Jay Morgan reflects on his first six weeks as a new Energy Assessor at Murton & Co

It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster since I started, but the highs definitely outweigh the lows. I started off surveying one simple building a week then spent a few days doing the modelling and building it for the client, but now I’m keeping pace with Jonny. We’ve just been working on 14 retail units in Chelmsford high street which was a giant job and meant surveying up to seven buildings in one day; we did a couple together, then I went off to do one on my own and we’d met up later. There’s a massive amount of information to absorb but I now understand more complex work, can manage all the reading and calculations involved and use DesignBuilder more confidently.

I’m certainly not on the phone with Jonny as much as I was a few weeks ago when I needed to call him with a question sometimes eight or nine times a day. Jonny has his own way of doing things and can be quite a stern teacher but that’s helping me progress at a quicker pace. He realises I need to learn by repetition and even on the ninth call he’s still patient, joking: “Just call me Yoda.” We speak on WhatsApp, and also use FaceTime or Quick Assist to share our computer screens which has been really useful. Next up we have a mammoth 27 units in London to survey and I’m already looking forward to getting stuck into different types of buildings. Dome roofs are the only feature that look a bit daunting to draw!

My four-day NDEA training certainly didn’t prepare me for the variety of buildings and challenges I’ve faced. I’m sure that if I’d just started out on my own after the course – without shadowing Jonny and now getting his support – it wouldn’t have been such a smooth transition into work. There should be the option of an apprenticeship for new Energy Assessors, so that trainees can do more surveys while they’re learning and get checked and tested along the way.

I’ve met a range of landlords and tenants on the jobs so far – everyone’s been very friendly – but sometimes the people you first encounter on site aren’t always expecting you and just look at you blankly which means you might have to call someone else to confirm the appointment. Although you’re thinking about lighting and flooring, you find yourself in a Claire’s Accessories shop at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, trying to explain to a staff member what you need to be doing when they want to shut the shop and go home at 5pm. That’s when good people skills are important.

The biggest challenge – and one which I didn’t predict – was managing and co-ordinating a number of different disciplines as an Energy Assessor. However, I’ve tried to apply my background as a professional drummer to my work; just like the way you play a beat by balancing your left hand, right hand and foot so that all the different beats sound as one, you need to liaise with clients, walk into a building, take the measurements, and log an EPC as one smooth manoeuvre – not breaking into it different parts.

Some days I start on site at 8am, am home by 3pm, then I’ll process the data, log it on the Elmhurst website with the EPC, produce the invoice and I’m finished by 4pm. Other days are longer if I have to travel further to a site, and I can spend quite a lot of time on the road. I recently drove to Poole and back which was a six-hour round trip and got home about 7pm, but I was still buzzing and really had to stop myself from getting on with the processing work until the next morning. I’ve even been up until after midnight for the last couple of nights while Jonny and I were away, working on plans.

There are a lot of people out there who couldn’t stick the hours or pressure, and some who are happy staying in their comfort zone and don’t want to change. That was me before I retrained, but not now. I’m learning every day, finding things to explore and gaining confidence. I’m working very hard but I’m really happy.