Top 12 Quantity Surveyor Skills to Put on Your Resume

In today's competitive job market, standing out as a quantity surveyor takes more than qualifications. You need sharp technical capability, steady judgment, and people skills that make collaboration feel frictionless. Calling out the right skills on your resume helps you cut through the noise and signals exactly how you add value from pre-contract to final account.

Quantity Surveyor Skills

1. CostX
2. BIM (Building Information Modeling)
3. AutoCAD
4. Revit
5. Primavera P6
6. MS Excel
7. Navisworks
8. QS Plus
9. RICS Standards
10. Value Engineering
11. Risk Analysis
12. Contract Negotiation

1. CostX

RIB CostX is a takeoff and estimating platform built for digital measurement, benchmarked rates, and model-based quantities, helping quantity surveyors manage costs with speed and traceability across the project lifecycle.

Why It's Important

CostX streamlines measurement and estimating, reduces manual errors, and ties quantities to source drawings and models. That brings stronger auditability, faster updates, and tighter cost control.

How to Improve CostX Skills

Improving CostX for a Quantity Surveyor means pushing accuracy, speed, and smarter use of features:

1. Training and Certification: Complete official product training and refresh regularly when new versions land.

2. Customization and Templates: Build templates, rate libraries, and standard measurement methods for repeatable outputs.

3. Integrate BIM: Use model-based takeoff for dynamic quantities; validate properties and model structure with clear naming conventions.

4. Advanced Measurement Tools: Master 2D and 3D measurement tools, revision comparison, and workbooks for complex assemblies.

5. Data and Reporting: Produce dashboards and cost reports that tie back to drawings/models, with change logs and assumptions noted.

6. Peer Exchange: Share workflows with other users, compare approaches, and adopt proven shortcuts.

With disciplined setups and model-aware workflows, you’ll move faster and defend your numbers with ease.

How to Display CostX Skills on Your Resume

2. BIM (Building Information Modeling)

BIM is a digital, data-rich representation of a built asset. For a QS, it means measurable geometry, structured information, and coordinated models that feed quantity takeoff, change tracking, and cost planning from concept to handover.

Why It's Important

BIM enables precise takeoffs, consistent classifications, and collaboration across disciplines. You get fewer clashes, cleaner updates, and better forecasting.

How to Improve BIM (Building Information Modeling) Skills

Push for accuracy, repeatability, and team alignment:

1. Deepen Skills: Train on leading tools and keep pace with new features and standards.

2. Use the Right Tools: Apply Revit, Navisworks, and cost takeoff connectors for structured, auditable quantities.

3. Collaborate in the Cloud: Work in shared environments (e.g., Autodesk Construction Cloud) with clear permissions and model-sharing protocols.

4. Follow Standards: Align with recognized information management frameworks such as ISO 19650 for naming, versioning, and exchanges.

5. Data Discipline: Validate parameters, classifications, and units to keep takeoffs robust and comparable.

6. Stay Current: Track industry updates, model coordination practices, and measurement conventions.

Good BIM equals cleaner quantities and calmer cost reviews.

How to Display BIM (Building Information Modeling) Skills on Your Resume

3. AutoCAD

AutoCAD creates precise 2D/3D drawings. For QS work, that means dependable dimensions, clear details, and a source of truth for measured areas, lengths, and counts.

Why It's Important

It underpins quantification, supports quick design markups, and keeps changes controllable. You get better estimates because your measurements match the drawing, line by line.

How to Improve AutoCAD Skills

Make it lean and reliable:

1. Customize Tool Palettes: Build palettes for QS tasks—layers, annotation styles, blocks, and measurement tools at your fingertips.

2. Automate with AutoLISP: Script repetitive work like area extractions and layer management.

3. Use Data Extraction: Pull attributes and geometry data into tables for takeoffs and export to spreadsheets for estimating.

4. Link to Data: Connect drawings with external data sources to keep rates and item lists current.

5. Tune Performance: Run the latest stable release and use hardware suited for large files and xrefs.

6. Keep Learning: Revisit productivity features each release; small upgrades add up.

Efficient setups, clean layers, and smart data flows make your takeoffs faster and sturdier.

How to Display AutoCAD Skills on Your Resume

4. Revit

Revit is a BIM authoring tool. It structures geometry and data so you can extract quantities, drive cost plans, and trace changes with confidence.

Why It's Important

It enables automated takeoffs and reliable scheduling, which lowers rework and tightens estimate accuracy. Less guesswork, more evidence.

