What Career to Choose?
Do you ever think to yourself ‘I wish someone had shown me this career path when I was at school, I wouldn’t have gone the long way round to get here?
Me to, seriously I wish someone had given me the yellow pages for every single job in the world and crossed referenced it with the coolest things to do and gone dig in. Alas that didn’t happen.
Surveying on a Day-to-Day Basis
But the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) have been changing this up. This week, myself and an amazing bunch of RICS members opened up the HQ to a local school to show them exactly what we do on a day-to-day basis.
The pupils got the chance to experience what it is like to buy materials and build buildings within a tight budget, work out how much it should cost to buy a development site (and still make a profit) and how to negotiate to be the successful new tenant of a sought after shop. All skills that as ‘property professionals’ we do on a daily basis – who would have thought that before getting into the industry?
Get Well Informed
Fabulously the morning ended with a group of thoroughly inspired students, whom even taught me a thing or two about thinking outside the box – which goes to show that no matter the age, ability or skill of your peer sat beside you, they have a different opinion and it counts as much as everyone else’s.
The success of the day was that these young people were given the knowledge to make a really well informed decision about putting a property pathway as the next rung in their learning career. And this has an incredible knock on effect for the RICS. They have shown a genuine interest in capturing the attention and skills of the next generation, if any of these students did decide to come back and join it would be for all the right reasons, and these are the types of Surveyors we need – those that are really passionate about what the RICS is doing!
Try Before You Buy
This pioneering project doesn’t have to be standalone to the RICS. If you want to know what a job role is then I strongly urge you to go out and give it a try for a day, make an appointment with a company you admire and try them for size. If they decline, ask the next. Try before you buy, means you go in with your eyes wide open – hey, if you don’t like it you will have had an awesome experience and be even closer to finding that perfect job.
Just Ask
All you gotta do is ask. If you have any questions at all about different property career choices then do get in contact. I may not have all the answers but can definitely point you in the right direction of someone else in the know!
NC
