Face-to-face networking is the industry’s lifeblood, so no surprise that EG’s Connecting Tomorrow’s Leaders event offered countless stories of career turning points taking place over a pint in a pub. This can mean hangovers are an occupational hazard but it doesn’t mean you should drop your A game.
Sam Brown, CBRE graduate surveyor and founder of the Student Surveyor website, regaled the crowd with a tale from his days on placement at McDonald’s. All-too bright and early after a high-spirited (read: boozy) work event the night before, he begrudgingly exchanged small talk with a chap at the office café, revealing his head felt like it was hosting the mother of all fiestas, and he had neither showered, nor shaved. Once at his desk and logged on, he found a group e-mail from HR asking everyone to give the new boss a warm welcome, accompanied by a photo of the very man he had just been talking to: the fast food chain’s new Big Mac Daddy. We’re loving it. “The moral of the story,” said Brown, “is be kind and polite to everyone you meet at networking events, or in the office, because they could be your new boss.”
Get ready to Roomba?
Looking to shave a bit of money off the office overheads? Well, don’t rush to sack the cleaners and replace them with a Roomba. It could come with unintended consequences. According to Reuters, the future of the robotic vacuum cleaner so beloved of cats in shark costumes (Google it) “may lie more in collecting data than dirt”. Colin Angle, chief executive of Roomba maker iRobot, has spoken about how the device’s room-mapping technology is at the centre of the company’s strategy. The plan is to only sell the spatial data collected by Roombas from customers who are willing to share it – but if you are ultra-secretive about your office floorplan, perhaps best to stick with the human option for now. On the other hand, if you’re looking to sell up, why employ a surveyor? Buy yourself a Roomba and get all the measurements you need, plus clean carpets in the deal.
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Face-to-face networking is the industry’s lifeblood, so no surprise that EG’s Connecting Tomorrow’s Leaders event offered countless stories of career turning points taking place over a pint in a pub. This can mean hangovers are an occupational hazard but it doesn’t mean you should drop your A game.
Sam Brown, CBRE graduate surveyor and founder of the Student Surveyor website, regaled the crowd with a tale from his days on placement at McDonald’s. All-too bright and early after a high-spirited (read: boozy) work event the night before, he begrudgingly exchanged small talk with a chap at the office café, revealing his head felt like it was hosting the mother of all fiestas, and he had neither showered, nor shaved. Once at his desk and logged on, he found a group e-mail from HR asking everyone to give the new boss a warm welcome, accompanied by a photo of the very man he had just been talking to: the fast food chain’s new Big Mac Daddy. We’re loving it. “The moral of the story,” said Brown, “is be kind and polite to everyone you meet at networking events, or in the office, because they could be your new boss.”
Get ready to Roomba?
Looking to shave a bit of money off the office overheads? Well, don’t rush to sack the cleaners and replace them with a Roomba. It could come with unintended consequences. According to Reuters, the future of the robotic vacuum cleaner so beloved of cats in shark costumes (Google it) “may lie more in collecting data than dirt”. Colin Angle, chief executive of Roomba maker iRobot, has spoken about how the device’s room-mapping technology is at the centre of the company’s strategy. The plan is to only sell the spatial data collected by Roombas from customers who are willing to share it – but if you are ultra-secretive about your office floorplan, perhaps best to stick with the human option for now. On the other hand, if you’re looking to sell up, why employ a surveyor? Buy yourself a Roomba and get all the measurements you need, plus clean carpets in the deal.
The ugly truth
A recent article in The New Yorker made for fascinating reading, reaching a rather stunning conclusion: it pays to be ugly. The piece cites various academic research, including a transatlantic study earlier this year in which the authors found that, at every age, the ugliest 3% of the population outearned the 50% who were classified as a bit ugly or just average-looking – a phenomenon they named the “ugliness premium”, in reference to the long-recognised “beauty premium”. So, if you want to get ahead, be beautiful. If you can’t be beautiful, be ugly. But, as Diary can attest, there’s no glory in being average.
Fast food at its, err, slowest
It’s big. It’s red. It’s fun. But it doesn’t go very fast. It’s the British Land Routemaster and Diary overtook it on the M1. The bus (pictured) has been a regular at various events over the years but this time it is for BL’s Eats From The Street event, which it is hosting at 11 of its shopping centres this summer. It could be coming to a centre near you – but you might have to wait a while. Rumour has it the bus took three days to get from London to Manchester last year for Revo. It may have to allow even more time this year if it is to finish its food tour before heading to Revo in Liverpool.
Savills grad’s Love Island connection
Did anyone see Love Island? For those not familiar with the hit ITV2 reality show that apparently gripped the nation, the premise is simple – single contestants couple up and try to convince the public to keep them on the titular island long enough to hopefully claim the £50,000 prize (and presumably a happy ever after with their new other half). It is essentially a dating version of Big Brother, with more bikinis. It may not draw the biggest audience from the property industry but there will no doubt be a few people who tuned in. Particularly those who know that one current Savills graduate – let’s call him Romeo to avoid embarrassment – used to date contestant Montana Brown, who narrowly missed out on a place in the final. It was unconfirmed at time of writing whether Romeo was rooting for her to win, or pining for the one that got away.
