When a degree isn’t enough

By Tess Guieb

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I started work as a temporary employee in a realty firm and was absorbed as permanent employee after three months.  Having some experience in dealing with commercial leasing, I thought my knowledge was sufficient to help me do my job well.  When I began joining team meetings and was caught tongue tied in most of the discussions, I realized that what I knew was not enough.

A colleague suggested that if I really would like to stay in this field, I should consider taking some courses to enhance my knowledge.  Although I am familiar with some of the basic concepts on leasing and property management, applying them at work here in Canada is entirely different.

I started looking into several designations offered by some leading organizations in property and facilities management.  I came across Building Owners and Managers Institute (BOMI), which offers professional designation programs through self-study, online courses and classroom courses. I decided to pursue the Real Property Administration (RPA) designation.  I needed to finish seven mandatory courses and one elective course.  Throughout the study program, I also need to gain some experience in property management.

Since I am not confident about taking the courses via self study, I started the first one by enrolling in the classroom course which normally requires students to read the textbook before the classes start.  The classroom course is a four-day accelerated program whereby the instructor goes over the important items in the textbook and gives additional information on topics that need further discussion or clarifications.  The textbook is normally composed of 15 chapters so I read one chapter a day before the classroom discussions.

I realized most of the people enrolled in the class came from the same industry so a few of them were already acquaintances.  Some had been in the industry for quite some time; others were property managers while some were building operators.  The good thing about being around these people who were well informed in the field was that I learned a lot from them during the discussions.  In that class, I was the neophyte having the least experience and knowledge on building operations and management.

My manager told me that in preparation for the exam, I needed to focus on the key items, review questions and practice exam in the textbook because 90 percent of the test questions would be taken from them.  We were given another two weeks to review.  This time, I made it a point to go over the key items of three chapters per day.  The following week I did the same thing and a day before the exam, I took a day off and reviewed the whole day.  True enough when the results came out after a month, I did not just pass the test but did so with flying colors.

I realized that I could do three courses in a year giving myself a month’s break in between.  I took mostly the classroom courses so I could be enlightened on some topics that were not clear to me. When they stopped doing the classroom courses, I opted for the self study program since I had no time for the online courses.  With a lot of sacrifice and self discipline, I passed each course with a grade not lower than 90 percent.  I even scored 100 percent in one of the courses I took.

After two and a half years, I finally received my designation and can now affix the initials RPA after my name.  A colleague from Montreal convinced me to continue studying and do the Facilities Management Administration (FMA) since I would only need to take three more courses to get it.

So far, I have done the first course and passed the exam and am now enrolled in the second one.  Hopefully in the first quarter of 2012, I would have received my second designation.