History and Information

Introduction

Following the success of five consecutive Protégé campaigns from 2007 onwards, Protégé is back with the 2012 campaign, once again supported by the RICS.

This is your chance to kick-start your career with one of the top international property and construction consultants. This year we were ranked No 1 in the Daily Telegraph sponsored CRF's 'Britain's Top Employers 2011' list for the third year running achieving the maximum five stars in Pay and Benefits, Training and Development, Career Development, Working Conditions and Company Culture. We were also ranked in the Sunday Times 100 'Best Companies to Work For 2011' for the fourth year running and are placed in the top 1% of 'Investors in People' accredited organisations by achieving 'Gold' and 'Champion' status, excellent credentials for those looking for a great employer to start their career with...

The campaign aims to find the sharpest student talent in the country and the prize is to work for one of the industry's most dynamic firms, led by David Bucknall (chairman), plus a chance for a short secondment to one of our international offices in the first three years of employment. Click here to read about some international travel experiences). Protégé 2012 will put budding undergraduates through a series of technical and business tests in early February in order to see who most closely matches the needs of the business.

The assessment panel for Protégé 2012 will again be headed by David Bucknall, one of the founders of the firm and the Chair for the 'QS Professional Group' at the RICS. During his long career Bucknall has been at the forefront of his profession promoting quantity surveying and best practice across the industry.

This year's campaign has an added slant towards gaining competitive advantage in the UK's toughened market. The application questionnaire and assessment centres will focus on the different aspects of the difficult market and its effect on the UK based property and construction industry, and will explore applicants understanding of this ever changing market place.

How the Campaign will work

The campaign will be open to both cognate and non-cognate undergraduates studying in their final year and to cognate students in their second year looking for a year out placement. The contest is open to students living in the UK and studying a degree at a UK based college or university.

During the application process via the dedicated Protégé website you will be asked to undergo a short 'self- assessment' process. This is to see if you are eligible to enter the campaign and if you have the right skills and experience to be a Protégé. You will first undertake a short eligibility test, a couple of problem solving challenges and then a personality questionnaire. If you are successful you will move onto our competency based questionnaire which you will submit online for review by the recruitment team at Rider Levett Bucknall. We will then start our first screening process and a shortlist will be agreed for the successful applicants who will then start the comprehensive and rigorous assessment process. There will be a further remote test / telephone interview, followed by a further challenge (in an assessment centre style format) that will see the candidates working on Rider Levett Bucknall business-related exercises.

To review how the campaign will work in more detail please click here.

What we are looking for

Rider Levett Bucknall is looking to attract candidates with personality, enthusiasm and a sense of fun. We are looking for more than just good academic qualifications; we are looking for well-rounded people with ambition and good interpersonal skills. We are a client facing consultancy so our people have to be able to cultivate relationships as well as being technically excellent. Rider Levett Bucknall is keen to nurture well rounded people wanting to develop their career with a professional construction consultancy.

The candidate will of course have to have a solid academic background, be good at problem solving and have a personality that matches the consultancy environment.

David Bucknall's Vision

David Bucknall, Rider Levett Bucknall's UK Chairman, explains why nurturing skills has been at the centre of his career in the last 40 years.

"The Protégé Initiative is one of the most exciting and innovative programmes that I have seen in my career. This is our fifth year promoting Protégé and the results have far exceeded our expectations.

"The combination of a large number of entrants together with the truly outstanding calibre of the finalists, year by year, has been truly remarkable.

"The presence in our office of an increasing number of bright, talented and well-motivated graduates aims to give us an edge over the campaign. In addition, they add significantly to the vibrancy of each of our offices and get fully involved in our sports and social activities.

"The long term commitment and our collective enthusiasm towards getting the best people into the profession is now gathering momentum and this whole Protégé movement is taking on the role of an academy in a top sports club.

"Our senior personnel are showing positive commitment to the role of mentor to our graduate entries which creates the momentum for giving great career progression within the Rider Levett Bucknall UK organisation.

"The Protégé initiative is core to the business and will remain on-going. I look forward to meeting the finalists again this year because I know I will be once again be impressed by their calibre."

About Rider Levett Bucknall

Rider Levett Bucknall provides its clients with property and construction consultancy advice at all stages of the property life cycle throughout Asia, Oceania, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Americas, with over 2,500 people operating from more than 100 offices. We specialise in Quantity Surveying, Project Management, Building Surveying and Advisory Services.

Our reputation for providing consistently high levels of consultancy services to our clients rests entirely on our ability to recruit and develop the highest calibre staff.

Cultivating relationships is at the heart of how we work, to ensure that we can understand our clients' needs and add real value to make a real difference.

We are always keen to hear from high calibre candidates and we strive to include people from as many backgrounds and cultures as possible. We need enthusiastic, organised, confident and inspired individuals; those who enjoy developing, communicating and sharing ideas and those who are dedicated to our clients, our mission and our projects.

In the UK we employ over 400 staff in seven offices in Birmingham, Bristol, London, Manchester, Sheffield, Thames Valley and Welwyn Garden City.

About our Graduate Programme

Apart from enjoying a job that is varied, stimulating and highly challenging - and being well paid for your skills - you'll have the opportunity to gain some valuable professional qualifications.

We want you to get professionally qualified (MRICS, MCIOB etc) as quickly and painlessly as possible. Our track record on first-time passes is exceptional. That's not a fluke, it's because we've spent time and money on a structured training programme which includes:-

Local and company induction - you'll be bombarded with people, information (don't worry we won't test you straight away) and of course coffee and biscuits (plus the occasional bacon sandwich!)

Formal training sessions - with internal and external experts, these are quite intense and can be both theoretical and practical. They'll help you to consolidate and improve your knowledge

Lifelong learning - you'll become a member of a local CPD organisation (e.g. University of Westminster and CPD foundation in London) and will be invited to various events.

Support - we have a team of experienced RICS (APC) and CIOB (PDP) supervisors, counsellors and assessors - they are all there to mentor your training.

For more information about how we continually maintain a commitment to developing our employees via the Rider Levett Bucknall Academy click here.

About Our Benefits

At Rider Levett Bucknall we truly value the contributions all our employees make to the achievement of our success. As such we endeavour at all times to offer an attractive range of pay and benefits to help both in the attraction and retention of our employees and to reward contributions to our continued success. Where possible Rider Levett Bucknall seek to administer benefit schemes in line with government backed tax and/or NI efficient salary sacrifice schemes to gain maximum value.

Please find below an overview of the benefits provided by Rider Levett Bucknall (subject to qualification and conditions).