Graduate Planner Review

I am a Graduate Planner at Savills, this involves assisting colleagues on projects of varying scale and different uses. On a day-to-day basis this involves writing planning statements, appraisals, coordinating the submission of planning applications and managing project teams. The day job also involves working with internal colleagues, sub-consultants and planning officers at the Council on planning applications.

I have developed my technical knowledge of planning as well as gained a wider awareness of technical issues in different disciplines. I have continued to develop my written and oral communication skills throughout the apprenticeship. Through working on a wider variety of different projects I have been able to develop my project management skills by taking the lead on some smaller projects.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Savills so far as I have been able to learn a lot and gain valuable experience to further my career. However, the people are at Savills are what has made the experience so enjoyable, this is those within my team as well as those within the wider company.

Savills have a really great support network for Graduates and Apprentices as they organise dedicated training days tailored towards the APC and CPD sessions. The Graduate HR team are always on hand to help and answer any questions, equally my team are really supportive and are always willing to help.

I receive support as and when I need it from my employer from various different people whether that is for work or my professional qualification. The Graduate HR team are always there to offer support as well as my mentor, line manager and wider team should I need any help with anything.

I undertook my masters degree at UWE and the support I received was dependent on the lecturer at the time in terms of support through modules. I had a direct line of communication with the degree apprenticeship coordinator who was helpful but overall I feel there was a disconnect between the course and the day job.

The masters degree was required for me to be able to progress to getting my APC and becoming a qualified chartered town planner. Overall, I do not feel as though the course has helped my in my day job as the lecture topics were not always relevant and were fairly academic.

As a team we do social events on a fairly regular basis and as an office there are events throughout the year such as summer and Christmas parties. The office also does events and activities to raise money for our chosen charity during the year including events such as bake off.

Yes

I have overall had a great experience at Savills throughout my time here and would highly recommend it to a friend or family to pursue a career. I think the people in particular are what make Savills so great and make it a highly enjoyable place and company to work for.

I would say be yourself when applying and try and differentiate yourself from others aside from academic studies. Also if you are able to try and gain some relevant work experience before applying to further demonstrate your enthusiasm for the role and to better understand what the day job is likely to entail.