How to Improve Revit Skills

Target automation and clarity:

1. Customize Schedules: Build QS-ready schedules with formulas, filters, and shared parameters to match NRM or project-specific breakdowns.

2. Use Dynamo: Automate data checks, parameter population, and export routines to shrink manual steps.

3. Adopt Relevant Add-ins: Explore takeoff and data tools (e.g., cost takeoff connectors, parameter management utilities) that improve extraction fidelity.

4. Collaborate Smart: Use cloud worksharing and model coordination to reduce duplication and keep versions aligned.

5. Continuous Practice: Review new features, test sample projects, and build a library of repeatable QS workflows.

When your schedules mirror how you estimate, everything clicks—inputs, outputs, and sign-offs.

How to Display Revit Skills on Your Resume

5. Primavera P6

Primavera P6 is enterprise scheduling and controls software used to plan, resource, and sequence complex projects—also tying budgets and earned value into the timeline.

Why It's Important

For a QS, it connects cost and time. You can cost-load activities, monitor cashflow, and see the impact of change before it hits the bottom line.

How to Improve Primavera P6 Skills

Blend scheduling technique with cost control:

1. Ground Yourself in PM Basics: Critical path, float, baselines, and change control make P6 outputs meaningful.

2. Formal Training: Take structured coursework and labs focused on cost loading, resource leveling, and earned value.

3. Practice on Real Scenarios: Build mock schedules from past projects; pressure-test updates and what-if analyses.

4. Master Cost Features: Use cost accounts, budgets, forecasts, and performance indices to track health accurately.

5. Connect the Stack: Exchange data with estimating and QS systems for aligned codes and smoother reporting.

6. Iterate and Improve: Review performance after each project and refine coding structures and templates.

Good schedules tell the cost story without drama. Make yours do that.

How to Display Primavera P6 Skills on Your Resume

6. MS Excel

Excel anchors QS work—cost plans, cashflows, comparisons, reconciliations, and data checks—thanks to its formulas, models, and flexible reporting.

Why It's Important

It’s fast, transparent, and universal. When you need to validate figures, summarize a mountain of data, or publish a clean report, Excel steps in.

How to Improve MS Excel Skills

Level up with tools that save hours:

1. Learn Modern Functions: Prioritize XLOOKUP, INDEX+MATCH, SUMIFS, FILTER, and dynamic arrays for agile models.

2. PivotTables and Charts: Summarize big datasets fast and visualize cost drivers clearly.

3. Data Validation: Lock down inputs with lists and rules to prevent garbage in, garbage out.

4. Macros and VBA: Automate imports, formatting, and QA checks to remove repetitive grind.

5. Conditional Formatting: Spotlight risks, deltas, and exceptions instantly.

6. Power Query and Power Pivot: Clean, reshape, and model multi-source data for serious reporting.

7. Templates and Standards: Build reusable sheets with consistent structures, notes, and version control.

Great spreadsheets don’t happen by accident—structure them, then let them work for you.

How to Display MS Excel Skills on Your Resume

7. Navisworks

Navisworks aggregates models for review, quantification, coordination, and simulation—handy for QS teams who want trustworthy quantities and fewer surprises in the field.

Why It's Important

It delivers integrated model analysis, accurate takeoffs, clash detection, and 4D simulations, which altogether sharpen cost control and decision-making.

How to Improve Navisworks Skills

Use the right features, the right way:

1. Quantification: Build item catalogs, map model properties, and run structured takeoffs with traceability back to the model.

2. Clash Detective: Identify conflicts early to cut rework allowances and contingency guesses.

3. Timeliner: Link tasks to model elements for 4D reviews, then align costs with sequence for better cashflow planning.

4. Search and Selection Sets: Create reusable sets to filter, measure, and report at speed.

5. Cloud Collaboration: Exchange models through Autodesk Construction Cloud to keep teams synchronized.

Do this well and your quantities become consistent, defendable, and quick to update.

How to Display Navisworks Skills on Your Resume

8. QS Plus

QS Plus is purpose-built estimating and cost management software that helps quantity surveyors assemble bills, track rates, and manage project costs with consistent structure.

Why It's Important

It standardizes pricing, speeds up BOQ production, and keeps revisions tidy—so your estimates stay consistent from tender to final account.

How to Improve QS Plus Skills

Make the tool sing with practice and structure:

1. Learn the Core Modules: Measurement, pricing, reporting, and libraries—understand how they connect.

2. Courses and Tutorials: Complete structured training and refreshers; build a sandbox project to experiment.

3. Practice on Real Data: Recreate old estimates and compare outputs to sharpen accuracy.

4. Community and Peers: Swap tips, templates, and coding structures with other users.

5. Keep Updated: Apply updates, review release notes, and refine your templates accordingly.

6. Review and Improve: After each project, tune libraries, notes, and report layouts.

Consistency is king. Templates and disciplined coding deliver it.

