Sales & Real Estate

Fall 2018

Position: Market Research Intern
Student: Sociology Senior 

My internship has been with Aquila Commercial, a local commercial real estate company here in Austin. My title at this company was a market research intern. Essential I was responsible for collecting inputting and verifying data and information regarding the Austin real estate market. Some of my daily task included inputting information about properties, researching upcoming real estate developments in the area, and confirming certain information about properties and buildings. I was also responsible for analyzing statistical data for our quarterly market reports. Quarterly market reports are just information and statistical information about what has occurred in the Austin Commercial real estate market. Some information in the market reports were vacancy rates, building rental rates, and availabilities. I was also responsible for writing reports and articles on certain commercial real estate topics, for instance the growth in Co-Working space. At times brokers and project managers would need information on a variety of things. Sometimes they would ask for us to collect and give them relevant information. During this internship, I worked 3 days a week totaling about 20-25 hours a week from approximately 10-5. Overall, I thought the company and its culture was great.

Fall 2016  

Position: Real Estate Intern
Student: History Senior 

This fall semester I interned at AQUILA Commercial, LLC. AQUILA is a full service commercial real estate firm located in Austin, TX. As an intern at AQUILA, I work under the marketing and market research division of the company. Under this division and working in my immediate area, is the Director of Marketing, the Senior Marketing Coordinator, the Marketing Coordinator, a Financial Analyst, the Market Research Analyst and the other intern. The other intern and I have been working on various projects throughout the semester designed to give AQUILA a better understanding of the data in front of them, and how to incorporate the data to improve AQUILA’s services. 

A typical day at AQUILA for me is to come in at 1 P.M. on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays, and to come in at 8:30 A.M. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning I will stop by El Arroyo on the way to work and take a picture of the sign they have out front. I’ll send it to the Marketing Coordinator before I arrive, and she will then put it in to the “AQUILA Daily Update” that they do everyday. I will then check my email to see if there are any time-sensitive projects that my boss needs me to do then move on to many revolving projects we have to do as interns. One of the revolving projects, “Deals in the News”, includes compiling information about all new leases signed, buildings purchases and buildings developed in the Austin area into a spreadsheet. Another is measuring AQUILA’s success rate on subleases and leases signed, and the other most frequent one is sending out AQUILA’s quarterly report to every recipient that requested one. 

Summer 2017

Position: Account Executive Intern
Student: Economics Senior

In the early days of my internship, my manager was in the process of wrapping up a project and I was brought on in an assistive capacity on that project. I was still in training for the first week and would only run the basic analytics and assist with a few slides on the presentations. After about 2 weeks we began a new project and that was when the real work started. Once we began the new consult, I would go to every meeting with my supervisor, take notes , try to make tangible inputs in the conversation and back up my supervisor’s suggestions with previously collected data. I also got to interview a lot of clients one-on-one after those meetings, and I felt really good about the fact that he trusted me with that.

On a day-to-day basis, I work mainly with senior analysts on my team running numbers to solve the problem presented on a project. Once we think we’ve gotten sufficient data we run it by my supervisor so he can make a reasonable recommendation to the client on our next meeting. Once he decides on a course of action, he give us clear directions on how to go about the presentation. Once that is finished, we head over to the client’s office for the presentation and I was usually given the responsibility of clicking through. Typically, I’m at my desk until 5:30 or 6 p.m. on the days in between presentations and client meetings. During this summer we worked on a consult in Dallas and our days there were mostly the same part from the fact that they began at a hotel and we worked solely at the client’s office. During this time, we had a daily food and transport stipend. The company also has team nights every Wednesday and it fosters healthy competitions amongst people and helps everyone get to know each other. This summer was extremely fulfilling and I’m happy that I spent it learning are how to be a true professional and how to build new relationships.

Spring 2016

Position: Intern
Student: Economics Junior

This internship is a real estate sales agent position. The company is called Austin City Realty which is a real estate agency and a property management company. This internship has five parts.

