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The future generation of property consultancy

NIFES Technical Graduate Scheme: Emily and Isabel share challenges and aspirations.

Shining the spotlight on two NIFES technical graduates as they take their first steps into property consultancy. What’s challenging and exciting them in their new roles? And what advice do they have for those looking to get into the industry?

The NIFES Technical Graduate Programme helps university leavers jump straight into rewarding careers. And as part of Bellrock Consulting, opportunities to progress anywhere in the property industry have expanded hugely.

Emily Corry and Isabel Johnson are two recent graduates at the exciting first stages of their professional journeys. We sat down to speak about their respective pathways into property consultancy, and how they envision their careers developing here.

Diverse routes into the UK property sector

Isabel Johnson

Emily joins us from the University of Central Lancashire, where she earned a first in business and management. She credits her interest in property to her mum’s health and safety background. There was a lot of property talk in her house while growing up.

Isabel originally considered a career in medicine, before pivoting into studying geography at the University of Sheffield. That’s an incredibly versatile degree, and a brief placement at a planning company gave her a taste for property appraisal. The rest is history.

Today, both find themselves visiting and surveying a broad range of buildings. Right now, Emily’s role involves a lot of condition surveying with a toe dipped into M&E. For Isabel, the job so far has seen her learning the finer points of wayfinding surveys.

Both graduates are mentored and supported by established team members from NIFES, which as a business has more than 70 years of experience supporting clients. As Isabel explains, specialist expertise is invaluable:

“I’m picking up new things every day. Sometimes we’ll find a type of building fabric we’ve not seen before, but there will be a team member that specialises in that area, and as we all learn from that experience together, I don’t really feel like a new starter much of the time.”

The rewards and challenges of a career with NIFES

Emily and Isabel agree that the best thing about their roles is the variety of sites they visit. Each has its own stories, like the manor house which (rumour has it) hosted one of Marilyn Monroe’s parties. And every building presents its own lessons to our graduate duo. As Emily puts it:

Emily Corry

“On any given day I could cover hospitals, universities, council buildings; it’s useful learning the characteristics of each building firsthand. When I’m writing reports, I can visualise everything I’m talking about.

It does get challenging when you’re stood somewhere like a plant room, where I don’t know how everything works yet. It’s the bigger hospitals that tend to have those massive rooms and huge machines like that. But there’s specialist electricians on the team who know what they’re talking about. It feels less overwhelming once you see them just cracking on with the job.”

Interestingly, there was one element which didn’t really come up in discussion: two young women working in a male-dominated environment. A generation ago, this might have been another challenge for Emily and Isabel to contend with, but it was barely a footnote in our interview.

Both agree this is a positive sign of progress within the industry. No, the sector hasn’t achieved perfect gender balance quite yet, but our graduates have experienced only supportive guidance. Creating that welcoming environment is a strong step.

Education, growth, and even greater confidence

Our new graduates are already making big plans for the future. They’re both hoping to take advantage of the apprenticeship levy to get master’s degrees in building surveying.

As Isabel explains, “I’ve probably learned more in six months here than I did in three years at uni. It’s a supportive environment in terms of me wanting to go further. Everyone’s very much pushing you to go for it, it’s not a problem if they need to give you a bit of extra time.

So I’m definitely aiming to apply for the master’s as soon as I’m eligible. Then I can learn while I work and travel the country at the same time. I’m based in Manchester, but work takes me down south a lot; including London for quite some time. Being able to visit uni friends is certainly a perk.”

What would each say to graduates, particularly women, getting into property today? For Emily, the message is simple,

“Be confident. There’s loads to learn but just give yourself a moment to take it all in, and act with confidence in what you do know. Your team will support you.”

And from Isabel;

“Make sure your voice gets heard. Believe that you know your stuff, because there’s a good reason you were hired. If you’re in the right team, you should always be able to speak up!”

We’re confident that two bright careers await Emily and Isabel. Are you a graduate thinking about your next adventure after studying? A role at the forefront of the UK property sector could be exactly what you need to kickstart your future.

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