Senior Quantity Surveyors: Why the Best Roles Are Moving, And Why You Should Pay Attention

Senior and Associate Director‑level Quantity Surveyors are among the most in‑demand professionals in today’s construction and consultancy market, yet many remain hesitant to explore new opportunities. If you’re in that position, you’re far from alone; staying put often feels like the safer option, even when the market is signaling that stronger roles may be available.

Demand for senior commercial talent continues to outstrip supply across residential development, infrastructure, and major programme delivery. Multiple businesses are often competing for the same individuals, offering higher salaries, equity potential, and clearer progression pathways, yet many of these roles still go unfilled. For employers, this shortage is a strategic challenge. For candidates, it represents leverage, choice, and the opportunity to shape a role rather than simply step into one.

From a recruiter’s perspective, the biggest barrier isn’t the availability of opportunities but the perception of risk. Many senior professionals assume that moving roles brings uncertainty, questions about culture, delivery expectations, or long‑term stability. These concerns are understandable, especially for those who have built credibility where they are. But the market has shifted. Businesses are becoming more flexible, more transparent, and more willing to tailor roles around the right person. Some of the strongest opportunities never reach the open market at all; they’re discussed quietly with a small group of trusted candidates who are open to a conversation. In reality, the best roles are often invisible unless you’re already in the room.

Even if you’re not actively looking, staying informed puts you in a stronger position. Conversations aren’t commitment, they simply help you understand your value and the direction of the market. It’s also worth benchmarking your current role, as gaps in salary, progression, project exposure, and autonomy often appear gradually over time. Being open to informal, confidential discussions can be valuable, as many senior‑level moves begin with a low‑pressure exploratory chat rather than a formal application. And thinking long-term is essential: consider where your current role is taking you versus where the market could take you in the next three to five years.

The market is moving, whether you are or not, and senior QS talent has more influence and choice today than at any point in the last five years. The only real risk is assuming that staying still is the safest option. If you’re open to a confidential conversation about what’s happening in the market and where you might fit within it, taking that first step could be more valuable than you think.

Author: Claudine Gilbery-Phillips

A Memorable Work Experience Day at Gardiner & Theobald

Written by: Claudine Gilbery-Phillips

On Monday, I had the absolute pleasure of visiting the Gardiner & Theobald office in London with my 13-year-old twin sons for a work experience day – and what a day it was!

As a recruiter who works in a small office with just one colleague, I initially had no idea how to give my boys a meaningful or engaging insight into the working world without them being bored senseless. But after chatting with one of my lovely clients, they kindly offered for me to bring the boys into G&T - and I’m so grateful they did.

We took the train into London, and the twins spent the journey researching what a Quantity Surveyor does and even looked up the origins of the Gardiner & Theobald name. When we arrived, we were warmly welcomed by one of the lovely PA's I've exchanged countless emails with but had never met in person. She took us onto the main floor where we were introduced to Jemma, an apprentice Quantity Surveyor, and Dan, an Assistant Quantity Surveyor - our fantastic guides for the day.

Dan and Jemma gave us a brilliant tour of the office, showing us various floors and aspects of the company, which helped bring the profession to life. Back at their desks, Jemma brought out CAD floorplans and set the boys the task of counting chairs, tables, and other elements - a challenge they took very seriously, turning it into a fierce (but fun!) competition to see who could be the fastest and most accurate.

Next up, Jemma gave them some cost plans to work through - calculating total costs from quantities and rates, and even working backwards to figure out the quantities needed. The boys had loads of questions, like “What happens if you get the cost completely wrong?” - Dan and Jemma answered everything with such patience and enthusiasm.

After the hands-on tasks, we moved to a meeting room where Dan presented one of their flagship projects. It was fascinating to see the transformation of a building I remember from years ago into a spectacular new space with restaurants, offices, and entertainment venues - not to mention the impressive infrastructure behind it. We’re already planning a visit once it’s completed later this year!

While I was there, I also took the opportunity to finally meet some of the clients I’ve been working with but had only connected with remotely. It was great to put faces to names and have real conversations with the people behind the emails - a rare treat in today’s virtual world.

Personally, it was an amazing opportunity to see firsthand how my Huntsman Consult clients operate day-to-day. But more than that, I was deeply impressed by how engaging, patient, and inspiring both Jemma and Dan were with the boys - especially when Dan mentioned his passion for drag racing, which happens to be a lifelong interest of their dad’s!

In a world where big businesses are often too busy to pause, it’s incredible to see a company like Gardiner & Theobald take the time to welcome young people into their environment in such an age-appropriate, thoughtful way. My boys still don’t know exactly what they want to do “when they grow up” (aside from becoming professional footballers, of course!), but after this experience, they realised there are other exciting and interesting career paths out there too. They genuinely enjoyed their time, were fully engaged throughout, and came away with a new appreciation for how the working world functions.

It also highlighted to me just how important it is to encourage younger people to explore construction as a career. It's a fantastic and often overlooked industry, full of opportunities for creativity, innovation, and progression - and clearly capable of capturing young imaginations when presented in the right way.