First, you need to get a Texas Real Estate Salesperson License in order to work as a real estate agent. You need to take 180 hours of online courses and passed all quizzes and exams. Then, you need to send all required document to Texas Real Estate Commission in order to take the license exams for a permit. After receiving the permit from Texas Real Estate Commission, you will schedule a time to take the national and state exams. After ten business days of passing the two exams, you will receive your license and are trained in the office. You will receive three training in total of six hours. The trainings teach you how a real estate agent works.

Second, this is the first step of this position. As a sales position, you need to contact many clients. The company will give you some clients and you can also find clients yourself. The salary of this position is by commission so the more clients you find, the more you can get. You can contact your clients by email, phone, or in person. In the first several contacts, you need to collect all their requirements on properties that they need.

Third, you need to find a list of properties that fit your clients’ requirements from companies’ available leasing properties. Most of agencies share their available leasing properties near UT campus.

Fourth, you need to contact your clients to schedule a time to show the list of properties. Before the showing time, you need to contact the management companies of these properties to pick up keys and contact current tenants in advance.

Fifth, paperwork is the last step of this work. After your clients make their decisions, you need to help them fill out the application forms and collect all fees. After application approved by the management company, your clients can sign lease contracts.

Spring 2017  

Position: Sales Analyst
Student: Economics Senior

A day in the life of this internship is incredibly varying; no one-day is like another. An average day can consist of anything from creating databases to manage inventory, managing car and dealership data and contact information to drinking beer and playing ping-pong. The general office vibe is what one could describe as modern and laid back, you are expected to put in as much effort as you can and are not constantly micro managed. If you are not able to contribute enough consistently you will most likely be let go, as many interns were.

The internship is fun and far from dull, the office is rearranged bi-weekly and nothing ever felt stagnant. Equipment and computers are sparse and if you are not there every day to defend your equipment it may not be there when you return, several times when I returned to the office my keyboard was missing, my mouse had been switched out or everything had been disconnected and rearranged. More prominent employees are obviously of higher value to the company and will receive special treatment when it comes to gear, internships are at the bottom of this list.

Summer 2017

Position: Ticket Sales Intern
Student: Economics Junior

Working for the Dallas Stars was an incredible experience. The Dallas Stars play professional hockey in the National Hockey League. As an intern I worked 3 days a week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. When I walked into the office I was given a small desk with a laptop and phone. The laptop gave me access to a program called CRM that allowed me to receive a list of potential clients. This list came from the Dallas Stars website. If you attended a game and purchased tickets from the website it requires you to put in name, phone number, email address, and physical address. My list came from people who attended one game and sat in the Terrace level (third level). I open a profile and it gives me all the information for that specific person. If there is ever communication between a customer and a sales rep it is logged in the system. Whether it’s a voicemail, email, or phone call, its recorded. Typically a sale is made between the 4th and 9th point of contact. We don’t want them to feel rushed in the decision. We’re lucky that we are selling entertainment and people have desire to spend money for our service. On a daily basis I make about 50-70 cold calls a day. Some days they are filled with conversation, some days they are filled with voicemails. Once people express interest in tickets we are able to lock certain seats for up to 24 hours. Once they give me their credit card information we officially reserve the seats for them and send them an email with all of the information regarding their seats and payment plans. The Dallas Stars do an incredible job awarding good performance and building moral in the office. Within the first couple of weeks of the internship the office held a sand volleyball tournament. The atmosphere in the office is unlike any I’ve ever been apart of. I hope that when the internship is over they offer me a full time job when I graduate.

Summer 2016 

Position: Communications Intern
Student:  Government Junior

This summer I interned in the communications department of the Dallas Stars Hockey Club. I would begin each day by compiling news clips and distributing them via email to all the employees in the organization, local media members, and some of the player’s publicists. Most of the articles that I included in the news clips document were from the team’s website, the league’s website, the Dallas Morning News, blogs covering the team, Canadian sports news services like The Sports Network (TSN) and SportsNet, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and Fox Sports. I checked these pages daily and would conduct a Google search to find stories or videos about the team that weren’t featured on the previously mentioned sites. This activity required thorough research skills and attention to detail.

