Personal Contributions

When I first started my internship, I was pretty overwhelmed in how to get involved. The only thing my internship structured was the morning meeting everyday. During these intern learning sessions we would learn about another department or service CBRE offers. My team was very intimidating at first, everyone was very busy and doing their own things and constantly on calls. On one of my first days, I sat with one of the partners on my team and he asked me what I wanted to get out of my internship. His biggest advice for me was to put myself out there. He advised me to reach out to everyone on my team, which is close to 20 people, and meet with them individually to learn about what they do/how they got started and ask them what calls, meetings, or tours I could join so I could really get the most out of my time here. This advice really helped me get involved and work on projects with the team. After sitting on calls and meeting with each of them, I had a greater understanding of what each person did and asked them questions. Some of them sat with me to teach me how to create value adds and surveys so I could get started in doing more work.

Also during the internship, all the interns are put into two groups and compete in a sales pitch competition. We were given a fictitious company and pitched to them why they should pick CBRE to represent them and their real estate. I was appointed team lead on my team. My team met almost everyday before our pitch, helping each other with our parts of the presentation, working together to create a strong and uniform project.  Our team mentor met with us to help formulate what should be included in a sales pitch and how to best address and discuss topics with the “client”.  I was in charge of reaching out to other departments and teams within CBRE to help us get research and information for our pitch. We practiced our presentation with our mentor and she often got other people on the call so we could practice in front of other people we didn’t know and receive their feedback so we could best prepare. Through this experience I learned so much about all the different services and departments within CBRE by working with them directly and asking questions and advice, and I’m proud to say we won! When people on the team I am interning for had a sales pitch of their own, I sat in on their meetings and they asked me my insight or questions about their presentation and language when presenting. Without having my experience of doing a sales pitch of my own, I would not have been able to help and contribute.