“The place between your comfort zone and your dream is where life takes place.” - Hellen Keller
I remember the day when I was not sure which sector to choose for internship and where my interest lies. And then I decided on Real Estate after realising what I like. I prepared for a month for the interview and spent time exploring real estate companies. My friends applied and got selected in campus recruitment while I was stuck on how to get into real estate. By that time, 90% of the students of my batch were placed. The amount of pressure and frustration was lowering down my hopes but somewhere I was confident that I would get through this.
Selection Process
I applied to ANAROCK Consultancy Pvt. Ltd. and was called for an interview. There were two rounds of interview. One with the HR which was quite smooth and another with the City Lead. I was asked to join immediately but because of my coming exams I refused and that time, I felt I might not be selected! I was asked to wait and in between, I was thinking of the consequences of not appearing for my semester exams. I made up my mind to not lose this opportunity and skip exams. The HR asked me to leave and said she would revert through email. And after 20 days, I got my joining letter with a high stipend!
Before Joining
There was an Internship session organised by my college
Universal Business School on Do’s and Dont’s and how to excel! Yes, it's right - my college takes care of everything. But there was a line by
Professor Vijay Tandon which I still remember “Death of a manager is sitting in the cabin and waiting for the boss to assign work.”
Internship Till Now
Two months have passed and now one more month to go!
The best thing about ANAROCK is the professionalism and the working culture they have and believe me I was totally impressed! We have to carry ourselves well with corporate attire.
So I was allocated in Thane city at the luxury residential project Piramal Vaikunth. It took me 1 month to understand the whole project, its configuration, prices and scheme. And being part of the Sales team is the best because these guys generate revenue. I have worked till 9:30 PM on Sundays and the next day have had to report on time. This much of dedication is required in sales. And the review meetings by the Site Head are tough to handle, where every weekend in the morning, you have to give your numbers of clients visiting. Major activities were:
- Competition Analysis – So being in real estate, you should be well aware of the micro market. And I visited other projects as a client to know their pitch and how they handle clients. I also visited once as a researcher to know about our competitors. And it's really fun! Once I visited a project as a client, I was all aware of it and had to act as if I didn't know anything about real estate, and the sales person was trying to impress me with false justifications. It was really hard to control my laugh at that moment.
- Induction of Channel Partner – I have to call channel partners and invite them to the site to explain the project and convince them to work for us.
- Society Activity – I was assigned an event in a society in the 2nd week of my internship to directly interact with clients. As I was new, I was not well aware of the project, so I misinformed one of the clients but my associate handled it.
- Follow up with clients – It is very tough to get down the clients to the site on the phone and convince them to at least visit and understand the project.
Now, the enjoyment part:
I went on a two day Lonavala trip with my colleagues of ANAROCK, and believe me, very few interns get this chance during the internship to connect unofficially. And more than the trip, I was happy that it was a two day off from office because in Sales, there is no weekend off and no festival off. I only get a one day a week off so you can imagine the amount of happiness.
So at our office, there was a special screening of World Cup matches and on India vs Pakistan screening, my team and I were live at Times Now and Mirror Now news channels, cheering for India. I had the experience of a lifetime at that moment.
Learnings
I learned a lot during these 2 months. From
Mr. Bhushan Gawali (Sales Executive), I learned how to handle clients and their queries with patience and what to offer them according to their requirements. I learnt sales tactics from my Team Lead,
Hitesh Dharod.
I was not hands-on with Excel and it’s the basic requirement in the corporate. I was lucky enough that
Rajdeep Gohil (intern of IIM Amritsar) always helped me out with excel and understanding the depth of the project.
Till now it was a great experience in this sector, project and company. I hope the next one month will be much greater.