After compiling and distributing the Stars’ daily news clips I would write press releases or work on sections of the team’s media guide for the upcoming regular season. I only wrote press releases before and during free agency, and after the entry draft. Outside of free agency and the draft, I focused on the media guide. The press releases I authored focused on the players we drafted and signed in free agency. These documents included biographical information on the players and various statistics highlighting their careers. Completing the regular season media guide is the main task of the communications department during the offseason. The sections I worked on required intense and thorough research of the team and players’ stats from the previous season. I also wrote biographies for most of the team’s recently acquired or promoted skaters.

I also worked the organization’s prospect development camp. This gave me the opportunity to see how the communications department serves as a liaison between the players, the organization, and the media.

Summer 2017

Position: Account Executive Intern
Student: Economics Senior

In the early days of my internship, my manager was in the process of wrapping up a project and I was brought on in an assistive capacity on that project. I was still in training for the first week and would only run the basic analytics and assist with a few slides on the presentations. After about 2 weeks we began a new project and that was when the real work started. Once we began the new consult, I would go to every meeting with my supervisor, take notes , try to make tangible inputs in the conversation and back up my supervisor’s suggestions with previously collected data. I also got to interview a lot of clients one-on-one after those meetings, and I felt really good about the fact that he trusted me with that.

On a day-to-day basis, I work mainly with senior analysts on my team running numbers to solve the problem presented on a project. Once we think we’ve gotten sufficient data we run it by my supervisor so he can make a reasonable recommendation to the client on our next meeting. Once he decides on a course of action, he give us clear directions on how to go about the presentation. Once that is finished, we head over to the client’s office for the presentation and I was usually given the responsibility of clicking through. Typically, I’m at my desk until 5:30 or 6 p.m. on the days in between presentations and client meetings. During this summer we worked on a consult in Dallas and our days there were mostly the same part from the fact that they began at a hotel and we worked solely at the client’s office. During this time, we had a daily food and transport stipend. The company also has team nights every Wednesday and it fosters healthy competitions amongst people and helps everyone get to know each other. This summer was extremely fulfilling and I’m happy that I spent it learning are how to be a true professional and how to build new relationships.

Spring 2016

Position: Intern
Student: Economics Junior

This internship is a real estate sales agent position. The company is called Austin City Realty which is a real estate agency and a property management company. This internship has five parts.

First, you need to get a Texas Real Estate Salesperson License in order to work as a real estate agent. You need to take 180 hours of online courses and passed all quizzes and exams. Then, you need to send all required document to Texas Real Estate Commission in order to take the license exams for a permit. After receiving the permit from Texas Real Estate Commission, you will schedule a time to take the national and state exams. After ten business days of passing the two exams, you will receive your license and are trained in the office. You will receive three training in total of six hours. The trainings teach you how a real estate agent works.

Second, this is the first step of this position. As a sales position, you need to contact many clients. The company will give you some clients and you can also find clients yourself. The salary of this position is by commission so the more clients you find, the more you can get. You can contact your clients by email, phone, or in person. In the first several contacts, you need to collect all their requirements on properties that they need.

Third, you need to find a list of properties that fit your clients’ requirements from companies’ available leasing properties. Most of agencies share their available leasing properties near UT campus.

Fourth, you need to contact your clients to schedule a time to show the list of properties. Before the showing time, you need to contact the management companies of these properties to pick up keys and contact current tenants in advance.

Fifth, paperwork is the last step of this work. After your clients make their decisions, you need to help them fill out the application forms and collect all fees. After application approved by the management company, your clients can sign lease contracts.

Spring 2017  

Position: Sales Analyst
Student: Economics Senior

A day in the life of this internship is incredibly varying; no one-day is like another. An average day can consist of anything from creating databases to manage inventory, managing car and dealership data and contact information to drinking beer and playing ping-pong. The general office vibe is what one could describe as modern and laid back, you are expected to put in as much effort as you can and are not constantly micro managed. If you are not able to contribute enough consistently you will most likely be let go, as many interns were.

The internship is fun and far from dull, the office is rearranged bi-weekly and nothing ever felt stagnant. Equipment and computers are sparse and if you are not there every day to defend your equipment it may not be there when you return, several times when I returned to the office my keyboard was missing, my mouse had been switched out or everything had been disconnected and rearranged. More prominent employees are obviously of higher value to the company and will receive special treatment when it comes to gear, internships are at the bottom of this list.

