Surveying employers read a lot of CVs, and most make up their minds quickly. They want to know what kind of surveyor you are, what you have actually done and where you are with chartership. This guide sets out what to include, how to lay it out and the common mistakes that cost people interviews.
The short answer
Keep it to two pages. Put your discipline, chartership status and key experience at the top. Describe real projects, with values, types of property and your own role in them. Make it easy for a busy director to see in thirty seconds why you fit the job.
What employers look for first
- Your discipline: building surveying, quantity surveying, valuation, commercial property, building control, geomatics and so on. Say it plainly.
- Chartership status: MRICS, AssocRICS, or where you are with the APC. If you are working towards it, give your pathway and when you expect to sit the final assessment. Our guide to the RICS APC explains the stages.
- Registration: for building control, your Registered Building Inspector class. See our guide to building control careers.
- The type of work and clients: sectors, property types, project sizes and the kind of clients you have advised.
- Where you can work: your location and whether you have a full driving licence, which many surveying roles need.
A layout that works
1. Name and contact details
Name, phone, email, town or area and a LinkedIn link if it is up to date. You do not need your full address, date of birth or a photo.
2. A short profile
Three or four lines saying who you are and what you are looking for. For example: a chartered building surveyor with six years in consultancy, specialising in dilapidations and commercial refurbishment, looking for a senior role in the Midlands. Avoid empty phrases like "hard-working team player".
3. Qualifications and memberships
Degree, any conversion master's, RICS, CIOB or CABE membership, RBI class, and relevant cards and certificates, such as a CSCS card or asbestos awareness, where the role calls for them.
4. Experience
Most recent first. For each role, give the employer, your title and dates, then a few lines on what you did, followed by examples of projects.
5. Software and technical skills
List what you actually use: for example estimating and measurement software, CAD, BIM tools, valuation or property management systems, survey equipment and data tools.
6. CPD and training
A short list of relevant courses, especially recent ones. It shows you keep up to date.
Describing your experience
This is where most CVs fall short. Employers want specifics, not a copy of the job description.
- Say what you did, not what the team did. "Prepared cost plans for three new-build schools" tells the reader far more than "involved in cost management".
- Give the scale: contract values, floor areas, numbers of units or the size of a portfolio, as long as your employer is happy for you to share it.
- Name the type of work: schedules of condition, party wall awards, final accounts, Red Book valuations, lease renewals, stock condition programmes. These are the words a surveying employer is looking for.
- Show responsibility: whether you ran the job, managed a client, supervised a junior or worked on part of it.
- Respect confidentiality: if you cannot name clients, describe them, for example "a national retailer" or "a London housing association".
Tailoring for different employers
Consultancies
Show breadth, client contact and the quality of your reports. At Senior level and above, show you can run your own caseload, and at Associate level, that you can help win and keep clients.
Contractors
For commercial roles, show cash flow, subcontractor packages, applications for payment and final accounts, and the contracts you know, such as JCT and NEC. See what a quantity surveyor does for how the two sides differ.
Councils and housing associations
Public sector employers often score applications against a person specification. Make sure your CV and supporting statement cover each point, using the same words where they are true. Our guide on private practice, contractor and public sector surveying covers the differences.
For graduates and trainees
If you are just starting out, put your degree near the top with your dissertation title and relevant modules. Include placements, summer work and part-time jobs that show responsibility, especially anything on site or in property. Say clearly that you want to work towards chartership and which pathway interests you. Our guide on how to become a surveyor explains the routes.
Common mistakes
- More than two pages, or long lists of duties with no results.
- No mention of chartership status, so the reader has to guess.
- Unexplained gaps. A line of explanation is enough.
- Spelling mistakes. Surveyors write reports for a living, and employers notice.
- Sending the same CV to a contractor and a consultancy without changing anything.
- Over-designed layouts with columns, graphics or skill ratings. A clean, simple document is easier to read and to forward.
Before you send it
Check the advert for what it asks for, then make sure the top half of your first page answers it. Ask someone senior in your discipline to read it. And prepare for the next stage with our guide to surveying interview questions.
It also helps to know what the role should pay. Our surveying salary guide gives typical figures by level, for example £31,000 to £46,000 for a Surveyor and £40,000 to £64,000 for a Senior Surveyor.
Find your next role
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