a low budget. You might exceed the budget and have an amazing finish, but the trade-off has been the extra time required to reach that level of quality.?

Is there ever a case in which you can tick all three boxes of time, cost and quality??

JS: Personally, I don’t think there is. Finding the balance between the three, being reasonable in expectations, and identifying the two most important qualities are the most important steps in any project.

If you buy cheap, want it quickly, and budgets are tight, then the quality of the end finish will need to be compromised. If timing and quality are priority, you will need to pay extra. Amazing quality that is cheap and quick does not necessarily exist – or would take forever. This is why prioritising two out of three and being realistic is so important.?

Q: I remember talking to Tal Orly, founder and CEO of Cogress (a big property funding company), and he said that out of fifty or so deals they have been involved in, not a single one has come in on time or budget.?

Is this something you have experienced as well? Or does a project manager need to work harder????

JS: Everyone thinks that construction projects only start when the shovel hits the ground and end when the builders leave the site and keys are returned. I view this process differently. I view myself as a gatekeeper; I am the bridge between the team and the client. At the very start of the project process, we send the brief up of what we are doing. In this, we also detail the team – who is the architect, who is the mechanical, electrical, or structural engineer, etc. I believe the more specific we can be from the beginning, the more confidence we have in the construction phase.?

Planning is everything. Timelines are key. If we plan for a design, or even concept development, and we do not allow ourselves time to check off everything, then the construction element will go badly. This returns to the three qualities we discussed earlier, where two will need to be chosen. If we have all the time in the world, then we can plan, schedule, and manage/mitigate potential risks. If time is critical to the development and there is a rush, then it is likely something will be overlooked, or something goes wrong.?

Q: I agree. Failing to plan is planning to fail.?

JS: A few years back, I was a consultant on a commercial development project where the investor was the father of a good friend of mine. I do not get involved with commercial projects nowadays, but on this occasion I was happy to help. Planning did take forever, but at no point did anyone consider an alternative to traditional contracting.?

Within British contracting methods, the two most popular ones are where the design element lies solely with the contractor. Conversely, traditional procurement dictates that the design element is the client’s responsibility, and the contractor only deals with the building and whatever is shown on the drawings.

The project site was a plot of land that had been vacant for over twenty years. The client wanted to build three to four commercial units and had this all designed. A traditional contract was drawn up and a start date agreed with the builders. It turns out the land wasn’t empty. It had been used as a dumping site by the neighbourhood for years. When the rubble and rubbish was cleared, asbestos fibres contaminated the soil.?

Six months down the line and the project had stalled. Nobody was interested in hurrying up or solving issues. It was at this point I was introduced to the job. What’s going wrong here? What scale of contamination are we talking about? What costs are we looking at? It was an interesting learning for me to inform the client that someone had made a mistake on the risk assessment and that this lengthy delay could have been avoided.?

Q: It is interesting that often the cost of a project manager is not factored into the total project cost. From my own experience, I know project managers pay for themselves.?

JS: I have seen loads of work where not having a project manager involved caused complications further down the line, particularly with higher-end residential developments. “We can do it ourselves”, “We don’t need someone like that,” is a common stance. The issue is that that person does not necessarily understand everything that can go wrong, or the contracting methods and clauses where claims can arise. Of course, it is physically possible, but when things go wrong in construction, they tend to struggle. At that point, hindsight is a wonderful thing. Issues could have been avoided if a project manager was appointed from the start.?

Last year, a development I finished was an absolutely gorgeous little boutique Georgian hotel. Jane Austen’s brother, Henry Thomas Austen, lived there back in the 18th century, and this formed part of the backstory. The entire fit-out was stunning and quirky. Because the building was 18th century, many parties were involved. There were architects, interior designers, structural engineers, mechanical engineers, AV specialists, people from the hotel management scheme, the hotel manager, the client, and the client’s wife. With such a high number of stakeholders, we struggled to pinpoint who had the final sign off. A project manager appointed in such a project is a crucial element because they pull together all the opinions and condenses them for the client to review. We are doing A and B, C said this, D objected to that. Without this, there is loads of ambiguity, delays are common, and valuable development time is wasted. This is what happened.?

Q: There is a lot of news of overall price increases, as the cost of materials and labour increases. Is this something that you are experiencing? If so, by what sort of amounts are you seeing??

JS: We can definitely see a change. I think we are slowly getting back to normal, which is a good thing. The last six months have shown that the market can just flip on its head. By all means, it was a smart contractor market. The cost of materials increased, and this did impact the actual prices of projects. Usually, the cost of materials ranges from about 30% to 40% of the project value, and some materials did increase. Overall, the impact was about a 5% increase on project cost. I do not think this made much of a significant impact.

With materials, it can be quite easy to avoid potential price hikes as for big projects you can order in advance and keep stock. You will use the materials eventually. With labour, you can’t do this. You can’t say, “Actually hold here for three weeks because we will need your services to do all of the dry linings.” Labour costs are currently hitting the industry hard. I know quite a few contractors, and have done for years, and they have struggled particularly with finding reliable sources of labour and tradesmen who wouldn’t just down tools and go work on another site for an extra one pound per hour. There was a group of five builders who had been working together since high school and, because of this atmosphere of jumping ship to move onto a higher paying site, they went their separate ways. It’s pretty sad.?

Q: Why do you think that there is such a shortage of quality contractors? Is Brexit to blame, or something else??

JS: I do not think Brexit, or the pandemic is to blame. I think people had time over lockdown to reconsider their life goals and what they want from life.?