Summer 2017

Position: Ticket Sales Intern
Student: Economics Junior

Working for the Dallas Stars was an incredible experience. The Dallas Stars play professional hockey in the National Hockey League. As an intern I worked 3 days a week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. When I walked into the office I was given a small desk with a laptop and phone. The laptop gave me access to a program called CRM that allowed me to receive a list of potential clients. This list came from the Dallas Stars website. If you attended a game and purchased tickets from the website it requires you to put in name, phone number, email address, and physical address. My list came from people who attended one game and sat in the Terrace level (third level). I open a profile and it gives me all the information for that specific person. If there is ever communication between a customer and a sales rep it is logged in the system. Whether it’s a voicemail, email, or phone call, its recorded. Typically a sale is made between the 4th and 9th point of contact. We don’t want them to feel rushed in the decision. We’re lucky that we are selling entertainment and people have desire to spend money for our service. On a daily basis I make about 50-70 cold calls a day. Some days they are filled with conversation, some days they are filled with voicemails. Once people express interest in tickets we are able to lock certain seats for up to 24 hours. Once they give me their credit card information we officially reserve the seats for them and send them an email with all of the information regarding their seats and payment plans. The Dallas Stars do an incredible job awarding good performance and building moral in the office. Within the first couple of weeks of the internship the office held a sand volleyball tournament. The atmosphere in the office is unlike any I’ve ever been apart of. I hope that when the internship is over they offer me a full time job when I graduate.

Fall 2022

Position: Sales Operations Intern
Student: Human Dimensions of Organizations (HDO) Senior

My internship at Espressive as a remote intern working in sales operations was a fortunate experience in terms of my work flexibility and introduction to the software start-up industry. Espressive offers enterprise service management with its’ virtual agent Barista, an AI-based software that services companies’ internal service desks. As companies undergo growth, the need for accurate and dynamic internal service desks increases. Espressive was launched to deliver an exceptional employee experience in providing a responsive self-help solution that employees would adopt. While that sounds very cool and technical, my roles were in sales operations which is responsible for keeping the sales team on track in generating revenue for the company. As I was one of few interns, I would also work with the marketing department on occasion. Having a remote internship allowed me to dedicate time and prioritize my work the same way I would for another class. I found this job through family connections and would suggest utilizing networks in searching for internships.

I had a variety of weekly tasks including managing account executive’s primary accounts, assigning accounts in the sales database, conducting account research, and organizing data in the sales database. Some long-term projects involved creating automated dashboards to track sales pipelines, optimizing sales territories maps, tracking market responses to improve coverage models, and creating a marketing portfolio to refine social media presence. Because I was the only intern working for the VP of Operations, he was very hands on with teaching me why I was doing a certain task or getting my input for perspective. This provided a great foundation for understanding what companies are looking for in a salesperson and what metrics one can use to track performance progress.

Working at a start-up has given me a more colorful introduction to sales than previous internships at larger companies. In the same way a sous chef learns how to be a better cook by supporting a chef, beginning my experience in sales operations taught me what is necessary for a successful sales team. I would consider this to be the most valuable aspect about my internship, as I will be entering my career in sales with more direct experience than others. In addition, I got more familiar with business practices like email communication, teamwork, and asking for clarification when necessary.

Fall 2021

Position: Tenant Advisory Council
Student: Human Dimension of Organizations (HDO)

HPI is a full service commercial real estate firm with over 28 years of experience developing, managing, and investing in commercial real estate. HPI values trusted relationships with their clients through proven results, professional integrity, and exceptional service. I found this internship through friend connections who thought I would be an awesome intern to have due to my outgoingness and my willingness to work. Throughout my time with HPI, my internship has been focused on Tenant Advisory which is a sector of commercial real estate that exclusively represents companies with their faculty needs. During my time on this team, I have put together several prospecting lists, gone over surveys, attended weekly team meetings, had one on one informational sessions with others on my team, and gone over several financial analysis and lease agreements. My favorite thing about this internship is the team I work with. All of the employees at HPI are driven, hardworking, and collaborative.

