Commercial Negotiator Review

I thought the internship gave a really good insight into the industry as a whole, particularly within my own department but also into other departments through the variety of talks given throughout the internship. Unfortunately I decided that the department that I was placed in was not necessarily best suited to me which felt slightly restrictive as the placement was only in the one department.

The team that I was working in made a big effort to give me work that would be both valuable for me personally in terms of gaining industry knowledge and that was also necessary and useful for the team and the company as a whole. Being involved in work that was being directly passed to clients made me feel that the work I was producing was important and I was making a positive contribution to the team. Naturally some of the work I undertook was less critical and at times repetitive but this is to be expected and the colleague that asked me to complete the task was always grateful for the help and gave constructive feedback.

The team as a whole was really active in their feedback on the work I provided which was really useful in being able to learn as quickly as possible. My supervisor was supportive, both in terms of providing work and feedback but also in checking that I was enjoying myself and that I had enough work and felt settled. The internship included a 'buddy scheme' which involved being paired with a recent graduate and although I think this is a good idea in principle unfortunately my buddy did not interact with me very much across the four weeks. I think that my experience could have been improved if this had been different.

Having not worked in the real estate industry previously or undertaken a cognate degree the internship was a fantastic experience to dramatically build upon my industry knowledge and relevant skills going forward towards my real estate masters degree and my future career.

The internship included a good selection of scheduled talks and some social events for all of the interns. I felt that the talks were well spread out across the internship to continue interest across the four weeks, however the networking events were too late in the program and this meant that there was somewhat limited opportunity to build networks between interns.

The team I worked in was a positive and professional environment. The staff members clearly had good working relationships and there was a shared motivation to perform well. The company seemed to provide a successful balance between work and socialising which created an environment that promoted hard work, success and reward.

There was personal feedback and training to some extent. The feedback was thorough and constructive. There could have been more training, particularly for non-cognate students.

The internship was a really good opportunity to experience full time work at the company. The range of work I was given was very similar to the graduates on the team for example.

There was a good opportunity to understand the company culture from the day to day work within my team as well as the talks that were put on. The formal and informal social events that I was invited allowed me to see the company culture, for example the property triathlon.

Very valuable - it was a good opportunity to fully experience the industry as a whole as well as a specific department. Although I decided that the department I was based in was not necessarily suited to me but this was very valuable in itself and I was able to see the alternative departments within the industry.

I was paid £1000 for the 4 weeks I worked. I felt that that this was fair, however commuting from Reading everyday meant that much of this was spent on my train ticket and I did not receive any travel expenses.

There were several opportunities to network with other members of the firm, however these were either set up informally by members of my department or happened spontaneously whereby there were several after work locations where many members of staff congregated.

The events put on were good, particularly the second larger event which included an activity and drinks and was also attended by several graduate surveyors which was a good opportunity to network outside of the intern group and my department. Unfortunately the events came quite late in the overall schedule and this restricted their usefulness in building lasting contacts.

All interns were invited to attend the annual property triathlon which was a big event within the company and a good indicator of the culture of the company. Extra curricular activities such as sports teams and choir for example were also mentioned within the internship.

Definitely.