In terms of you early career choice, it really doesn’t matter to a great degree what type of employer you begin with. Feedback from employees within the sector is to not worry too much, just get out there and get going. Whether you choose to work for a GI Contactor, a GI Consultant or Hybrid, each gives you exposure to what you need to learn at the early stage of your GI career.
With all though, it is likely that you will need to travel to site each day, therefore, the absolute first thing you must do for a successful career in the ground investigation sector is to secure your full UK driving licence – and preferably not just the Automatic gear version.
Here at Penguin Recruitment, we speak to many well qualified, recent graduates that are awaiting driving test dates. Unfortunately, our employer clients are rarely willing to progress to interview stage until a driving licence is secured.
National Companies often require you to work on larger sites that may be further away from home, requiring travel and living away from home during the week. Local Companies tend to require local daily travel, but this is a rule of thumb and not always true.
Penguin’s Geo-professionals survey results show an interesting balance of type of company first worked for. Many graduates joined National and Global employers who tend to have offices in larger cities. This perhaps explains the larger need in the Geo-Sector to relocate for your first position, when compared to the UK Government’s broader economy-wide surveys
Geo-Candidate Survey. This chart shows the breakdown by type of employer that our survey respondents joined for their first role after graduating.
What size of company will you join?
At this stage, consider the type of training / skills development you would prefer. Do you want to work for a smaller team where training will be one on one and you will learn in a fast paced, often ad-hoc manner, depending on the types of projects that are won? If yes, then CPD (Continuing Professional Development) must be sourced on a proactive basis.
Or do you want to work with medium sized and larger companies where training is often more structured and formal? Projects can often be larger and sound more exciting, but in reality you may be set small tasks that feel like they have less impact.
Geo-Candidate Survey. This chart shows the breakdown by size of employer that our survey respondents joined as their first role after graduating.
Overwhelming feedback from our Geo-Candidate Survey responders confirmed time and again that although the first role you choose may not be the perfect role you had envisaged, it really does not necessarily matter. It is all about setting up your career, getting that first foot in the door.
Feedback from our survey respondents included the following advice:
