Summer Scheme Student Review

I have been getting an insight into a graduate surveyors role within the company. I have sat in the development team in Cambridge and mostly helped with agency work. I have helped to write brochures for development land, find comparables, input into Savills maps, called other agents, assisted with site searching (particularly new potential sites with the change from green belt to grey belt), made a data room for a listing and been out on site visits.

My written and oral communication skills have improved as a result of the tasks I have completed within my time in the company. I have become more comfortable with speaking to other agents on the phone when requesting the details of comparable sites. I have also become more confident with using applications such as excel and company specific applications such as Savills maps. I now find it easier to navigate councils websites and find recent planning applications which will be useful in future work.

I felt that I could have been given more responsibility at times and that I could have been challenged with more impactful work. I do however, feel that I was given more responsibility as the internship progressed as I proved myself to the team.

The team were very supportive and made sure to explain tasks clearly when they gave them to me. I felt that I could ask questions if I didn't fully understand what I had to do which I think is so important when doing an internship as you have to ask questions to learn.

The general atmosphere was good, everyone worked hard but it didn't feel like they were so busy that they didn't have time for me or to answer my questions. The team seemed very inclusive and fun. I did feel that the office was very big and there wasn't much collaboration between each department, they all felt very separate from each other.

The internship was overall very enjoyable. Sometimes the work was not as interesting as it possibly could have been and sometimes there wasn't much for me to do which made time go more slowly. However, I did get some interesting tasks and enjoyed site visits. There were also lots of social opportunities which was nice for getting to know the team better. Overall, it was good but I felt they could have got more out of me by giving me more challenging work and more work in general (I did ask for work often).

Yes

It is a great company to work for with nice people and lots of opportunity. It is important to think about what you want from the company you work for. Do you want to work in a company as big as Savills? There are lots of advantages to it but there are also some disadvantages such as sometimes feeling like a small cog in a very large wheel.