A guide to planning your surveyor career path
Surveying is a highly proactive and fulfilling career, with an exciting range of specialisms to suit different project personalities and interests. With diverging pathways available to develop specialist skills, planning your surveyor career path in this industry will require some thoughtful and strategic foresight.
Whether you’re just finding your surveyor career path or are looking to make a strategic shift, understanding the steps for planning career development is integral to success. Below, we explore the key aspects of charting a course in the surveying industry, sharing actionable tips to help you navigate this exciting career landscape with confidence.
Ready to kick-start your career? Compare industry opportunities, roles and salaries using our new Role Insights tool.
What is career planning?
Career planning is the deliberate process of setting individual goals and creating a roadmap to achieve them throughout your professional journey. It involves assessing personal interests, skills and values to align with potential career paths, followed by identifying necessary qualifications and experience.
Planning career development allows you to consider your long-term aspirations while adapt to the changing job market and industry trends. It empowers you to make informed decisions, capitalise on opportunities and proactively develop the necessary knowledge and skills to reach your career destination.
Why is planning for a surveyor career path important?
Choosing your surveyor career path can be the simplest or trickiest decision to make – but it’s certainly the most important. This is because from the start, a career roadmap is going to be your best tool for aligning your development with your own goals, as well as actualising them within in the industry.
Identifying your specialism will help you select your surveying degree, find practical experience through relevant internships and get closer to networking with the professionals you want to learn from. It will serve to help you communicate your goals consistently, allowing managers and trainers who support your professional development help you to finesse those skills.
Actively tracking your own career development can also help you stay acutely aware of the technological advancements shaping your industry and your future role in it. There are two main ways career planning can help you do this:
Targeted skill development
Career planning allows surveyors to focus on acquiring the right skills or expertise for the role they want, whether it's in geospatial technology, data analysis, or project management. This targeted skill development enhances their competitiveness in the job market and equips them to take on more challenging and rewarding roles within the sector.
Maximising career growth opportunities
Surveying offers diverse opportunities across various industries such as construction, engineering, environmental science and urban planning. Through career planning, surveyors can strategically position themselves to capitalise on these opportunities and pursue their preferred career trajectory.
Whether aiming for promotions, managerial roles, or specialisation, having a well-thought-out career plan enables professionals to make informed decisions that lead to long-term growth and fulfilment in their surveying careers.
Career planning with Role Insights
What is it?
Role Insights is an intelligent search tool on RICS Recruit that finds you the latest job market trends and industry career planning guidance. Using aggregate data pulled from real surveyor CVs, it offers relevant career planning guidance to applicants, from industry demand for roles, to changing skill requirements.
How do I use it?
Role Insights allows you to search for roles within the surveying sector, ranked by salary or the number of job openings. Results will lead you to role profiles which match your surveyor career path criteria, allowing you to learn everything to know about a role in one place.
Each profile features a live dashboard you can use to track industry demand or salary changes, puts current skill requirements on your radar, and offers a visual guide which breaks down the journey of that surveyor career path.
Benefits of career planning with Role Insights
Whether you’re just finding your surveyor career path, or making a strategic shift, Role Insights works as a practical point of reference for your career planning development. From the get-go, you’ll have access to a database of role profiles, allowing you to compare opportunities and plan how to pursue your chosen surveyor career path.
Moreover, you can find relevant and comprehensive tips and advice for progressing within your chosen role, allowing you to consider the best professional development pathway for you - and plan for a successful surveying career.
Ready for your next step, but not sure where to start? Find surveyor career planning resources on Role Insights.
Learn how these surveyors got into their first surveying roles.
