Summer Scheme Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement with Savills in the South Coast Development Team. Throughout the month I was here I have been given many different tasks and responsibilities to complete, all of which have taught me something different. Everyone in the office was always willing to guide me and answers all kinds of questions I threw their way. Being able to see both aspects of valuation and agency I have started to develop an understanding of where my strengths lie. It was an invaluable experience, and I have learnt a lot.

From the beginning all of the team have been friendly and welcoming. This made the process of setting into a new position very easy. Over the last four weeks, I have largely been involved with the valuation side of the business, which involves lots of different tasks being completed, then collected and formatted into a report. The work I have done has been relied upon, and the team have trusted my judgement, and even sought my opinion on different matters on a number of occasions. Plus they bought me lunch!

I have been given support from everyone in the team in some form or another, from asking the graduates for definitions to being told how to get a job from the head of department. The majority of the tasks set were unfamiliar or done differently to what I have done before, so when I need guidance and on occasions tutorials the team have been patient and understanding. The reason for the placement experience is so that I can learn from these people working in industry, and everyone was aware that was my goal and I was regularly being to called over to see how they do certain tasks and what is required.

The South Coast Development team is a large department split between two offices, this allowed me to be equally as busy as I wanted to be each day. Every member of the team were busy with their own tasks and were proactively getting on with it, until I asked lighten to their workload, or told them that I have capacity. As soon as I arrived I was immersed into work and have made sure that I have been able to fully experience what it is like to be a graduate within the Development team at Savills.

For a placement student I feel that I was given a vast number of responsibilities to deal with during the four weeks I was there. My intention while at Savills was to learn as much as possible and they were more than willing to accommodate this desire. I was given a wide array of tasks in across different disciplines within development, and have been relied upon with the results I have come to, trusted me to undertake assignments in order to meet their deadlines and asked to go over and proof read the work that they have put together.

I shall be going back to university next month in order to start my second year at Nottingham Trent, and am sure what I have learned will prove invaluable. I have been advised by previous graduates that second year at my university a large proportion of one of the modules will be based around the software Argus Developer, which I have already been shown how to use to calculate residual land values. In addition to this I have also broadened my vocabulary with technical knowledge that I can directly apply to upcoming assignments.

The general atmosphere generated by every member of each team at Savills was that of hard work, as a result of a good work ethic throughout. This work ethic motivated me to want to do as much work as physically capable and I would assume that this self sustaining system is the reason that Savills is such a successful company. The system generating success allowed the employees to enjoy their working environment and celebrate their successes, by ringing the 'victory bell' and visiting The Cricketers (the local pub) - for example.

Savills, being a Global real estate firm, successfully produced an internship that exceeded all expectations. I received regular emails in the weeks leading up to the placement. When I arrived I was fully expected and had the opportunity to meet everyone in the office, not just the team I was allocated, which is important for a prospective graduate to have the opportunity to network like that. I was well supported throughout the process, and constantly given work to complete; I was also given an assignment by graduate recruitment, which allowed to extremely improve my knowledge of the APC and what my options will be.

The people at Savills were relentlessly trying to teach me all that they could within the four weeks I was there. It is clear that they take care of their staff and offer a wide array of training courses in order to improve all areas of the business, from excel to APC guidance. During the time I was there I was introduced to a lot of technical phrases and processes; such as overage and the new rules regarding affordable housing. I am extremely grateful for this as it was one of my main objectives while I was with them.

This company, without a shadow of a doubt, is the company that I want to work for. This is the second round of work experience that they have accommodated for me and I hope that I can arrange many more. From the office atmosphere to the large-scale acquisitions the company has been making strongly appeals to me. I want to work for a company that wants to work, and this has been made abundantly clear to me with Savills. The UK headquarters are an attractive feature and the people have exceeded expectations. I can only hope that I have impressed in return.

There is clearly I close bond between the people working that only comes from being actively social with one and other. This is something I was enjoyed while I at Savills, unfortunately many people were away during the time I was with Savills (August is holiday season after all) but I enjoyed socialising with the other guy on work experience, and shall be staying in contact with him outside of Savills. The social aspect of surveying in general is very appealing and something that I look forward to in years to come.

The cost of living and socialising is exactly the same as what I have been used to growing up fairly locally. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I have been enjoying the extremely low prices that come as a perk of university in the Midlands. Prices for simple necessities while socialising, like taxis are next to nothing in Nottingham, but after midnight taxis on the South coast is tantamount to crime. That being said you do get what you pay for and life, in my experience, is significantly nicer in the South of England.

Unfortunately I have not experienced the Nightlife in Southampton yet, but I am sure it is only a matter of time. I am not too far away from Southampton where I live now and the nightlife in that town is limited to a single and much too familiar club, but there is never any qualms about making the trip to Brighton for what I can only describe as a nice city during the day and a great city during the night.

From what I could tell there are a lot of activities that graduates, and everyone else, to get involved in. This is one of the many exciting factors that is making me want to work for Savills more and more. Unfortunately, due to holidays over August there were less events available to go to. There were certain events, inappropriate for myself, and lots of other being booked in advance.