Summer 2017

Position: Sales intern
Student: Rhetoric and Writing Junior

Indeed is a great place to intern as a sales representative if you are passionate about sales. To begin, the facilities are incredible. An extensive list of foods and beverages are available at all times in the kitchen. The interior design of both floors which are located on the top of a 18 story building in the middle of downtown. With this being said, it is a fresh and exciting environment. The sales floor is always motivated because those who make a sale get to ring a gong and play 30 seconds of a song they chose that reverberates the entire floor. The people are engaged and fun to work around. As far as the timeline of the internship, there are 3 parts. The first part is a crash course of everything you need to know about the company, its products and what to communicate to one’s clients. The days are filled with meetings, practice activities, readings, videos, webinars, and more. The second part of this job is filled mostly with practicing. You are to shadow account executives constantly to get an idea of how the evaluate their clients needs, set up phone calls, sell or upsell, or simply give suggestions. This is where a lot of the tactical learning comes into play. One great perk of this internship is that each intern receives a mentor that they shadow, learn from and ask advice/help from throughout the entire internship. Without them, it would be much more difficult to speak with and sell particular clients. The third part to this internship is presenting mentors, directors, and senior directors with practice calls until they approve you to begin calling your clients. Once you pass, you are assigned 100 clients (some of which are workable, many that are not). You then spend your last couple of months doing the same sort of work that all the other reps do. You make calls, send emails, demo products and ultimately sell. The catch is that they give you hard-to-work clients, meaning, you are likely to only make a couple of sales over the entire internship and they are likely to only buy in with a small amount. Additionally, it becomes very difficult to use your time productively towards the end of the internship because by the end, you’ve probably tried calling and emailing each client a good number of times. However, overall, this was a great internship, and fun experience, and it taught me an incredible amount about my abilities, needs and wants in a business.

Spring 2016 

Position: Sales Intern
Student: Philosophy Senior

This is an inside sales role, so all communications take place over the phone, sometimes complemented with screen sharing demos, but never face to face. As such, your soft skills will improve in the direction of the specialized way of selling over the phone. The internship will begin with you actively shadowing your mentor, a current account executive. You will have to take notes and report on 10 hours of listening in on the calls your mentor makes while doing the actual job.

This will be complemented by webinar trainings hosted on large TVs in conference rooms where you will be instructed by a variety of Indeed’s leaders across the nation. Trainings range from 1 to 3 hours and there will be a handful a week.These topics will be focused on teaching you how to sell, what indeed’s service is, and how to use the internal software. After shadowing and training you will have to practice selling the product by pitching and demoing first to your mentor, then sale’s team director, and then office director. After gaining approval you will be given roughly 200 business leads to qualify.

Many of these will be bad opportunities and you must investigate each thoroughly to rule them out. Any good opportunities should be sought out with the guidance of your mentor until you have demonstrated the ability to sell entirely on your own. Towards the end of the internship, you will be given an opportunity to interview for the full time position of sales account executive or for other roles where management may see you as a better fit. The hours are a minimum of 16 per week and up to 40. You can choose your own schedule and modify it according to need with supervisor approval.

Fall 2019

Position: Content Distribution Sales Intern
Student: Economics & Government & Finance

My internship at NBCUniversal is with the Content Distribution division specifically with their sales team. My job is to help the team with their day-to-day projects. I help them formulate strategy through conducting research on current and upcoming deals, analyzing data, performing calculations on Excel and doing any general administrative tasks they need. My day starts with me arriving in the office between 9:00 to 9:30 AM every day. Typically, they hire two interns, but I told them I wanted to work full-time so they hired just me for this team. The first thing I do each morning is read through the news of the industry all NBCUniversal employees receive. This is important given the current climate of the media industry with all the giant companies jumping into the streaming war. This is to understand if any competitors are doing anything that could impact NBCUniversal and their upcoming launch for their streaming service which will be coming out in April 2020. Then I will join the department meeting where the team discusses what is happening with all the deals the directors are working on and if they need any help closing the deal. During these meetings, I will typically take notes which my supervisor and I will go over after to see if there is anything that was said I didn’t understand or any research I can do to clarify or dig deeper into something for the team. After this meeting, I’ll do the research or the various directors in the group will send me various tasks they need. Sometimes they’ll have Excel files they don’t have time to go over so I’ll go over them and extract data and input it into other files or in SalesForce so it is clean, and they can use it easier for whatever they need. I’ve worked on various things for the different directors whether that is cleaning up and analyzing data, working on the model for the streaming service, looking up competitors and making sure distributors are following their agreements. My day typically ends around 5:30 to 6 PM.

