A plan arrives in your inbox. The drawing looks like the one received the day before, but an opening has changed and a dimension is missing. Should you continue the calculation, replace the whole table or ask for clarification? For a candidate for the job of quantity surveyor in BTP in Morocco, this situation is a better starting point than a list of software on a CV. It allows you to show careful reading, an explainable calculation and a way of handling uncertainty.
In its brochure devoted to BTP, OFPPT links the job of quantity surveyor to evaluating the cost of a construction or renovation based on plans or surveys. Our guide focuses on preparing an application: how to make your method understandable, without presenting a personal exercise as a validated professional study. The advice that follows consists of Jawb educational suggestions, to be adapted to the position and the company's instructions.
Understand the position before preparing your file
The word quantity surveyor does not by itself describe your future day. A job posting may cover preparing quantities, supporting price studies, monitoring works or several of these missions. Read the verbs used and the documents mentioned. Also seek to understand who checks the work, when it is submitted and in what format. You will then be able to prepare an example corresponding to the real need, instead of sending an overly general technical file.
Separate the tasks you have already performed from those you have only studied. A training project, a supervised internship and an autonomous responsibility do not prove the same thing. This distinction does not weaken your application. It helps the recruiter to place your level and to consider your support. You can write that you prepared a quantity table under supervision, then specify the checks carried out by your supervisor.
Location also matters. Before applying, check whether the position is mainly office-based, involves travel or requires a regular presence on site. Ask questions about locations, hours and the resources provided. Do not infer these conditions from a photograph of the company. To organize your search and your follow-up, use the Jawb application guide, then adapt your documents to each posting.
Start with a plan reading sheet
Before any formula, prepare a short reading sheet. Note the document's designation, its version, its date if it exists and the elements you are going to measure. Identify the views you need. Information may be visible on a section and absent from the main plan. In an exercise, you must be able to explain why you use one piece of data rather than another, and quickly find its location.
Check the units before copying the dimensions. If your table works in metres, make the conversion explicit. Do not let a colleague guess whether a value is a length, an area or a quantity of elements. The presentation must make errors detectable. A column titled only "total" becomes difficult to interpret when several types of calculation coexist. Prefer a designation that specifies what you are adding up.
A missing dimension must remain identifiable as missing information. Writing a plausible value to complete the table amounts to turning an assumption into data. For your demonstration, instead create a "to be confirmed" status and a precise question. Indicate which part of the result depends on the answer. You thus show that you can make progress on the known elements while preserving the visibility of the file's limits.
Choose an exercise simple enough to be checked
A good application exercise does not need to represent an entire building. You can choose a fictional room and calculate a covering area from clearly provided dimensions. State from the outset that the case is educational and invented. Provide a legible sketch, the dimensions used and the rules specific to this exercise. These rules must not be presented as universal site prescriptions.
Here is a deliberately elementary fictional example: a rectangular room measures four metres by three metres. Its geometric area is twelve square metres. This calculation determines neither a real material order nor a works price. To go further, it would be necessary to specify the covering, the scope of the service and the necessary assumptions. This separation between geometric quantity and ordering need constitutes the real educational interest of the case.
Then add a modification: the length becomes four and a half metres, while the width remains the same. The geometric area becomes thirteen and a half square metres. Keep both versions, show the change and explain the lines concerned. The recruiter can check the calculation without specialized software. You then have a support for talking about reading, units, checking and revision, with fully transparent data.
Build a table that tells the story of the calculation
Organize your table around an identifiable line: area, work, dimension used, unit, formula and result. Add a reference to the sketch or the source document. For a short exercise, a few useful columns are better than a file filled with empty fields. The goal is for another person to understand your work without having to ask you where each value was found. Legibility is part of the demonstration.
Keep input data separate from results. If you modify a dimension, the reader must be able to understand what changes and what remains stable. Avoid entering a total directly when your exercise allows its calculation to be shown. If you use a spreadsheet, also check that the formula concerns the right cells. A correct result obtained by an incorrect formula remains a problem: a later modification could produce an error.
Provide a column for genuinely useful remarks. "Dimension confirmed on sketch B" provides information; "OK" provides little. A pending line must specify the reason for the wait. Do not multiply decorative comments. At the end, the table must distinguish calculated quantities, open points and any exclusions. This structure also helps to prepare a concise file submission.
Handle openings and exclusions without improvising
In a more advanced exercise, you can introduce an opening in a wall. Then describe the calculation rule chosen for the fictional case and its limits. The reader must know whether you are measuring a gross area or an area after deduction. Do not assume that all services follow the same convention. For a real operation, the applicable method must be verified in the project documents and instructions.
Write the exclusions in the same place as the scope. If your exercise concerns only an area, say that you are not calculating accessories, substrate preparation or a complete order. This framing prevents a partial result from being understood as an overall estimate. In an interview, you will be able to explain which additional elements would be needed to complete the study, without inventing quantities you do not have.
OFPPT also mentions, in an old recruitment sheet in civil engineering, the reading of contractual documents and preliminary quantity surveys. That posting is expired; we use it only as a documentary reference on the activities described, never as an open offer. For your current application, above all remember one question: which documents does the employer expect you to be able to read, and with what level of autonomy?
