A Day in The Life:
Field Researcher
A Typical DayMy day usually starts the night before, when I have to make a meticulous plan as to what buildings I have to visit the next day. Field research can be working on a variety of projects from inventory (collating data and photos of every single property in a city) to lead hunting (searching for new availability in the field) and each of these require different planning and work methods. CoStar provides me with the latest technology and tools such as toughbook computers with 3G to make research in the field the most efficient it can be. I can cross reference the buildings I visit with the data we have on the system, and amend any data there and then. After a busy morning of visiting anything from 30-50 properties, I spend the afternoon editing and attaching high res photos of every single building and ensuring all data is complete and accurate.
What is the most challenging aspect of your job?
After working in Field Research for over 4 years now, I can certainly say the biggest challenge I face is the great British weather. Quality is an important aspect to our work and taking photographs in rain and snow doesn't achieve the quality we need. Therefore a certain amount of planning and weather forecasts are needed, even if it means capturing images at weekends or out of hours. The winter just gone was certainly challenging as I walked the city streets. Thermal gloves and coats were a necessity!
What's the most interesting part of the job?
The best part about field research is that each day is never the same. I have discovered so many parts of the city I never knew about and by actually standing outside every building you appreciate the history and architectural variety that makes a city like Birmingham what it is. I also track new developments to keep the status information up to date and photograph the progress and it's so interesting to see how quickly a building develops from the ground up to eventually being occupied by new tenants.