Thank you so much to everyone at G&T who made the day possible - especially Dan, Jemma, and the kind client who offered us this opportunity. We won’t forget it.

Photos by: Claudine Gilbery-Phillips

2025 Salary Guide by Huntsman Consult

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James Waissel’s Real Talk on Building Huntsman Consult

Let’s be honest: most founder stories are sugar-coated. But not this one.

In a refreshingly candid episode of The RAG Podcast, James Waissel - Founder of Huntsman Consult - sat down with Sean Anderson from Hoxo Media to unpack the highs, lows, and gritty middle bits of building a specialist recruitment business in the UK’s built environment sector.

This wasn’t just another feel-good startup fairytale. It was a raw, detailed, and often hilarious play-by-play of how a bloke who once flogged Pokémon cards from his mum’s car boot built one of the most credible boutique agencies in construction recruitment - in under a year.

The Leap: From Comfortable to Calculated Chaos

After years in the game (Oyster, Archer, you name it), James hit that crossroads every high-performing recruiter secretly thinks about:

“Am I building someone else’s dream... or am I finally going to build mine?”
The decision? Triggered the day after his wedding.

Backed by sheer conviction, client trust, and a wildcard investor who believed in James before he even believed in himself - Huntsman Consult was born.

His first-year target? £125,000.
His actual billing in the first nine months? Nearly £300,000.
In a down market.

That’s not luck. That’s proof of what happens when preparation meets grit.

Behind the Scenes: What Most Founders Don’t Tell You

James didn’t just plug in a laptop and “go self-employed.” He spent his six-month post-resignation cooling-off period building systems, mapping the entire industry on LinkedIn, and literally buying and flipping antique toy trains to bankroll the company. (Yes - you read that right.)

Why? Because recruitment is easy to start but hard to sustain. And he wasn’t going to let sloppy planning kill his momentum.

His guiding rule? "Minimise risk. Maximise delivery."

The Model: Quality Over Quantity, Every Time

Forget chucking CVs at clients and hoping something sticks.

Huntsman’s approach is rooted in precision. A 95% CV-to-first-interview rate. Deep market mapping. Real pre-screening. And a relationship-first, 360° strategy that clients actually remember.

As James puts it:
“This isn't about building the biggest agency. It's about building the most profitable, reliable, and respected one.”

And that’s not just talk. It’s reflected in every hire he’s made - from experienced talent like Claudine Gilbery-Phillips, who now leads Quantity Surveying, to carefully selected support in South Africa helping scale operations intelligently.

Growth Without Bloat

While most recruitment founders chase fast headcount and burnout, James is laser-focused on growing lean, profitable verticals. That includes exploring a partner model - giving high-performers equity and true ownership, not just commission and KPIs.

It’s built for smart recruiters who could go out on their own - but don’t want to. Because they’ve got the autonomy, investment, and buy-in without the lonely grind of solo startup life.

AI, Authenticity & The Future of Recruitment

AI came up (as it always does), and James didn’t dodge the hard truths. He’s bullish on using AI for what it's good at — automation, admin, and efficiency — but draws a hard line:

“AI will never replace trust. It can’t take your client for a pint or truly understand what keeps them up at night. That’s human.”

For Huntsman Consult, AI supplements the system. Not the soul.

Why This Podcast Hit Different

This wasn’t about “growth hacks” or empty motivational fluff. It was two industry leaders dissecting the real anatomy of a recruitment business - with war stories, swear words, and strategic gold woven in between.

If you’re a recruiter thinking of going solo, or a consultancy looking for a partner who gets the market beyond just buzzwords - this episode is a must-listen.

Your Move

At Huntsman Consult, we’re not playing the volume game. We’re playing the long game.
We work with built environment consultancies that value relationships, rigour, and results - not just resumes.

Ready to speak with someone who understands the QS and PM market inside and out?

Get in touch.

PM's get in touch with James Waissel
👉 Save details
📞 07554 884592
✉ james@huntsmanconsult.com

QS's get in touch with Claudine Gilbery-Phillips
👉 Save details
📞 07968 119661
✉ claudine@huntsmanconsult.com

Check out the full podcast episode here.

Video: The Rag Podcast

The shrinking Project Management Talent Pool in the UK Consultancy market - Where else should you look?

In recent weeks there has been a lot of press surrounding the reduction of available skilled workers in the Construction Industry in the UK. This is impacting all corners of the industry and poses the question - Where else can companies look to resource talent?

Focusing solely on the Project Management market, our Managing Director, James, has seen a fluctuation in the technical and professional backgrounds of candidates joining Project Management consultancies.

We asked James about the challenges that companies face attracting talent in todays marketplace, the solutions that some clients have been implementing and the benefits of having a diverse workforce. Here is what he had to say:

The Project Management recruitment market has changed significantly in recent years due to a number of different reasons both from within the industry and external factors such as Brexit and the recent Pandemic.

