Commercial/residential surveyor : Employers and vacancy sources

In the public sector, commercial/residential surveyors are employed by local authorities, regional development agencies, universities and hospital trusts, and several central government departments. The Valuation Office Agency (VOA)  determines business rates and council tax bands and recruits several trainee surveyors each year. In the voluntary sector, surveyors are employed by housing associations.

Private practice is split between commercial and residential property.

Employers in the commercial property sector include: large private surveying practices; house building companies; property developers; financial, pension fund and insurance institutions; and large corporate organisations, such as retailing chains, banks, railways and other utilities that own large amounts of land.

The residential property market tends to be focused on smaller employers all around the UK. The large national chains of estate agents or major regional firms employ surveyors. Smaller firms are more likely to refer clients to an independent surveyor.

Sources of vacancies

• Search graduate jobs on this site.
• Property Week    
• RICS Recruit   
• Property Jobs   
• Jobs in Surveying  
• Opportunities: The Public Sector Media  
• Jobs.ac.uk  for vacancies in universities.
• University departments that run accredited degrees.
• National and local press, particularly newspapers that have a local property supplement.
• University careers services' vacancy lists.

Speculative approaches are definitely worth trying. The RICS Directory and RICS Find a Surveyor  are useful for contact details.

Specialist recruitment agencies include Macdonald and Company , which is endorsed by RICS. Information on other recruitment agencies is available from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC)  where you can search by town and the type of work handled.

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