Not everyone who ends up in a surveying firm got there through doing their time at Reading or Oxford Brookes. Helen Osborne charts the trials and tribulations of those who decided to do things differently
Sometimes an education in property isn’t the best path to a career in the industry. Surveying firms are coming round to hiring non-cognate graduates in an effort to ensure that they have the mix of talent to broaden their business.
CB Hillier Parker, for example, has employed half its graduate intake from non-surveying degrees this year.
“The non-cognates have a broader perspective and they have taken an active decision to enter property,” explains CBHP’s head of HR Richard Walden.
There are also other methods of entry into the profession besides university courses, such as the Chartered Surveyors Training Trust. This little publicised organisation (see Neal Pickering box, right) is a work-based training route into chartered surveying in the London area. Most trainees hear about the Trust through careers services.
Leaping industries
Then there are the odd few who have made the leap from industries which appear to have no correlation with property, just as Claire Higgins did (see box opposite).
It is not just about getting the right people in the first place. The kind of ongoing training and support offered to an individual once they’re in the firm and industry is of paramount importance. Sometimes this is non-existent, or in the case of Jones Lang LaSalle employee Harry Banham, merely unsatisfactory.
While firms are making headway in siphoning people from outside the usual recruiting pools, the recruits themselves often find that their new firms are unaware of the skills they can offer.
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Neal Pickering Neal Pickering, business development manager at BW Interiors, is 28 years old – yet, unlike most of his peers in the property industry, he has nearly 13 years of practical experience in a variety of firms. He considers himself more practical than academic and that was his major reason for not following the traditional surveying route. Instead, he completed a BTEC in construction, followed by an HNC, then a part-time degree over three years with the Chartered Surveyors Training Trust. “Lots of 16-year-olds don’t really know what they want to do. This way I gained experience as well as studying,” says Pickering. “However, property firms don’t always know what the Chartered Surveyors Training Trust is.” But he finds that when they do, they regard it and the practical work that trainees do as a good idea. “It’s not cheap labour, but they are getting in someone at an assistant level,” he says. Does this mean more menial work? “On the course you get assessed and they make sure you’re not in a basement. Training is monitored.” After working for architects Stanley Peach & Partners he was recommended by a colleague to FPDSavills, where he was employed while studying for his degree. “When I joined Savills I was 21 and already had five years of experience. I was the same age as a graduate but could do a survey on my own. By the time I left Savills I was 24, had a degree and eight years’ experience.” |
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Claire Higgins Researcher Claire Higgins is not in the habit of divulging her distinctly different background. Although research is one area of property which tends to recruit more from non-cognate areas, her background in film production remains a rarity. So what on earth made her swap a life working on Braveheart and 101 Dalmatians for the rather less glamorous environs of Colliers Conrad Ritblat Erdman’s research department? It was principally because the razzle-dazzle of her previous employment did little to counteract 13-hour days over intensive three- or six-month periods, high pressure and uncertainty. Higgins describes a head-in-hands moment which tested her sanity beyond the compensation of credits and glory: “I was working on Braveheart and the entire set, costing up to £1m, was washed down the river. Then I had a call saying that one of the actresses auditioning for the part eventually played by Sophie Marceau had been trapped in a pile-up.” She realised that the industry was not for her, decided to do some temping, and was placed at Colliers. She was offered a secretarial role in the company, ensured she became involved beyond her duties and was asked to join the research department. She says: “They’re going to kill me for saying this, but I didn’t receive any formal training. It’s all been on the job.” But she found the transition to research straightforward, adding that her background helped. “I benefited because I was coming from a high-pressure job with a lot of responsibility. My overall skills have been useful,” she says. She finds the role varied, likes having time outside work and enjoys working with numbers. |
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Harry Badham As a non-cognate entering the property profession with a civil engineering degree, Harry Badham has been less than impressed with the way the sector has embraced his skills. He thought the transition from civil engineering graduate to property was a natural one, yet it proved to be more challenging than he anticipated. After an enjoyable stint of work experience in the West End with Donaldsons, he set about applying to firms with a graduate scheme for non-cognates. They turned out to be limited in number. He was eventually taken on by Jones Lang LaSalle, who sent him on a one-day-a-week course over two years. But he says: “The work was mindless. The theory with us was that we did a year of one-day-a-week training and then the APC, which was annoying.” And he found it strange being referred to as a “non-cognate”, which he translates as “non-thinker”. He found the situation frustrating because he was doing similar work to his colleagues during that period, but felt “forgotten” in the management department during his first year. “The prospect of doing that for three years was daunting. I felt as if I was banging my head against a brick wall for the first year,” he says. Luckily, the second year was more diverse. Still, starting in the management department “removing pigeon droppings”, followed by a stint in the back room of the valuations department, did not jibe with his high expectations of the industry. With the benefit of reflection, he would have taken a conversion course, though he says:”I don’t think there is a big difference between me and my colleagues in our understanding of property.” He does not direct blame at Jones Lang LaSalle, though: “This company is not bad compared to the rest of the industry. When I was applying to firms as a graduate, half of them refused me straight away – the training was seen as an extra expense.” |