Separate quantity, price and commitment
A quantity can be calculated while its price remains unknown. Your presentation must preserve this distinction. In a fictional file, do not add a rate presented as that of the Moroccan market if you do not have a verifiable reference. You can leave the price empty or use an explicitly fictional value to explain a multiplication, but without making the whole thing look like a usable quote.
To show your method, describe the information you would request before pricing: content of the service, characteristics of the material, unit of the price and conditions of the offer. A comparison is meaningful only if the scopes are comparable. Two different amounts do not immediately allow the conclusion that one solution is cheaper. One may include an operation that the other excludes. Your role in the exercise consists of making this difference visible.
Do not make a commercial commitment on behalf of a company during an interview simulation. Say what you can prepare and what must be validated. A professional answer may be: "I check the quantity and the scope, then I pass on the costing for validation according to the project organization." This wording places your contribution. It is more credible than a promise of an immediate result without sufficient documents.
Prepare a revision that leaves a trace
When a new version arrives, avoid silently replacing the old file. In your exercise, give the versions an understandable name and note the change received. You do not need a complex system: a date, a reference and a short description may suffice. The reader must be able to distinguish the initial result from the revised result, then understand why they differ.
Check the consequences of the change. A modified dimension may concern several lines if the same dimension was used in several places. Look for dependencies rather than correcting only the first visible cell. If your file is short, reread each line concerned. If you use links between sheets, check that they work. Explain this check in your submission note, without claiming that it eliminates all risk of error.
Prepare a useful transmission message: document used, modification taken into account, revised result and point still open. If a decision is missing, formulate the question and specify its effect on the file. This communication prevents circulating a table whose status no one knows. It also offers a concrete example for answering an interview question about how you work with a design office or a site team.
Use digital tools with an honest level
On your CV, distinguish reading a file, creating a document and modifying a template. The name of a software alone is not enough to describe your skill. Indicate the operation you know how to perform and the context in which you have practised it. If you are learning a tool, you can say so simply. A recruiter may ask you to perform a manipulation; your description must match what you are able to show.
For a portfolio, provide a legible export without a particular subscription. You can keep the working file for a demonstration, but a summary document helps to understand the result. Check for cut-off pages, hidden columns and characters that are too small. A screenshot alone rarely shows all the assumptions. Accompany it with a short text specifying the input data, the method and the checks.
If you use digital assistance to write a note or check a formula, take the result back and check it yourself. Do not transmit confidential plans to an unauthorized service. To practise, start from fictional documents created by you. The relevant question in an interview concerns your reasoning: you must be able to explain the calculation even when the tool is not available, and identify what the tool does not check.
Make checking a visible step
Set aside a real step for rereading. Start with the units, then the dimensions, the formulas and the totals. Then compare the announced scope with the lines present. A table can be arithmetically correct and forget an area planned in the exercise. Your check must therefore cover both the calculations and the coverage of the subject. Note the checks carried out concisely.
If possible, ask a classmate to reread your simulation. Give them the same information as that intended for the recruiter, without explaining each line in advance. If they do not understand an assumption, improve the document. This rereading is not a professional validation of a real project. It allows you to test the clarity of your presentation and to identify the places where you have kept information only in your head.
You can also prepare a deliberate error in a separate copy of the exercise to train yourself to detect it. For example, a fictional dimension entered in centimetres in a column intended for metres. Identify the cause, correct it and explain how to avoid its repetition. Keep a clean final version for applying. This work helps you talk about checking other than by simply stating that you are rigorous.
Present your method during the interview
Begin your presentation with the scope of the exercise. Then explain the source of the dimensions, the calculation chosen, a check and a limit. Give the recruiter time to ask questions. A short file that you master allows a more precise exchange than a long presentation impossible to go through. If a question goes beyond your experience, identify what you would need to check before answering.
In particular, prepare these situations: a dimension is missing, two documents contradict each other, a result changes after a revision, or the requested deadline does not allow everything to be checked. Your answer must show how you make the problem visible and to whom you address a request for validation. Do not turn the interview into the story of a site you have never monitored. Use your fictional case and clearly indicate the steps that would remain supervised.
Ask your own questions about the team's practices. Who validates the quantities? How are new versions transmitted? What formats are expected? Which part of the position will be supported at the start? These questions shed light on the daily work and help you assess the fit with your level. To prepare a presentation of your achievements, also consult our guide on the skills portfolio.
Send a sober file and continue your learning
Your file can bring together a targeted CV, a clearly fictional exercise and a method note. Remove documents belonging to a former employer or a client when you do not have authorization to distribute them. Do not assume that removing a name is enough to make a plan shareable. A personal simulation offers a simpler solution for showing your reasoning without exposing the information of a real project.
Before sending, reread the contact details, the job title, the documents requested and the file names. Check that the employer is identifiable and that the posting is still open. A page describing a job or a construction project does not constitute a job offer. Keep a record of your application and the questions raised. You will thus be able to adjust your preparation based on real exchanges, without multiplying identical submissions.
After each interview, choose one skill to work on: reading a section, organizing the table, managing a revision or explaining an assumption. Take your exercise again and improve that part. For a quantity surveyor job in Morocco, a convincing file makes your calculations verifiable and your level understandable. It allows the employer to see what you already know how to do, what you check and what still requires support.
Professional references: OFPPT BTP brochure; old OFPPT civil engineering sheet, expired posting. These documents shed light on the activities; they do not constitute a list of currently open recruitments.
