It is a busy time of year so the Blog has been falling behind a little. However, an event which happened last week should not pass without a mention. The School was pleased to welcome several Chartered Surveyors who made presentations to students on behalf of RICS Matrics. These provided an excellent illustration of the breadth of work in which Chartered Surveyors are involved, including several topical projects.
I must admit I did not know a cable car is being built across the Thames until Darren Foy from Evolution 5 said so. Darren’s talk included a virtual experience of the planned crossing. This made it clear a head for heights will be required because the cable is just below the flight path to London City airport and high enough to allow tall ships to sail below it.
Rob Shadbolt demonstrated he will hold no fear of a trip on the Thames cable car. Rob works as a building surveyor for Savills and has used the tallest hydraulic platform in the country to do a survey. Building surveying is also one of the services provided by Ian Ross who runs his own practice. Ian showed some vivid images of some of his projects, included the effect of a fire on a thatched roof and a haunted house!
Mark Douglas is a general practice surveyor working for Jones Lang Lasalle who specialises in property sales and development. The buildings he has been involved with have ranged from a few hundred square metres to tens of thousands of square metres, with rents and fees on a comparable scale.
Chris Burnell from Melo Associates arrived fresh from a site inspection of a solar farm project in Cornwall. His company is also involved in other renewable technologies such as wind turbines.
The talks were concluded by a new graduate, Filipe Martin, who has recently got a job. He was frank and honest; it had not been easy and he had to change his preferences, but the effort has been worthwhile. His advice: be prepared to do anything, even photocopying. I agree because that is how I started. I doubled my salary in my next job, partly due to what I had learnt from reading what I had copied! A bit of networking is useful too, so to illustrate the potential benefits of this we all ended the evening in Bar 38.
Thank you to all of the presenters and those who attended for contributing to an enjoyable event.
