Showcasing passion for property: how to convince employers you want to work for them

Have personal reasons why you want to work for certain companies and why you want to pursue a career in this sector.

It’s not just your transferable skills and property know-how that recruiters are on the lookout for, the message from employers is clear: we want graduate who have a passion for property and want to work for us . Employers’ recruitment processes are designed to find this out, through application forms, interview questions and at the assessment centre – your enthusiasm for the sector needs to shine through at every stage.

Here we break down three things to keep in mind when showcasing your passion for property :

This comes down to three elements:

1. Make your reasons personal

’Have personal reasons why you want to work for certain companies and why you want to pursue a career in this sector,’ says Tiffany George-Fontaine, next generation recruiter at CBRE . One way of ensuring that your interest in property is genuine is by rooting it in your own experiences – this could be from your own research, a chance encounter or through family friends. Don’t be afraid to tell a personal story.

A word of warning, though: avoid saying that you’ve always wanted to be a surveyor . Not only is it a horrendous cliché that recruiters will have heard/read time and again, it’s also very unlikely to be true (really, ‘always’?) – you want to show that you’ve made a considered career choice to pursue property, and that your passion for the profession has developed over time.

Keep your reasons focused on you. It is easy to make sweeping statement reminiscent of academic essays (eg. ‘The built environment shapes out experiences of the world around us’), which don’t unambiguously state why property is important to you .

How can you develop your personal passion?

While your reasons for your interest in property need to be personal, if you’re still looking to develop this, or you just want to learn more about the sector, there are a couple of things that you can do to build up evidence of your passion.

Carolyn advises: ‘[demonstrating passion] is especially important for non-cognates – they may have secured internships or work experience, obtained subscriptions to property journals or attended property events.’

• Find out more about how non-cognates (students who have not studied a property-related degree) can make their start in the property sector here.

2. Make a connection between you and the career path

Your passion for property also needs to be supported by an awareness and a knowledge of the work as a surveyor. As well as showing that you’ve made a considered choice to work in this sector, it highlights the fact that you have done your research and have a realistic understanding of what life is like as a graduate surveyor.

In your answers, you should indicate that you know what a property surveyor does day-to-day, that you know about the process of becoming chartered and that you know about typical career progression. Then you should say why you are excited by this and how it suits your abilities. Recruiters have previously told us that this is an important differentiator when it comes to standing out in a competitive recruitment market.

• The APC is a key milestone in the road to becoming a chartered surveyor. Learn more about what’s involved with the APC here.

For example, if you are applying to an agency role, you could show that you are aware of the amount of negotiation involved in this, calling upon your own experiences of negotiation to prove you are suited to such a career. This experience could be from a part-time job, or as part of a role on a society committee, or even from negotiating rents with your student landlord or a discount on your insurance premiums would show that you have what it takes.

3. Make a connection between you and the graduate employer

You should also take the same approach when writing about the employer. Do your research on the firm and use your new-found knowledge to say exactly how you would suit them and they would suit you. How will the employer (and what the employer offers) help you to achieve your career ambitions and why do you want to work for that property firm in particular ?

Beyond the details of property firms’ graduate programmes, you should also research the values of the employer – do they match up with your own personal values?

Look for opportunities to find out more about the employer. If you are unable to undertake work experience with the employer, make sure you read review sites and try to connect with professionals working there via LinkedIn. Attend as many careers fairs and events as possible (many, since the advent of Covid-19, are being held virtually).

You should also think about the questions you are asking. Whether it’s while networking, at a virtual careers fair, during an internship or at an assessment centre, asking thoughtful questions about a firm’s culture and practices will impress recruiters. It shows that you are actively considering working there and have a genuine interest in the actual day-to-day of working life, and that you’re not just thinking about how much money you could earn, for instance.

The trick is to avoid asking about something that can be easily found out on the firm's website and build on the information you already have. You might not want to ask about their APC pass rate if the firm promotes it in their graduate brochure, for example. However, you could ask your intern manager whether they are an APC mentor or what support they found most useful from their mentor while undergoing the qualifying process.