Job specialisms for graduate building surveyors

As a graduate building surveyor you could work in a role where you can do a bit of everything, or choose to specialise in a specific job area.

The breadth of the building surveying sector means that you can make what you want of your career. Many surveyors enjoy the sheer variety of their work and so choose to remain ‘generalists’, applying their building surveying expertise in different ways to a number of different projects as they climb their firm’s hierarchy. Others might choose to specialise in an aspect of surveying, such as:

  • a particular type of building or project, eg retail or historic
  • refurbishment projects or new builds
  • dilapidations
  • tenancy dispute resolutions
  • party wall awards
  • building works
  • sustainability
  • disability accessibility
  • insolvency and corporate recovery (projects in financial difficulty).

How your firm will affect your career path

Whether you specialise depends in part on your personal aspirations and preferences and partly on the type of firm you join: some will steer you towards a specialism according to the needs of their business, while others will expect you to be an all-round surveyor. You don’t have to make a decision yet, but it’s something to consider when choosing which employers to apply to.

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