Building surveyors

Our building surveyor graduates achieve well above the national average pass rate for the Assessment of Professional Competence (APC). Our success reflects the range and depth of experience we’re able to offer. You’ll have opportunities to work directly with clients and gain experience across different specialisms, with one-to-one support at every step.

Breadth of experience

You’ll build your working experience across a wide variety of projects, while having an APC supervisor to provide ongoing support and guidance. So in any one day, you might be out on a building survey, costing up a dilapidations schedule or advising on a party wall matter.

First-hand learning

You’ll get to work side-by-side with senior surveyors recognised as experts in their fields, and with our range of services, you can get all the experience you need to pass the APC. You can expect opportunities to work directly with clients too.

We also provide structured learning, including weekly seminars and access to external events.

Most of our graduates are ready to go for their APC in around two to three years. You can apply for a graduate role at Hollis between 01 September and 31 December each year.

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If you have any questions we’ve not answered here, please do get in touch:

FAQs

In the final year of your BSc or MSc building surveying degree, between 1 September and 31 December. We hold interviews in December and January. 

Use our online application form to provide us with your detailed CV, covering letter, and your preferred office location.

We can only consider your application if you’ve completed or are in the final year of a RICS-accredited building surveying qualification.

Yes! Over the past few years about half of our graduates have come from postgraduate courses.

We’re looking for commercial awareness, excellent communication skills and an eagerness to learn quickly, but your potential is the most important attribute.

It helps if you have some work experience, paid or voluntary, and ideally property related. Life experience is important too – so if you’ve done something interesting or have a particular interest do let us know.

We do everything that you’d expect building surveyors to do – from access audits to service charges, contract administration to rights of light, building surveys, dilapidations and party wall work. There’s never any problem getting the range and quality of experience that you’ll need for your APC.

This varies, but we usually have opportunities available in each of our offices. 

It’s likely to be a straightforward and relaxed chat with one of the partners, and one other colleague. We’re mainly interested in getting to know more about you, and giving you the chance to find out more about us. We may ask you to give a short presentation and we might throw in the odd technical question but we really just want to see how you think.

Your visit may include meeting a few other members of our team. We base our decision on this one visit and aim to let you know the outcome in one week. If you have an interview coming up, you may want to see our interview tips video.

We do have some placement positions, which vary in location from year to year, but our main focus is on recruiting graduates and providing the highest quality training for our permanent team-members.

Inevitably some trainees leave, for example to go to client-side roles, but we aim never to lose people for lack of opportunity. With such a friendly, varied and rewarding working environment, a high proportion of our people choose to stay with us. 

As an equal opportunities employer we often recruit mature applicants and we particularly value the greater professional experience they can bring.

You can begin as soon as your course has finished or take the summer off. Either way you’ll be invited to our summer training day (which can involve anything from driving a tank to clay pigeon shooting or sailing) so you can start getting to know everybody.

Once you’ve spent the first week or so getting to know our systems you’ll be able to begin surveying work straight away. We’ll guide you through projects that could involve anything from putting together a schedule of dilapidations to attending site meetings for a building contract instruction.

Most of our graduates are ready to sit the APC in around two to three years. If you’ve already started the process then it may take slightly less time.

Giving you the right mix of experience is a responsibility we take very seriously. One of our associates will monitor your learning and experience, and you’ll have regular meetings with your dedicated APC counsellor and supervisor to make sure you get the experience and training you need to be your best.

We have an excellent APC pass rate, which is double the national average. No one is put forward to sit the APC until we think you’re ready and we have 18 APC assessors in-house so we can put you through your paces in a mock interview to make sure that you are as well prepared as you can be.

Yes — we’ll pay all your RICS and APC fees.

Many of our surveyors choose to study for further qualifications once they’re qualified. If there’s a good opportunity for your personal development or a benefit for the business then we’ll consider either part or fully funding the course.

We have an active social club and activities throughout the year, ranging from a comedy club trip to a sporting or charity event. There’s also a wealth of informal activities at our offices, including running at lunchtime, 5-a-side football, climbing, softball and of course a few drinks after work.

We offer excellent prospects, and a large number of our previous graduates are now in senior positions. There are no time limits for reaching associate or partner level: we promote on ability rather than age.

Yes — whether for a project lasting only a few days, or for a long term secondment. We welcome applicants with language skills and we aim to promote international collaboration, for example by seconding our people to go abroad or recruiting European nationals to train with us in the UK before starting at our European offices.