Savills Residential Development Intern Review

My internship at Savills was very enjoyable. The work was varied and interesting and throughout the scheme there is a comprehensive 'programme' of activities for all the interns - talks by the various departments, social events, guided walking tours around the city of London etc. These are great to get to know all the other interns and it means you don't just spend 4 weeks sitting by a desk!

I wouldn't go as far to say that I felt like family, but the staff here were all very pleasant and friendly. It is of course, a very big company and its not always easy as your only here for 4 weeks but overall I was made to feel welcome.

The level of support and guidance given by management is excellent. The HR graduate team are supporting you from day one and there are mid-placement catch-ups with HR and your team leader, as well as at the end of your time here. Each intern also gets a mentor for the whole 4 weeks, who is usually someone on the graduate programme in their team.

My level of business varied significantly day to day. Some days I was suitably busy with a good amount of work given to me that kept me stimulated and involved. Other days were slightly quitter, with not so much work going on. There was no point where I was too busy.

I would say that I was given a fair amount of responsibility during my placement. Most of the projects and reports I was given to work on, after a brief introduction and description of the task, I was pretty much left to my own initiative. For example - I was told to do some data analysis on a set of excel data and it was left entirely up to me how to present my analysis, which graphs to use etc.

I feel that the skills I developed and training I've received will be of tremendous benefit to me in the future. I've gained a thorough comprehensive overview of the real estate services industry. Not so much an in-depth knowledge in any one particular area, rather gaining familiarity with the basic property concepts i.e. comps, valuations, viability etc. has proven invaluable to me.

The general atmosphere here is great. The office is all open plan with loads of different teams sitting together. It is a very relaxed atmosphere with a great buzz. People wander around freely just for chats, everyone's involved in world cup sweepstakes, and there's a great kitchen hub that people gather in to chill.

The internship was very well set up. Each month there are approximately 20 interns, and each gets placed in a different team within the company. Spread evenly over the month there are departmental talks by the different teams so you can learn about the entire company, networking events and social opportunities. Mid-placement there's also a small written and numerical reasoning test.

I believe the future employment prospects are quite positive. Some people who excel on the 4 week internship could be offered jobs on the graduate scheme however, most people will still need to apply for the graduate scheme like everyone else - just the 4 week summer scheme fast tracks them a little bit. Once your in, there's huge room for career growth, with a large amount of the current directors and board having started themselves on the graduate programme!

There is a great social scene amongst the interns here. There's opportunity's built into the official schedule, such as drinks networking, and the grand rounder's game in Hyde Park. On top of that the interns would all often go out for drinks after work and theirs loads of greats pubs and bars in the area.

Quite expensive. Prices in central London pubs and bars are a significant amount more than you might be used to in the regions! Accommodation is also very expensive if you want to rent somewhere near the office. The best thing to do is to rent somewhere in Greater London and commute in.

The office is in Central London, West End! The whole of London is at your feet!