A day in the life of Graduate Surveyor

Having finished my master's degree at Reading, I moved into a rental property in Cambridge with two other girls who are also in surveying.

7:45am-8am: My alarm goes off and I hit the snooze button for an extra 10 minutes in bed. Once I’ve fully woken up, I’m dressed and out the door by 8.30am/8.40am. My commute to work is a leisurely 15-minute walk in a scenic part of the city, during this walk I like to listen to my favourite podcast and grab an iced latte on route. If I manage to push myself out the door earlier, I can make it to an exercise class at the gym, which is (trust me) a really fun way to wake you up for the day.

9am-10am: As soon as I arrive at the office, I’ll have a flick through the daily newspaper (reading my daily horoscope is my favourite part). I then make a cup of tea and offer a tea round to the rest of my immediate team if I’m feeling generous. I settle down at my desk and catch up on some emails followed by making an action list for the day. Once a week we have a short team meeting whereby we discuss what work we have undertaken and any upcoming instructions or business development ideas.

10am-1pm : No day is the same in surveying, for example, some weeks I will be out on site 2-3 times a week. This could be inspecting a property or field, meeting with a client prior to marketing their property, or conducting viewings. Other times, I'm in the office 5 days a week focusing on emails and other professional work such as a valuation report. This variation is a great element of the job, it is mostly attributed to being in the rural division as we cover a wide range of services in our work. It helps keep the job interesting and is a good way of filling my APC diary.

1pm-2pm: A group of us in the office usually lunch together from 1pm to 2pm. In the summer months, we luckily have a well-maintained green space just outside the office to take our lunch outside in the good weather. If not, we all congregate around the lunch table for a good chit chat – this sociability is between colleagues is a real plus point to working in the office as it provides a nice break to your workday and helps build working relationships. There are a wide variety of food options near our office which can be tempting however I like to bring in my own lunch.

2pm-5.30pm : Back to work after lunch with another cup of tea in hand. The afternoons usually consist of finishing off any uncompleted jobs, catching up on my APC diary or site visits. For example, this afternoon, I launched a farmyard on the market and have been liaising with interested parties. However, last week I met with architects and a building surveyor to conduct surveys for a barn conversion I am overseeing. When it comes to the end of the day, I will usually check in with my colleagues what tomorrow’s priorities are going to be and if anyone is heading out on site. Then it is time to pack up and head out for the day.

Post work: A handful of us between divisions have been having weekly tennis matches at the nearby courts (my team is definitely winning by the way). If we aren’t going to play tennis then there are lots of options for afterwork activities in the city, such as the Young Professionals Matrics group who host several socials such as rounders, punting, quizzes, and pub ‘networking’ trips!