Knight Frank takes on record number of graduates

Knight Frank has taken on its largest-ever number of graduates, welcoming 82 to the 2022 programme. This year’s intake is more than a third larger than last year’s 59, itself a record. The cohort will work initially in the agency’s offices in London, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Manchester and elsewhere, moving between offices nationally and internationally.  William Beardmore-Gray, group chair, told EG he is proud the firm had attracted a genuinely diverse group of graduates. Almost a quarter came from Knight Frank’s summer internship and work placement programme, which the firm wants to use to encourage a more diverse workforce. More than 60% have non-property related degrees. “Go back 10, 15, 20 years and that diversity wasn’t there – which is part of the reason why we have the problem we have at the top of our industry now,” Beardmore-Gray said. “But what’s encouraging is that these really talented people are forcing us to walk the talk. We have to demonstrate that the efforts we are making to transform how our business looks isn’t just something on a brochure or a website – we are actually doing it.”  He added: “The only thing that really keeps me awake at night, which we can control, is what our business looks like, how attractive it is to the best talent out there. If, when I leave this job in four and a half years’ time, we haven’t made some change and put the building blocks in place for a business which is fantastically fit for the next 125 years, then I will have failed.” The pitch for a career in an agency like Knight Frank has changed since Beardmore-Gray entered the industry more than three decades ago. “We as an organisation have to work really hard, rightly so, to make the idea of a career in property an exciting and attractive one,” he said. “That’s not just about the graduate scheme and the ability for us to help people through to a professional qualification. It’s about what does it look like from start to finish?”  Opportune time to enter property This year’s intake enters the industry at a pivotal moment for the market, with an economic downturn looming and volatile times ahead for many agency business lines. But as other real estate leaders have said before, carving out a career during a crisis can ultimately be a benefit. “There’s a whole generation of people, either advisers or clients, who have never seen a downturn,” Beardmore-Gray said. “If you started in the past 12 years, post the global financial crisis, you clearly would have hit some bumps in the road but, actually, the markets have been heading pretty much in one direction for most of that time.  “I said to our graduates – we do our best work in difficult times. It’s when our clients need us most. The pandemic was a great example, where we hunkered down with our clients. Those people who had been through the global financial crisis knew this was the time you needed to be sitting as close to your clients as possible, helping them and not expecting any reward – that reward comes a year or two down the line because you spent that time.” That’s the kind of lesson that a young property professional can only learn on the job, and Beardmore-Gray tells graduates asking him for career advice to remain open to those experiences. “Be curious,” he tells them. “Make yourself useful. Connect and pull in as much as you can in the next two years.”  Emphasis on “connect” – and in person. Beardmore-Gray worries too many young professionals are only used to communicating via their mobile phones. And while real estate has changed in many ways, that old-fashioned focus on face-to-face remains. “We say to our people: don’t type, talk,” Beardmore-Gray said. “The fact is, your clients don’t want an e-mail, they don’t want a text, they want you to get on the phone. You must get out there and talk to people, particularly when times get tough. That human connection is really important.”   To send feedback, e-mail tim.burke@eg.co.uk or tweet @_tim_burke or @EGPropertyNews Image courtesy of Knight Frank