I AM a newly qualified graduate building surveyor, and after a travel break I am now back in the UK looking for a job. I am free to travel or relocate anywhere in the country. Are there particular areas in the UK where pay is especially good?
The national average basic salary for a qualified building surveyor is about £29,600. This does, however, hide a very diverse market and there are places where you can earn far more than this. Places in the middle of the country seem to offer the best salaries, with pay around Birmingham about 30 per cent higher than the national average for building surveyors. Other cities in the Midlands are also competitive, with pay in Nottingham also about 20 per cent higher than the national average.
Inner London jobs are unsurprisingly paid better than the national average, typically by 11 per cent. However, a move west to Swindon could see you paid 18 per cent better than the overall national market level. So, unusually, London salaries are not as good for building surveyors as those in certain places outside the capital. The part of the country with the lowest average salaries is Luton, where pay is about 8 per cent lower than the national average.
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So, look for work in the Midlands, or along the M4 corridor if you are chasing the best pay — and consider avoiding London and its immediate surroundings.
Information provided by Lynne Thorndycraft at people management consultancy The Hay Group. The UK HayPayNet database is compiled from salaries supplied by more than 600 organisations. www.haypaynet.com