Let’s take an unskilled labourer as an example – someone who drives a wheelbarrow around the site for most of the day. It is a hard job, and often they are not paid enough for the impact they make on-site. Last year, they used to get between ￡10 and ￡12 per hour. When lockdown happened, these people were out of work and they had a chance to try a different profession, such as an Amazon delivery driver. The new roles could potentially pay better and allow for more flexibility in their personal life. I think this is a huge driving factor in the labour shortage, and it important to note that it affected almost all industries. Lockdown made a huge difference to everyone’s mentality. It was not people running away to other countries because of Brexit.?

Q: That’s interesting. I noticed that there seemed to be a wave of quality construction professionals from Poland in the UK, who then returned home or to Europe, to earn the same amount they were making here. I had a great team of Polish guys working with me, followed by Romanian and Albanian construction workers. I do feel that we have not got that excellent stream of high-quality contractors anymore.

Are you seeing more English construction workers? Who is filling the void now?

JS: In my whole career, I have met maybe a couple of British professionals on-site. I don’t think I know many, or that they are even out there. I recall some Brexit voters saying about non-British workers, “Go back to your own countries. You are taking away all of the jobs that we need.” Interestingly, I do not see British people queuing up to work on-site doing dry lining or running around with a wheelbarrow. There is, though, still that level of people coming in. There are Polish, Albanians, and Romanians coming here to work. The latter tends to stay, while the former tends to return home.?

I think there’s something in Polish culture that pulls them back to settle there. This happened before Brexit, and I know this from people I have met and my Polish friends. Many returned home because they made enough money to live the lifestyle they wanted to. I think this is just the nature of being human – a pull towards home. Poland is constructed with small villages where families have lived for centuries. People know each other and often are friends since primary school. There’s community spirit and a unique social element that the UK doesn’t quite have.?

In Albania, the districts are built and constructed differently. There isn’t quite the same community spirit as Poland has. For this reason, it is apparently easier for Albanians to move away. It is fantastic to see the rise in Albanian communities out here, as the people are not isolated and form close friendships. It is refreshing to see that these people are not just co-workers working five days a week, but a team working in harmony.

Q: Are you seeing a rise in modern construction methods, like cross-laminated timber and the Huf Haus style of flat-pack housing?

JS: Much of my work takes place in London with traditional buildings. When someone wants to add a little bit of a modernistic look to their house, obtaining planning can be a challenge as the neighbours object that the development is not in-keeping with the surrounding area. The complaints are not necessarily in the official sense, but more in the social sense.

Another project took three years for planning to be granted, for this same reason. The development was the construction of super sustainable modern houses, but many objections were made as it did not reflect the traditional look of the area. Outside of the M25, people are starting to break away from tradition. They are waking up to the fact that it is nice to have variety in the built environment. Not everything has to blend in with terrace housing and architecture from the 50s, 60s and 70s. I think people in London still have an appetite for the traditional, particularly in areas where buildings are protected. Sometimes people in London struggle to paint their houses a different colour, and so adding a touch of modernism to houses can be too futuristic and met with resistance.??

Q: You started your company just before the pandemic. Projects were launching and then the industry went into lockdown. How did that go for you??

JS: Before launching my company, I used to work as a commercial director at a construction company. I was overworked, needed a break, and I wanted to leave. The pandemic hit and the number one principle for me remained moving onto greener pastures. I was concerned about being employed again by someone else, and so I decided that the way forward would be to start my own company and see what happened. Former colleagues and clients started to get in touch. They called to ask, “What are you going to do now? What’s your plan?” and then, “Can we help you with anything? Is there anything you could help us with?”.?

It was almost like people from earlier in my career started to do my marketing for me. They began to look for clients and projects for me. It was lovely. This helped me immensely and kept the momentum going for the first awkward months of the pandemic. This is how it all started.?

Q: What does your company, Star Projects, specialise in??

JS: We provide time-poor high net worth clientele with everything they need to refurbish their London property, removing the stress, mess, and hassle. We manage projects and provide dynamic property consultancy for those that cannot necessarily be involved every step of the way. We represent the client and are not a faceless person at the end of an email. It is all about giving the client the headspace and privacy they want, so that they are not bombarded with emails or informed of every little detail.?

It is all about understanding exactly what the client wants. Every communication is structured around obtaining answers to the key questions. We take the load off to spare the client from being questioned by all the professionals on the project and to avoid them sitting up at night Googling to find the answer. This is what we deliver.?

Because I learned my profession from making mistakes and then understanding what needs to be changed or rectified, I know not to make them again. This informs the project management. It is not the easiest way of learning the profession. Mistakes can be costly. A mistake means under-delivery and a potential impact on your confidence, let alone impacting the client.

Going forward, my mission is to provide opportunities for younger girls looking to enter the construction industry. I want to create some form of mentorship, because when I was 21, I benefited from that. Although I started out in the muddy boots role, this is not everyone’s cup of tea, and so we want to open opportunities for those that have the desire to work in different sectors of the industry. There is nothing wrong with the muddy boots role, but some people have their hearts set on being a quantity surveyor, project manager, commercial manager, or operations manager. We want to provide these young women with the guidance on how to get there.?

Q: I believe there is a demand for that. If there are any queries, I will certainly be sending them to you, Julia. What is the best way for people to contact you??

JS: I am quite active on LinkedIn, or they can approach me on Instagram starprojects.london. I am also available on email: [email protected]. I usually reply within 48 hours, so feel free to contact me and we can have a chat.?

Q: I met you on LinkedIn, so thank you very much for connecting with me there. I know this will be a very interesting podcast for many people in the industry who require a good project manager and also for women who want to enter the industry.?

Thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us.?

JS: Thank you Nicole.?

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