How to Display QS Plus Skills on Your Resume

9. RICS Standards

RICS Standards set the professional, ethical, and technical benchmarks for surveying practice. For QS professionals, that includes measurement rules, cost reporting, procurement guidance, and professional conduct.

Why It's Important

They underpin trust. Adherence means consistent outputs, defensible advice, and clear accountability across clients and supply chains.

h4>How to Improve RICS Standards Skills

Keep your practice sharp and aligned:

1. Commit to CPD: Maintain structured continuing professional development and track it diligently.

2. Apply NRM: Use the RICS New Rules of Measurement for consistent cost planning, procurement measurement, and lifecycle considerations.

3. Ethics First: Follow the RICS global professional and ethical standards—conflicts, transparency, and public interest come before convenience.

4. Engage with Updates: Review consultations and policy changes; adjust templates and methods to match current guidance.

5. Peer Review: Encourage internal audits and cross-reviews to keep outputs aligned with standards.

Standards aren’t paperwork—they’re your backbone when decisions are challenged.

How to Display RICS Standards Skills on Your Resume

10. Value Engineering

Value Engineering is a structured method to deliver required function at the lowest total cost—without downgrading performance, safety, or quality.

Why It's Important

It unlocks smarter choices: alternative materials, efficient assemblies, constructability tweaks, and lifecycle wins that keep budgets steady and outcomes strong.

How to Improve Value Engineering Skills

Work methodically and collaboratively:

1. Clarify Scope and Function: Define must-haves, nice-to-haves, and constraints before proposing options.

2. Cost–Benefit Rigor: Compare first costs, lifecycle costs, and risks—not just unit rates.

3. Facilitated Workshops: Run cross-disciplinary sessions and document assumptions, selections, and traceable decisions.

4. Lifecycle Thinking: Consider maintenance, energy, replacement cycles, and residual value.

5. Leverage Digital Tools: Use model-based takeoff and estimating platforms to test options rapidly.

6. Keep Learning: Study VE methodologies and case studies; refine your playbook each project.

The goal isn’t cheaper. It’s smarter value, proven with numbers and sound reasoning.

How to Display Value Engineering Skills on Your Resume

11. Risk Analysis

Risk analysis identifies, evaluates, and manages threats and opportunities that affect cost, time, and quality. In QS practice, it protects budgets and informs decisions.

Why It's Important

It reduces surprises. With quantified risks and response plans, you set realistic contingencies and keep stakeholders aligned.

How to Improve Risk Analysis Skills

Be systematic and quantitative:

1. Identify Thoroughly: Scan commercial, design, market, and construction risks; use checklists and lessons learned.

2. Assess Impact: Apply qualitative scoring and quantitative methods like three-point estimates and Monte Carlo simulation.

3. Plan Responses: Avoid, reduce, transfer, or accept—attach owners, triggers, and budgets to each action.

4. Monitor Continuously: Update registers, re-run analyses after design changes, and track residual risk.

5. Use the Right Tools: Estimating and risk platforms with probability modeling and cost integration improve fidelity.

6. Develop Competence: Attend focused training on construction risk and controls; practice on historic data.

Clear registers, quantified exposure, and calm governance—hallmarks of robust risk work.

How to Display Risk Analysis Skills on Your Resume

12. Contract Negotiation

Contract negotiation is the art and structure of agreeing project terms—scope, time, cost, quality, risk, and remedies—so delivery is clear and fair for all parties.

Why It's Important

Good negotiation prevents disputes, protects margins, and keeps expectations realistic. It sets the tone for the entire job.

How to Improve Contract Negotiation Skills

Prepare deeply, then communicate with purpose:

1. Know the Contract Forms: Understand common forms and clauses (e.g., NEC, FIDIC, JCT) and how risk is allocated.

2. Market Intelligence: Track rates, lead times, and capacity—facts strengthen your position.

3. Define Strategy: Set objectives, trade-offs, and walk-away points before talks begin.

4. Document Everything: Keep a negotiation log; confirm agreements in writing and control versions.

5. Use the Right Tools: Employ reliable collaboration and e-signature platforms to speed execution securely.

6. Practice and Reflect: Role-play, gather feedback, and keep sharpening your approach.

Clarity beats cleverness. Aim for contracts that read clean and perform even better.

How to Display Contract Negotiation Skills on Your Resume