Fall 2017

Position: Production Intern
Student: Rhetoric and Writing Junior

Each day at The Tonight Show internship is very different in a somehow very structured way. My hours are 10am to 7pm each day, and since I work in the general production department I get to spend the day working on a variety of tasks. 

Our day usually begins by cleaning the office and ensuring that the kitchen, printers, and everything around the office are stocked before the rest of the staff come in. Once people begin arriving and settling in, we start getting called for runs. Our supervisor calls the room and will ask for an intern to see a specific person for an errand somewhere. We could be going to pick up food for a producer or talent, or finding a costume or prop for the show. Since there is a new show each day and so many things people need, most of my day will consist of these sort of tasks, but when we’re not running around the city to find things, we usually work on projects for the writers or other departments, such as finding news articles that Jimmy can use for the monologue, or finding tweets and pictures that get featured on the show.

There are some days when we’re assigned specific roles as well that take us away from the usual runs. On these days, we get to record the show on a desktop to save as a copy incase the first recording is messed up. We get to help with tickets and bring the audience in for the monologue rehearsal each day, lining them up and answering any questions about the show and then we sit in the studio and watch Jimmy’s rehearsal. And then probably the most exciting aspect of the position are the days when we are the designated studio intern, who gets to spend the entire day in the studio watching and helping with rehearsal. On these days, we watch the guest band or musician rehearse their performance, we watch Jimmy and any guests rehearse sketches they are doing and we stand in when they need help, and then we get to watch the live show from the studio and help with the audience.

The days are hectic and there is always pressure on us to do things efficiently and correctly, but each day brings new and exciting tasks that have taught me to become a worker.

Spring 2018

Position: Sales Promoter
Student: Economics Sophomore

Real Savvy is a local start up company that creates websites for Real Estate Professionals. They have two teams that work together to make their company successful. One team is the programming/coding team that creates all the websites in house. The other is the sales team, and my internship was as a Sales Developmental Researcher. This included a range of responsibilities. Since our target clients are located around the country, the majority of our research is completed by phone. The beginning of my internship included a large amount of cold calling. As Real Savvy became a larger company, it transitioned from less outbound lead capture to inbound lead capture through advertisement. Due to this, my role transitioned as well and I began working more with the lead economist. This job included everything from helping produce profit predictions for the upcoming quarters to qualifying multi-market brokerages in different cities. This shift was to be expected with a start up company, but they were always very transparent with what my responsibilities were. A typical day starts off with a short drive to work, their office is located five minutes away from campus so it is very convenient. Everyday starts of with everyone getting settled in and then we would have a team meeting at 9am. In the meeting, we would discuss responsibilities and improvement techniques for the day. This company embraces its local Austin roots and takes on a very laid-back vibe, so this internship is mainly on your own schedule. With that being said, if your responsibilities are not met or you’re not performing to their standards, this freedom will obviously be corrected. I scheduled out my work week to be in the mornings on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The mornings seem to be very convenient for everybody. A lot of the workers there are Texas alumni so they happily embraced this young Longhorn and helped me succeed within this internship.

Summer 2016 Site Review

Position: Business Sales Intern
Student: Economics Sophomore
I can truly say that the whole time I spent working with Sprint Corporation ended up being one of the best couple of months in my life. I didn’t only learn real-world skills but I was also able to meet amazing people. The environment at the “1166” New York office was welcoming. Every member made me feel like a part of the team and useful since day 1. I feel I was able to add value to my team by assisting in various projects.

One of the best and most valuable things I got this internship experience was the career and perspective it gave me. Sprint is a large company (Forbes 100) with many opportunities for employees. It’s a telecommunications holding company that provides wireless services and is a major global Internet carrier. It is the fourth largest wireless network operator in the United States, and serves around 60 million people.