There has always been a constant flow of candidates relocating from Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Americas who have wanted to be involved in the UK Construction industry given it's global status. Brexit has made the move more complicated due to restriction in "Free Movement" and those now trying to enter the market require sponsorship, which only a handful of Consultants offer in the UK given the associated costs. We have started to see a strong return from Australia and New Zealand due to the post pandemic era and also the change in the Youth Visa for those aged 30 or younger who can now spend 3 years in the UK without requiring sponsorship from a UK entity.

COVID introduced the "Hybrid Working" model and this remains a strong topic for debate. The general workforce has now adopted to the "New Normal" of being able to work 2 days per week from home. Whilst some firms believe in this model, most of which are SME and Boutique consultancies, the leading players in the Project Management market have started to reduce this flexibility and encouraged staff back to the office as they have seen a slow down in career progression and direct impact on company culture. Although the industry is slowing moving back to what we had been used to for many years, the younger people working in the industry seem to be a little more reluctant to return having only known office life post-covid.

The rising cost of living in London has also had an impact with general wages not rising quickly enough and forcing part of the work force to look at more lucrative opportunities in Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

With approximately 140 Project Management Consultancies operating in London, the talent pool is relatively small and highly competitive for those entering the recruitment market.

Over the last 2 years, 1 in 3 candidates placed in Project Management consultanices have come from an alternate part of the Property and Construction Industry - Architects, Engineering Consultancies, Main Contractors, Planning Consultants, Sub Contractors, Public Sector Bodies and specialist Design Management firms. This is something that I anticipate to continue with the ratio becoming closer to 50:50. Consultancies have become a lot more diverse in terms of skillset and clients are now appointing Consultants at earlier stages of projects. Rather than being one dimensional in their delivery they now have very well equipped teams that can cover all areas of the consultant teams appointed on schemes.

One of the biggest issues is that areas such as Contracting have typically paid more than Consultancy, the same goes for the Developer world, however the Architect, Engineering and Public Sector seem to be behind in average pay making a move to a Consultant a more attractive proposition.

A longstanding client made the point recently that, personality and people skills are equally as important as technical ability. Having a diverse workforce not only makes your business more adaptable to the range of clients we deal with, but it also gives balance across the team where everybody is able to continue learning. This can't be taught, but the technical element of Project Management can.

With the second half of the year looming and with Interest rate levels looking to fall, there seems to be optimism that firms will get back to hiring strategically as opposed to reactionary. I won't mention the General Election, that's a different discussion altogether!

Firms, need to start to look at the value add that those in alternate parts of the industry can bring with them. We would all love to be able to hire the perfect candidate that is MRICS, MCIOB, MAPM and having worked across every sector but in this market being open to the idea that other corners of the industry are full of talented people, it may be that firms start to look at these industries closely to attract talent. Waiting too long to hire will only cause you issues internally and put you at the risk of losing staff.

My advice is to be open to meeting candidates with different career paths and think about how diverse the skill set is across your team and lastly where your own clients may be benefit from a more diverse workforce.

Recruitment - How to get your process right

Everyone has their own formula to success but at Huntsman we ensure that we advise businesses on a streamlined process that works for them and how to increase their probability of a successful campaign.

Having worked with several firms over the last decade, the one's that have been successful in hiring "Top Talent" have all had one thing in common - A very efficient and proactive recruitment process where everyone involved knows their role!

We have all seen the posts on LinkedIn about Steve who had 15 interviews and never heard back, or the time Mary got a job offer three months after her last interview only to have accepted another job elsewhere, or when the company decided to pull the role at the last minute due to a restructure.

Recruitment is as simple as it sounds, but only if you have a good process in place and have the right people working both for your firm and externally in support.

We advise clients on the following 10 steps:

  1. Have a clear hiring process from a Vacancy being live and signed off to a candidate starting on Day1.
  2. Everyone needs to know their role from Internal Talent / HR to the Hiring Manager and the Agency.
  3. Letting the decision maker make the decision! The old analogy of too many cooks.
  4. Don't saturate the role or your Company Brand by using a huge amount of external Agencies.
  5. Be clear and definitive around timescales.
  6. Communication is Key - Feedback, Next steps of Process and How the back office process works regarding paperwork (Offer & Accceptance)
  7. Be efficient and don't be afraid to make your intent known about your preferred candidate.
  8. Be honest about where you are in the process.
  9. Provide a detailed Job Brief that can be shared with Candidates.
  10. Provide your companies Benefits to a Recruiter before the role goes out to market.

There are many more areas that can be scrutinised but the above can form a good check list to ensure that the process is in place, the right people supporting the process are in place and that the success rate of Offer to Acceptance increases.

Clear and timely communication is one of, if not, the most important factor in recruitment. Taking time to provide detailed feedback not only educated the candidate for further stages or in their search elsewhere, but also speak volumes of your business. Far too many firms reject without reason and this leaves a sour taste for future job opportunities.

We have worked with several companies in improving the Recruitment Process and unsurprisingly they are now attracting a better calibre of candidate and have a higher success rate in attracting industry talent. Please contact our Managing Director, James to find out more about how we operate and where we can help.