Our high pass rate for Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) reflects the range and depth of experience we’re able to offer, and our determination to give you the best possible grounding for your career. You can expect to get involved in a wealth of different projects, with dedicated support and a full programme of high-quality learning.
Broad-based experience
As a graduate cost manager you’ll join our team and build your experience across a wide variety of projects, while having an APC supervisor to provide ongoing support and guidance. On any one day you could be working on new-build projects, complex refurbishments and extensions ranging from £500,000 in value up to £30m and more, for clients in sport, leisure, commercial office, retail and industry, across both the public and private sectors.
Building confidence and connections
We’ll encourage you to step up and take responsibility whenever the time is right, to test your skills and develop your confidence. Client relationships are at the heart of our business, so (unlike some organisations, where graduates are seen but not heard) you can also expect opportunities to work together with our clients.
We support your direct work experience with structured learning, including weekly seminars and access to external events. Most of our cost management 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.
Working in cost management allows me to use the skills I’ve learned through university, but in a way, I’ve never used them before. It’s great to work closely with clients and understand the financials of a project, while seeing instructions from start to finish.
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 cost managers to do – from pre and post contract project work, feasibility cost plans, preparing cost reports and evaluations. There’s never any problem getting the range and quality of experience that you’ll need for your APC.
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.
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.
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 partners will monitor your learning and experience, and you’ll have regular meetings with a dedicated APC counsellor and supervisor to make sure you get the experience and training you need to be your best.
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.
