WORK EXPERIENCE WEEK AT PROPERTY PERSONNEL

By Jake Robinson

Monday

6.30am

I’ve woken up earlier than usual today- it’s my first day of work experience for Property Personnel. When my school told me about our Work Experience week, and then I found out there was position at Property Personnel, I was really excited about the opportunity. I have always wanted to work in an office and be involved in a business environment.  I feel really excited, but I’m a bit nervous too. I feel prepared though- yesterday I went shopping to buy a new white shirt and some smart trousers, so at least I’ll look the part!

7.30am

Property Personnel are based in Staines, and I have to travel from Chiswick to get there for 9am. It feels really weird, I’ve never been to work in an office before so I don’t really know what to expect. I feel nervous about not knowing anyone working there too!

I’ve never done this journey before – I have to walk to Stamford Brook to get the District line to Richmond, where I change trains to get me to Staines.

9.00am

I forgot to cross over the railway bridge and got totally lost- Google Maps to the rescue! I’ve arrived at the Property Personnel office – this is nerve-wracking! I feel quite shy and I’m not too sure what to say. Thankfully, the whole team are really friendly and I’m looking forward to my first day.

12.00pm

I started by sitting in on the morning meeting, where the Property Personnel team talked about estate agencies, jobs and people. When the meeting finished, the team gave me some tasks to do around the office like shredding documents, data entry and market research.

6.30pm

The journey home was quite eventful! I left the office with a pen in my jacket pocket which has leaked permanent ink all over my white shirt, so my Mum will have to buy me another one! She’s not very happy with me. Once I sat down on the train, I was so tired that I fell asleep straight away. I missed my stop at Richmond and woke up at Waterloo!

Tuesday

9.30am

Today is my birthday! I don’t know how, but the team in the Property Personnel office already knew about it and bought me a card and a cake. It’s great, I feel like part of the Property Personnel team already!

Wednesday

8.00pm

The week is going really well – thankfully I’ve had no more problems on the commute! I have been falling asleep really early in the evening though, often in front of the TV before I’ve even had a chance to eat dinner!

Friday

6.00pm

My week at Property Personnel has come to an end. Working in a recruitment agency was an amazing experience for me. The job was very interesting and I learnt a lot about estate agents and about how to recruit people. In the future, I could definitely see myself working in recruitment, especially now that I have a good understanding of how it all works. I also enjoyed working with people – it is great fun but also hard work.

I learned a huge amount over my week with the Property Personnel team, including the different salary levels for all the different types of jobs in estate agency, the types of roles there are in estate agency, how to interview people and how to impress clients.

I am very grateful to everyone at Property Personnel for giving me this fantastic opportunity and such a good idea of what it would be like to work in recruitment and in an office environment.