The RICS Surveyor’s Dilemma: Why Experience Alone Won’t Secure Your Next Role
For years, experience was the golden ticket in real estate. The longer your CV, the stronger your prospects.
But as we move towards the end of 2025, a quiet shift has taken hold. Experience no longer guarantees opportunity. Not in a market that’s evolving faster than ever before.
At SONDR, we speak daily with surveyors who’ve built impressive track records yet find themselves overlooked for promotion or beaten to roles by newer, more commercially minded peers.
The message from employers is consistent:
Technical skill and tenure still matter, but they’re no longer enough.
The New Currency: Commercial Awareness
When we ask hiring directors what they want most from senior candidates, the answers rarely begin with “years of experience.” Instead, we hear words like client relationships, work-winning potential, and strategic thinking.
Today’s firms are looking for surveyors who:
Understand business impact. Not just valuation models, but how those valuations influence investment decisions, funding confidence, and client strategy.
Build relationships that last. Surveyors who are able to walk into a room and be trusted to represent the brand.
Adapt to tech and data. Surveyors who are comfortable with automation tools, analytics, and AI-assisted reporting.
It’s not that experience has lost its value; it’s that context has changed. Employers want dynamic expertise, not static experience.This shift is known as the rise of the hybrid surveyor.
Associate To Director: The Promotion Gap
For many professionals, the leap from Associate to Director remains the hardest. It’s not a question of skill. It’s a question of visibility.
Hiring managers tell us that plenty of strong Associates never make it to Director because they’ve stayed focused on delivery instead of direction. They’re busy doing the work, but not always seen driving it.
Now more than ever Directors are expected to:
Win new instructions
Mentor their teams
Represent the firm externally
Think commercially about growth
In short, they’re not just senior surveyors. They’re leaders.
And yet, in valuation especially, leadership potential is often developed late. Many surveyors reach a ceiling, assuming their technical record will speak for itself. But in 2025, the ceiling is glass only if you don’t crack it from the inside.
What Hiring Managers Actually Look For In 2025
We’ve analysed hundreds of hiring briefs this year across commercial, residential, and operational real estate. The patterns are clear:
Client relationship management now ranks in the top three competencies for almost every director-level brief.
Business development (or “work-winning”) has become a decisive differentiator between shortlisted candidates.
Cross-sector fluency is increasingly valued, particularly among consultancies expanding into living sectors like Build to Rent or PBSA.
Digital awareness is quietly transforming expectations. Employers want people who can translate data insights into commercial strategy.
In a tight market, the difference between two qualified candidates is rarely technical — it’s how well one can articulate their value beyond the report.
These insights are drawn from SONDR’s live market data and 2025 hiring trends, supported by findings from RICS & JLL’s latest workforce reports, each signalling a clear shift towards commercial awareness, client fluency, and digital literacy at senior levels.
How To Future-Proof Your Career
So how do you move from being experienced to being indispensable?
1. Build commercial awareness
Spend time understanding how your work affects the bottom line. What do your clients care about most? Yield, ESG, long-term value, brand equity? The better you understand their world, the more irreplaceable you become.
2. Seek mentorship early
Find leaders who’ve made the leap from Associate to Director and ask what they wish they’d learned sooner. Most will tell you it wasn’t more technical knowledge; it was confidence in conversations with clients, partners, and peers.
3. Increase your visibility
Be seen. Write internal insights, post on LinkedIn, speak at events, or contribute to your firm’s thought leadership. Leadership is often given to those who already appear to have it.
4. Master soft power
Negotiation, emotional intelligence, and communication are now hard skills. They influence revenue, retention, and reputation. And employers are taking note.
Where Experience Still Matters
Let’s be clear, technical depth, professionalism, and reliability are still essential. Experience isn’t obsolete. It’s just no longer the full equation.
Your years in the field provide the foundation. But in 2025, the upper floors of your career are built on adaptability, empathy, and influence.
The surveyors moving fastest right now aren’t always the most senior. They’re the ones most willing to evolve.
The Takeaway
If your CV is packed with solid projects but your phone isn’t ringing, it’s not because your experience doesn’t count. It’s because employers are measuring something else, and you might not be showing it yet.
That’s where insight helps.
At SONDR, we help chartered and valuation surveyors benchmark their skills, reposition their personal brand, and connect with firms who value what they truly bring - not just what’s on paper.
Want to benchmark your skillset against the market? Register with SONDR for a confidential chat.