There are a variety of jobs in the building surveyor industry. Along with the standard building surveyor, there are also commercial, quantity, practice, rail, building control, land, health & safety and valuation opportunities available for surveyors. Each of these has a specific function in the particular niche indicated. For example, a commercial surveyor deals with property designated for commercial or money-making intent. All of the standard immobiliensachverständiger duties apply, such as measurement and inspection of said properties, along with data collection and analysis. This is then used to generate a report which gives a detailed list of the specifications on the premises. Of course, this is a private business, so some of the duties will be unique, but for the most part, there are similarities between all jobs.
In the U.S. and the U.K. many positions exist for this occupation. Besides the aforementioned list, persons with this type of certification can also serve as area surveyors or even building control officers. This is due to the degree of knowledge already obtained and the experiences from past jobs. Most of this education is directly transferable to many other building related industries. It is not limited to either public or private practices either, as great deals of openings are posted on a continual basis as they occur. The similarity of jobs in the U.S. to those in the U.K. is strikingly similar, probably due to the standardization of training that has occurred in the past decade.
There is a constant need for building surveyors even as the construction industry goes through both boom and bust cycles. This is because sites are either being constructed from the ground up or renovation is occurring. Companies need experienced persons to be able to inspect and evaluate all aspects of this process. Since the job role includes the coordination between all members of the building team, it is often necessary to work on off hours to get the job completed. A detail-oriented team player will always have a job due mainly to word of mouth. The construction industry is a close-knit set of individuals and word gets around about who can get the job done. This is why many of these guys are extremely hard to get for a job site.