Nottingham has more commercial surveying practices per capita than anywhere else in the country bar London. In this competitive property world, building a successful career can be a challenge. NG Chartered Surveyors’ latest graduate recruit, Henry Henson, explains how he is making his mark.
Final-year university students have been through the mill over the past year, with rocketing youth unemployment and the few employers still hiring spoilt for choice. The property sector is one of the worst hit. With hundreds of graduate surveyors preparing to leave university this year in Nottingham alone, the question is, just where are they going to go?
NG is a company putting its money where its mouth is. Over the years, it has seen a stream of graduates who have gone to work at their office and have risen through the ranks.
NG like to grow their own talent and have had a number of success stories, including William Wall who started out with NG and who is now a director at a Lincoln-based firm. More recently, Sunny Landa joined the firm on a placement year, returned as a graduate and is now MRICS – his hard work at NG obviously paid dividends.
Henry Henson is NG’s latest graduate recruit and he has noted that there are a lot of surveying graduates fresh out of university already looking for work – let alone the new swathe of eager trainees about to enter the world of work.
“After graduating from Nottingham Trent University in 2011, I was conscious that I was entering the workplace in the middle of a recession, but the combination of sheer determination, hard work, and a little bit of good fortune secured me this graduate position," said Henry.
“What attracted me to NG was their attitude to nurturing home grown talent and the team’s ambition to succeed in a difficult climate. As an agency it understand the challenges that the industry presents, but equally it understands how to train its new recruits to deliver the best service for clients in a tough economic climate. Previous graduates have gone on to achieve partner positions here and at other firms.
“In order to succeed you need the right frame of mind. It’s a stepping stone towards a future career, so be mindful to pay back your employees for giving you the opportunity to learn.
“In order to succeed you need the right frame of mind. It’s a stepping stone towards a future career, so be mindful to pay back your employees for giving you the opportunity to learn. Don’t be afraid to put in the extra hours or come up with ideas of your own, which will benefit the whole firm. So to succeed, not only do you need a strong work ethic, but also an employer who sees the long term benefits of growing its talents. That’s the winning formula.
“It has been a busy couple of months, but I’ve learnt so much from the leadership of NG partners’ Richard Sutton and Jonathon Seddon – less than two months in and I have completed my first deal.”
Richard Sutton added: “It must be very disheartening for those graduates who have worked so hard at university yet are now unsure of their job prospects, particularly as the effects of the recession are likely to create a backlog of jobseekers for the next couple of years. But at NG, we are supporting talented, hard working graduates who will then go on to achieve top positions within NG.”
“Young people are the life blood of the property sector, but it’s up to us as business leaders to ensure that we provide maximum opportunities, which includes training and support to graduates. Our faith in our graduates is justified by their loyalty and work ethos."
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