It’s never too late to become a surveyor

And he was 51, looking for a new challenge, when he changed his life and became a surveyor. 

A DIY enthusiast, McGoldrick turned his amateur passion into a later-in-life career swap – going to university to “essentially improve my technical knowledge around construction and property development,” he says. It would add to the practical skills he developed doing large home renovation projects.

Now 64, McGoldrick has been a surveyor with Eddisons since his graduate placement in 2018 after university. He credits boss and director, Adam Finch, with having an attitude of “being very open to the idea of employing older students”.

The numbers of those changing careers, specifically for the surveying industry, are hard to pinpoint. However, a 2024 survey of 4,000 UK workers by St James’s Place Financial Adviser Academy found almost a fifth (18%) think their 40s is the age limit to switch careers, while 13% considered career switching options were limited after their 30s. And Gen X workers (those aged 45 to 60), were the most unhappy with their present careers of all the generations of people asked.

While McGoldrick is one of those older workers making the career switch, he is thought to be in a minority.

So, should the surveying sector be doing more to attract older workers that want to do something different? Given the mounting obstacles the sector faces with skills shortages, a rapidly changing technological landscape, and the need for a workforce that reflects diversity and experience, it could be a very wise move.

He adds: “If we are thinking of recruitment campaigns, they should not be, ‘hey, are you an older person and want a change? Why not think about surveying?’ We need to be making the sector accessible and appetising. There really should not be any blockers into the industry.”

RICS Matrics is pushing to make a difference. Golding has chaired various local and national roles within the early career community designed to support students, apprentices, trainees, and those who are newly qualified as they move into the industry. 

For much of its 135-year existence, the primary audience of RICS Matrics was those aged 35 and under, leaving out the career-changers. 

“But as Matrics evolved, it attracted interest from mid-career movers who fitted the criteria of the Matrics vision, resulting in the community transitioning to newly qualified up to 10 years,” says Golding. “While still primarily a young networking group, it did open itself up to a broader group of people. We then started to see older people attend events, looking to build their network, and get advice on becoming chartered.”

Two sides of the ‘older worker’ story exist: those like McGoldrick who enter the industry for the first time, and those who want to move roles within their existing companies – and to what extent they are supported. 

A clear strategy is needed by companies around career transition so they can also retain older talent and attract people from various industries, says Sarah Hayford, founder of The Land Collective. 

Although a youth-focused organisation that partners with employers in the built environment, Hayford says there is real value that older employees can give the workplace. She also believes there has been a staggering push towards generalist careers, portfolio careers and ‘squiggly’ (ie non-linear) careers – eg people from marketing or HR becoming a surveyor.

At Gleeds, role changing is championed. “People at every age are encouraged to move across departments and even countries into alternative surveying pathways, or from marketing into business operations,” says Golding.

Partner and chair of the London business, Ken Reid who joined Gleeds in 1980 as a graduate, is a perfect example: “He has been a part of various functions in the business, which is testimony to having the opportunity to move around.”

Golding calls Reid an advocate of diversity, inclusion and empowerment for the staff: “When you have people like Ken in the leadership team, there is much more openness towards internal career changes and progression.”

Lynda Rawsthorne FRICS, government head of property profession at the Cabinet Office, says: “For us, it’s about opening doors to people who never imagined a future in property. That’s exactly who we want to bring in.”

Culture is important, but so is flexibility in how experience is recognised, she adds. Other routes into RICS chartership are being looked at and almost 50 senior professionals across government were recently supported through accreditation pathways. “Many of which have built great careers without ever pausing to formalise their qualifications,” says Rawsthorne.

McGoldrick remembers the initial fear of going to university in his fifties and being in an environment “surrounded by people younger than your own children”. His worry was “what impact that might have both in terms of being able to integrate and participate in the collaborative aspects of the various building surveying modules but, just as importantly, connect on a social level,” he says, adding, that it turned out, to be “such a positive experience”.

Those on the course also learned from McGoldrick: “I brought other things to the table which enabled them to benefit from my experiences, not just regarding studying, but about the wider practical skills I had gleaned from a career spanning nearly 30 years before.”

Hayford says anyone who has made the leap to a new role, would be welcome to share their perspective with the Land Collective’s younger generation, because “there are moments they believe if they choose something as their job now, they are stuck with it.”

She adds: “Those stories from older people who have experienced career transition are important, so the younger people know there is still a degree of flexibility, and it is ok to change your mind.”

Through Matrics events, Golding has seen this influence first-hand: “What is most exciting, is that exchange of knowledge gained through life experience and other industries. This proved to be mutually valuable to everyone in the room.” 

There is a mix of attitudes, he says, with a desire among parts of the profession to support the idea of recruiting from a more experienced pool without actually putting it into practice: “Firms traditionally are reliant on the graduates’ recruitments.”

Golding has another view: “For every company, there is always a huge drive for the graduates and the trainees that come on board early on in their careers but there is a great deal of recruitment activity at all other stages of career too, which I don’t think gets the same spotlight.”

What Golding and McGoldrick do agree on, is attracting more older people through a concerted effort of the entire industry is crucial. With the ever-increasing focus on sustainability, hiring those with ‘green skills’ from other sectors makes perfect sense. 

“The skills of today are vastly different to those from 100 years ago, and in another 100 years, will be completely different again,” says Golding. Programming, data science and digital skills are hugely important, he says: “It is an opportunity to bring in [alternative] ways of thinking from other industries to help us evolve. 

“We are already seeing with the latest edition of the Professional Standard from RICS – Whole Life Carbon Assessment (WLCA) for the built environment – that cross-collaboration among different industries is important and brings with it a wealth of opportunity for new entry points into our profession.”

With the industry changing rapidly, it will need those skills, offered by people of all ages. It is vital that older people are not overlooked, that they are both encouraged and have the courage to come into the sector.

As Golding says: “If you’ve got the passion and the hunger, there’s nothing stopping you.” And McGoldrick has proved, there is always time to evolve in your life – it is just a case of getting the chance within companies to do that.