My Introduction to CBRE

My first introduction to CBRE came through the Inspiring the Futures Programme which my school, Deansrath Community College, took part in for our Transition Year work placement. I had never heard of CBRE before this or knew what work they did, but was excited to learn more about the company and the commercial real estate industry.

Three of my classmates and I spent one week in the company and where given an introduction to all of the different services CBRE provide. We completed workshops on CV writing and interview preparation, attended presentations by the various departments and went out on inspections of a new apartment development and an office building in the city centre. We finished the week off by giving a group presentation to the company on ESG in Real Estate, using the information we had learned during the week and researching the topic.

Following on from the week, my eyes were opened to the prospect of pursuing a career in commercial real estate. I researched what courses I can do in college, how many points I need in my Leaving Certificate and discussed with my guidance counsellor. As part of my LCVP module in school, I needed to seek another work placement for one week and CBRE was the top of my list.

This week was much different from the first week. I was placed with four different departments for the week, Development Land, Industrial & Logistics, Offices and Hotels. I was set specific tasks for each department for each day. These tasks included drafting marketing material, collating research information and reviewing planning documents. I also got to get out of the office each day, which is one of the big attractions to working in CBRE. Although it would be considered an “office job”, you get to spend a lot of time outside of the office and meeting people from other companies. We got to inspect a development site that is due to go for planning soon, and it was really interesting to see what is currently on the site and the CGI’s of what might be built. I got to measure an industrial unit which is being prepped for the market, undertake an office tour for a potential new tenant, inspect a hotel scheme currently under construction for the purpose of a valuation and attend a viewing of a hotel building that is currently on the market. The week gave me an even better insight as to what the company does and was great to meet so many people in the business and see what they do on a day-to-day.

Considering I had never heard of CBRE before this year, my time spent with the company has really helped me to decide what I would like to do after school. There are so many areas of commercial real estate that appeal to me and I look forward to pursuing career in the industry.

I’d like to thank Darragh for helping with both weeks and all the other people in CBRE for their time and guidance during my time there and hopefully get to work with them some day in the future.