Property interview advice: close the deal on your graduate job

Would-be graduate property surveyors face one or two interviews during the recruitment process, depending on the firm. If they sit two interviews (like at Knight Frank and Jones Lang LaSalle), the first is typically conducted by HR, often over the telephone, and the second is conducted by a partner or senior professional at the firm. Firms which have just the one interview (like at BNP Paribas Real Estate and Cushman & Wakefield) will typically be led by the partner, but may also include a HR representative. These days, the interviews with partners are usually held as part of an assessment centre.

• What happens at property graduate assessment centres

What questions will you be asked?

The interviewers’ aims are to find out whether you have the essential skills and attributes to be successful in the job, whether you’d be a ‘good fit’ in the organisation, and that you really want to work for the organisation.

• GVA and Gerald Eve recruiters share their interview questions and tips on how to answer them

Do your research
‘Candidates immediately disadvantage themselves at interview if they haven’t researched the APC or what we do.’
Karen Poulton, graduate recruitment and diversity manager, Cushman & Wakefield

You can expect to be asked questions about:

• your skills and competencies (‘Tell me about a time when…’)
• your motivations for applying to the firm
• your strengths and weaknesses
• about your knowledge of the property industry/the firm
• your technical knowledge or aspects of your property course (but only if you have studied/are studying an RICS accredited degree)

‘We usually have around ten set questions and they are a mixture of technical questions, competence-based questions and more traditional questions, such as what your strengths are,’ confirms Ian Clark, a partner at Montagu Evans.

Graduate recruitment and development manager at DTZ Shan Nelson's favourite interview question is ‘What are the best and worst decisions you’ve made over the last two years?’

Cushman & Wakefield interviewers ask competency based questions as well as probing your motivation for working in property, for example: ‘What do you do outside of work?’ and ‘Why would you like to work for Cushman & Wakefield?’ Karen Poulton, the graduate recruitment and diversity manager, also likes to ask people what motivates them: ‘You can get a whole range of answers from running marathons to raising money for charities. You get a glimpse of what makes someone tick and what really motivates them outside of academia.’

Past interview questions at Jones Lang LaSalle have included: ‘Describe a time when you were faced with an unethical challenge. How did you address the situation?’ and ‘Describe a time when you had a difficulty at work. How did you handle it?’

Essential prep for a property surveying graduate interview

From the nature of the questions above, it’s clear that you need to do some preparation on the firm. ‘One thing we check for at interview is that graduates know what’s going on in the industry,’ says Ian. Karen agrees: ‘Candidates immediately disadvantage themselves at interview if they haven’t researched the APC or what we do.’

Revisit the research you did on the firm. You need to know:

• the markets they operate in
• something about entry positions and career progression within the firm
• recent developments in the industry that may affect the firm
• their main competitors.

But you also need to do some preparation on yourself: you need to come up with good answers to likely questions about you and your skills. And ask yourself: why do I want the job with this firm? It needs to be a lot more specific than ‘I just want to be a surveyor’ – you don’t want to give the impression that any employer would do (even if it would). Use your research into the firm to match your qualities to aspects of the graduate scheme.

• Five good answers to tough interview questions

What interviewers at Knight Frank want
‘For me, the test is always to make sure that the graduate I’m interviewing is going to be able to communicate with a client in a clear and logical way.’
Robert Hannington, director of the London commercial graduate scheme and proprietary partner

What questions should you ask at the end of a surveying interview?

You’ll be given a chance to ask questions of your own at the end of the interview. Always take the opportunity to do so, as this suggests that you are genuinely interested in the job and want to find out more. Your questions shouldn’t cover anything that can be found in their recruitment literature, as that would give the impression that you haven’t done your research. Stay away from salaries and benefits, too. Instead you could ask:

• for more details on the firm’s support through the APC or the structure within departments/teams
• about a particular piece of work the firm has undertaken
• whether the interviewer enjoys working for the firm.

Interviewing golden rules for property graduates

Prepare, prepare, prepare: We’ve spoken about the need to research the firm and preparing some questions to ask interviewer, but don’t forget the basics. Sort out your interview outfit in advance and polish your shoes. Plan how to get to your interview, book your travel tickets (if appropriate) in advance and aim to arrive early. Charge your mobile phone and programme in the contact details of the office in case of travel delays. Print out a fresh copy of your application to take with you, along with any supporting information.

Have a structure to your answers: ‘For me, the test is always to make sure that the graduate I’m interviewing is going to be able to communicate with a client in a clear and logical way,’ says Robert Hannington, director of the London commercial graduate scheme and proprietary partner at Knight Frank. When answering skills-based questions, structure your answers using STAR (explain the Situation, the Tasks you needed to complete, your Actions and the Results). For other types of questions, explain your thought processes: ‘I would take X action because…’.

Don’t be thrown if you don’t know the answer: If you need time to think, take a sip of water. Don’t be afraid to ask them to clarify the question if you’re unsure what they mean. If you’re stumped by a technical question, it’s perfectly fine to say so: ‘If you don’t know the answer, it is sometimes better to say “I would refer to… another colleague/an RICS code” than to guess the answer,’ says Alex Glendinning, learning and development manager, at Capita Symonds.

Have good examples of your skills: The best candidates always do. Karen from Cushman & Wakefield recalls: ‘One candidate I interviewed explained how they had displayed flexibility on a trip abroad. She had lost documentation while in South America, couldn’t speak the language, was travelling alone and had no money. How she overcame all of this made for an impressive answer. She was offered a job – not just on the basis of this; all her examples were strong.’