Blog: My work experience at Tortoise Property Ltd
What is work experience?
Work experience is where a year 10 student will go to a work place of their choice to get some experience on how you should behave at work, the skills you need and to see what work is like. This is so when you leave school you don’t go to a job or job interview without any knowledge on what to do. Also work experience allows you to learn about different roles that people do in jobs and how the staff and managers behave with each other.
Why I chose to do work experience at Tortoise
The main reason I went to Tortoise for my work experience is so that I could see how a small business runs and how it uses social media and the Internet to gain interest in their company. Also my brother works there and I wanted to do something with him as it means I would’ve known someone there so I didn’t feel like a stranger to everyone however as soon as I got there I was welcomed and introduced with everyone in the office.
What I did over the nine days
On day one I had to find out the definition of nine different work place behaviours (discipline, integrity, respect, initiative, team work, time keeping, confidence, competency and presentation). Once I had found the dictionary definition I had to find what they mean in a business and my opinion on what that behaviour is. At the start of everyday and the end of every day I would sit down with the owner Mike and he would tell me what I was doing and debrief me to see what I had taken in from the day.
The second day I looked at the different types of markets in marketing so I was looking at different types of car markets, supermarkets, and holiday markets. From this I was able to see how it linked with house markets and the different companies and the type of houses they sell also the companies target audience. Once I had finished that task I sat down with one of the workers called Donovan who is the Online Services Manager and he showed me what his role in the business was, his work history and his views on what work is. This was very helpful as I thought he only dealt with social media however he built the websites, blogs and deals with everything to do with it.
On day three I went on a viewing with Chris. On this viewing I got to see all the different techniques they have to use to connect with the buyer as not only do they need to sell the house they need to sell themselves too. Whilst on the viewing I got to ask Chris some questions so I could learn about his views on work and his work history. In the afternoon I learnt about prospecting and how to contact future clients.
On day four I looked at different estate agents websites so I could see how even though they all have the same aim of selling houses however they all approach it differently. Once I was done I told Mike what I liked about the other websites and why they stood out to me so they could make improvements to their website.
On day five I went to the check in of a tenant with Mike to see what happens there and to make sure everything in the house is right for the people renting the property. After that I was talking to Racheal about my brothers cv, the job description, the employee handbook and the employee contract all of it was very confusing at first but Mike and Racheal explained it more so it made more sense. At the end of the day I went to clean the skirting boards and the windows of a house in preparation for a check in.
On day six I was finding out about the different ways to finance a business. After that I spoke to my brother about his work history and his views on work he also gave me a step-by-step instruction of what happens when they are selling a house.
On day seven I went to a house with Mike to find out what was wrong with a radiator and why it was leaking, once we knew what was wrong Mike told the tenant what he was going to do. Next we had to go to a different house to try and find out why there was water under the floor and how we could stop it. At the end of the day I was with my brother, Chris and a professional photographer to take photos of a house, which took a lot longer than expected however, it was good experience because I got to see how the pictures are taken and I was able to help Gary and Chris move items to help stage the house.
On day eight I was with Martin taking photographs of a house after someone had just moved out so we could compare the after shots with the before photos to see how they relate to the check in. After that I went with Martin to investigate a problem with a shower trap. Finally I was looking through some check out photos to compare them to the check in photos.
On the last day I walked the dogs with Mike to discuss my work experience then wrote this blog article.
What I’ve learnt about work
Since starting work experience I have learnt how you should behave at work, that to run a successful business you need to stay relevant on social media and have a good website that is regularly updated and that is compatible with both phones and desktops finally I learnt that when I run my own business I need to make sure I work with people I can trust.
What I enjoyed over the two weeks
The best part of the two weeks was getting to see different houses and taking photos of them or cleaning them that is because I was doing something that the people in the job actually do so I felt like I was helping out rather that just doing my own theory however doing theory wasn’t really a problem either.
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