Student Surveyor Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my 4 weeks with Savills with plenty of variety in the activities that I have participated in. Spending time with Savills has further confirmed to me that I have chosen the right career path & I cannot wait to pursue it further. It has been invaluable for putting text book information that we have been taught within lectures into reality.

The team at the Truro Office could not have made me feel more welcome. They have been extremely accommodating with me taking me to a variety of jobs including estate visits, valuations & meetings. I have always been appreciated when handing back projects that I have been set to do & have been trusted with numerous projects. I have been made to feel as part of the team & never in the way.

I have received all of the guidance that I have needed throughout my placement & everyone has been extremely helpful by answering any questions and queries that I may have had. My mentor has guided me with anything that I have needed help with and helped to arrange many visits & meetings.

Since settling into the office I have been given more than enough tasks to complete during the days that I have spent within the office. On average I have been out of the office for 2 days a week on estate visits & valuations. These have given me plenty of follow up work to do once I am back in the office. This has been extremely helpful to me to see the follow up to the visits.

I have had as much responsibility as I would expect a placement student to have. I have been given a lot of independent tasks to do whilst being with Savills which has been very satisfying to present to the staff members once I have completed them. I have been made to feel as part of the team rather than a temporary fixture with the responsibility that I have been given.

Working within the team at Savills has enabled me to see the many different jobs that rural surveyors do first hand. By being given the opportunity to assist on many of these jobs I have received a lot of training with each surveyor being extremely helpful & explaining everything in detail to me. I feel that I will enter my third year of university with a wider scope of knowledge aiding me with the curriculum for next year.

The office is very sociable with a very welcoming team. Everyone helps each other with any queries they may have or if a second opinion is needed it is no trouble. All of the desks are closely arranged which I believe helps with relationships within the office as everyone talks to everyone rather than working by themselves. The general atmosphere is very positive.

My mentor (Rosey) has been extremely helpful by giving me a rough itinerary when I first arrived in the office with plenty of activities and tasks set for the first couple of weeks - The rest of the staff have filled in the rest! Naomi & Ella have been very helpful with all of the information that I have needed through the summer scheme & I have not been left at any point to wonder what I should be doing or where I should be. The guidance booklets were helpful at the beginning guiding on the dress code etc. I feel that this is one of the best work placements that was on offer to me and rather than being a spare part in the office like many work experiences I have had a useful purpose within the office.

There has been numerous information and training sessions on a website called Go To Training. These have been helpful in educating me in the wider aspects of Savills rather than just the rural sector that I have been working within. Staff members have aided me a lot giving me any information that they feel may be helpful to me and pointed me in the right direction if I have wished to further educate myself.

I will definitely be applying for the graduate scheme in 2017 as my time here at Savills has been even more appealing than I first thought. All of my previous work experience has been with much smaller independent firms which I really enjoyed with small offices and much smaller teams, however, the busyness of the office at Savills has been brilliant and has changed my outlook on working within a national firm. I will now look to graduate into national firm

I have been the only summer scheme student within the office this month so I have not socialised with any other placement students. Work colleagues are very social with drinks parties, social events such as water sports as team building exercises and leaving drinks are an absolute necessary for anyone leaving the office.

I have been lucky enough to be close enough to the office to stay at home during my placement with Savills, therefore I cannot particularly comment on this. There are plenty of socialising areas within Truro that range from relatively cheap to slightly more expensive. There are chains such as Wetherspoons in the town.

Although I live relatively close I have only experienced the nightlife in Truro a couple of times and it is what you would expect from a Cornish Town. Plenty of places such as Wetherspoons and cocktail bars to keep you entertained. Truro's nightlife is not as seasonal as places such as Newquay so it is pretty good all year round with plenty of places to go.

On my very first week I was invited to the Savills Summer Drinks Party at Burncoose which I thoroughly enjoyed and really helped me to get to know the team. We played games such as Croquet & rounders which was a complete ice breaker. The team do other team building exercises such as water sports and bowling outside of work, however, unfortunately that is scheduled for next month!