Sandwich Placement Student Review

I am a fixed Sandwich Placement Student in the London Retail Property Management Team. My role has involved analysing leases, managing budgets, chasing arrears, and many other aspects of Retail Property Management. This has meant engaging with Asset Managers, Centre Managers, site teams and colleagues on a day-to-day basis. I have carried out my role with the support of my line manager who I have regular meetings with to discuss any day-to-day queries and my progression towards the APC assessment.

Throughout the year I have developed skills including, Excel, report writing and analysing figures and statistics. I have also learnt a number of new skills such as: managing accounts, running and presenting analytics reports, carrying out CAP calculations and how to recover arrears through procedures such as CRAR and LBA. In addition, I have developed my confidence working in a corporate environment, interacting with clients and putting forward ideas.

Yes, I have been incrementally gaining responsibility throughout the year. As a result of working on a number of different projects I have had a range of responsibilities over the course of the year. For example managing tenant arrears, which involved creating payment plans, issuing LBA and/or CRAR, calculating CAPs and managing Credits and allocations. I have also had the responsibility of creating and issuing management reports, arrears reports, assisting in the creation of service charge reports and service charge reconciliation reports.

When I joined my team I was allocated a line manager who I have had fortnightly meetings with throughout the year and a buddy who I could go to with any questions or queries. However, my whole team were extremely welcoming, so I felt comfortable asking anyone in the team for support and/or guidance.

Whilst being in a hardworking team I have also experienced an extremely supportive and fun culture. Having a number of team/ graduate/ networking drinks and events throughout the year, this allowed me to feel comfortable in the business extremely quickly. I felt particularly lucky to have the network of support in the office and the opportunity to continue to meet new people throughout the year.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement year and the experience has been invaluable. I now feel much more confident to return back to the property industry after completing my studies at university.

Yes

I would encourage those who study a cognate degree not to be afraid to apply for a role at Savills. The support Savills provide in both personal development and APC development has been incredible. In addition, knowledge and career development is encouraged at all levels and so I never felt alone on this journey.