Summer Scheme Student Review

I absolutely loved my time here, having the experience of going between the two offices meant that I met a lot of people and got to experience every division withing Building Consultancy department. Completely invaluable experience, and has confirmed that this is the right career path for me.

I was set quite a big task at the beginning of my internship; to create a database containing Building Consultancy clients from 2006- present, the invoice amounts of all these clients, and the contact details of the clients and Savills team members. This involved a lot of networking across departments and research/ patience/Excel skills to pull off. I managed it though and presented it to my director who was pleased and will actually use it to create nationwide reports for the Building Consultancy Department. Another big task I was set was to summarise 6 reports as part of a Due Diligence Survey, which would then form the basis of an overall report sent to our client. All that I did was used put to good use by the teams, they genuinely needed me to do these things, and didn't just set projects as practise.

The placement involved quite a lot of independent work, but if you asked and were proactive enough to ask questions and book time within your Outlook diary with individuals they were more than happy to go out of their way to explain things to you or point you in the right direction. The layout of the offices is such that all the directors and other employees sit in open plan offices and sit next to you. For an intern I had a lot of director contact, which I don't thing you would have in other places, this is an ideal opportunity to gain the benefit of their wisdom.

I always had something to do, or always asked if I could do something else. Effectively I organised my time during the placement and tailored the experiences to what I wanted.

On my third day I was sent off solo with a set of plans and a camera to take pictures, I wrote reports which formed the basis of a final version that was given to clients and was responsible for a database which was to be used by the entire Building Consultancy Department within the UK. I of course, not being RICS qualified, was not allowed to conduct my own surveys but accompanied and assiseted other surveyors on theirs.

I have asked which university modules are the most beneficial within your career and now know which optional modules I should be taking, and what books are best to read etc. I have had experience producing reports and schedules etc which I would need for my degree and future career and have examples of how these are all put together, which will be very useful for my studies.

Everyone was very engaging and had good senses of humour. It's a real work hard play hard sort of atmosphere which is very inspirational.

Savills has put together a more formal process for accepting work experience students, which in my mind is a great idea. Not only do you get experience of a real interview like process, but all the staff are aware of your presence and they know to set work aside for you. A range of departmental talks were arranged as well as netwroking events and social occasions.

As a non-cog graduate I am about to start my masters in September, so I suppose this could not technically have been my final career path destination, also considering you are well paid for the month (£1000 approx) I think the firm has invested quite heavily in taking on these summer scheme students. This just goes to show that Savills wants to select the best within the industry and are willing to invest in getting you there. In terms of my own personal training and development, it has helped me clearly define my aims in life and made me realise that without a doubt it is the right career path for me, which now will give me something to work towards and allow me to achieve the best I can. I have also been given the confidence boost I needed to know I'd fit within this industry, which came in the form of an end of placement review, where I recieved invaluable feedback. At the end of the day I have left Savills with amazing contacts and valuable sources of information that I can use to help me during my studies and future career.

10 out of 10 the employment prospects are appealing, I do really want to work for savills after I have finished my MSc conversion. I will just have to wait until Novemeber to apply for the grad scheme!!

Socialising within Savills is encouraged a lot, you will definitely know how to network by the time you leave! More informal occasions were arranged by ourselves through our Outlook email, for interns just to head out after work for a few drinks. Lunch dates with other interns were also arranged amongst ourselves. Afterwork drinks with the directors or other team members in Building Consultancy also occurred, which is great as they then pay for you! otherwise it can get a bit expensive heading around Mayfair and Moorgate!

Expensive as you are in London around the hotspot banker areas, but you are only young once so make the most of it! There are however happy hour deals and there's always Pizza Express!

Great obviously, it's London! Pub scene is good.

A rounders evening sesh was organised in the park for interns to get to know each other and there was a cricket event that we were all invited to watch as well. Other than that interns were provided with each others emails and we were left to organise things amongst ourselves.