Mentoring at e.surv

Our newest graduate trainee surveyors met their mentors for the first time in late October as they started their AssocRICS journey on the e.surv Graduate Residential Surveyor Programme.

AssocRICS (Associate, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) is the qualification all our surveyors must achieve before they can practice as an operational surveyor. This year we welcomed three intakes of trainees, each of them benefitting from the mentoring programme as part of their development.

Each trainee is assigned a ‘primary’ mentor who guides them through the 12-month programme. Where possible, they’re also supported by a secondary mentor as they progress through their AssocRICS.

Andy McIvor, who manages e.surv’s graduate training programme, explained: “Our graduates will typically assist their mentors, operational surveyors out in the field, for four days in every week. This involves shadowing the surveyors, getting up the ladders and experiencing the practical side of the job.

“During the course of their development we also seek to introduce a secondary mentor. This gives them the benefit of learning from two surveyors, giving them a broader understanding of valuation principles, inspection methodology and building pathology.”

The mentors themselves are carefully chosen from areas across the UK. They are trained by e.surv and become part of an ongoing 360 degree assessment policy.

Andy explained: “Our 360-degree assessment policy ensures that everyone involved in the development of our future surveyors is in constant communication, resulting in a smooth transition from trainee to operational surveyor.

“Some of the greatest skills required of our mentors are patience and an enthusiasm to share the incredible wealth of knowledge they have developed over many years in the field. They are still working as an operational surveyor, but also have someone along with them that they want to train, which proves to be a challenging but rewarding experience for them.”

Our newest graduate trainees are Neil Daly, Conor Sykes, Simon Stuttard, Gillian Grace and Nicola Stokley, mentored by Parisima Sayfimehr, Christopher Holdroyd, Sam Wadsworth, Mark Ashton, Richard Godwin and Nicholas Hayward.