A key aspect in the decision to admit students to the program was the diverse experiences and leadership skills they had acquired through the past years. After being hired I spoke with the recruiter and told her why she picked me over other candidates with better GPAs. She told me a big part of this internship would be how you deal with people in an interpersonal level.

During my time I appreciated the work environment, responsibilities, and the people I had to work with. I received great support and feedback from both interns and supervisors. I worked on multiple areas of the company focusing on strategy and operations from the business sales perspective. During the first two weeks of the internship you will be in training under the supervision of a sales coach. The following weeks will consist of working in different projects. For the telecommunications industry summer is a very slow couple of months so what we mainly did was financial modeling and projections for the upcoming high volume sales season. We also took part of a nationwide competition between interns on who got the highest number of business prospects throughout the duration of the internship.

Summer 2019

Position: Summer Analyst
Student: Urban Studies Junior

My internship at Stream Realty Partners was by far an incredible learning experience. The following is a “Day in the Life” as an intern at Stream. I would start my day by waking up at 6:15 A.M. I would do this every morning for five days a week. I would get to the office around 7 A.M. Once I get to the office I would set up my desk for the tasks I knew I would be working on that day. Next, I would get a cup of complimentary coffee and go through my computer looking for news related to Dallas commercial real estate. I would find three articles and send them out to my superior so that the articles could be sent out on Stream’s daily news blast. The next major task of the day would be sitting in on either the office or industrial leasing meetings. Here daily/ weekly operations were covered. Next, I would drive around Dallas with an associate to better learn one of the many offices/industrial markets Dallas has to offer. Next, lunch. After lunch, I would take the time to knock out any particular assignments given to me that day. Knocking out the assignments typically took two hours. Following the assignments, I would attempt to sit in on any phone call/ leasing meeting with a partner at the firm. Next all the interns would sit down with one of the financial analysts who works on the capital markets team and he would walk us through various financial modeling topics. This was very helpful for it helped with excel as well as understanding real estate finance. Next, I would take some more time to knock out any remaining assignments for the day. Eventually, I would leave the office around 7 P.M. and sometimes attend an office happy hour.

Fall 2022 

Position: Brokerage Intern
Student: Human Dimensions of Organizations (HDO) Senior

My internship has been in the Austin office of Jones Lang Lasalle, a global commercial real estate firm. My title at the company was industrial brokerage intern. I found out about the company through personal connections but applied through UT’s Handshake website. My day-to-day activities varied greatly, but I frequently created market surveys, stacked buildings in the Austin area, created research reports, and followed brokers around on property tours. Assignments took anywhere from an hour to several days and changed significantly depending on the time of year and what group assigned the work. My favorite part of the internship was the camaraderie with the team members and fellow interns. The office is very young and the culture is fun and relaxed when compared to other commercial real estate firms around Austin.

Fall 2019

Position: Content Distribution Sales Intern
Student: Economics, Government and Finance

My internship at NBCUniversal is with the Content Distribution division specifically with their sales team. My job is to help the team with their day-to-day projects. I help them formulate strategy through conducting research on current and upcoming deals, analyzing data, performing calculations on Excel and doing any general administrative tasks they need. My day starts with me arriving in the office between 9:00 to 9:30 AM every day. Typically, they hire two interns, but I told them I wanted to work full-time so they hired just me for this team. The first thing I do each morning is read through the news of the industry all NBCUniversal employees receive. This is important given the current climate of the media industry with all the giant companies jumping into the streaming war. This is to understand if any competitors are doing anything that could impact NBCUniversal and their upcoming launch for their streaming service which will be coming out in April 2020. Then I will join the department meeting where the team discusses what is happening with all the deals the directors are working on and if they need any help closing the deal. During these meetings, I will typically take notes which my supervisor and I will go over after to see if there is anything that was said I didn’t understand or any research I can do to clarify or dig deeper into something for the team. After this meeting, I’ll do the research or the various directors in the group will send me various tasks they need. Sometimes they’ll have Excel files they don’t have time to go over so I’ll go over them and extract data and input it into other files or in SalesForce so it is clean, and they can use it easier for whatever they need. I’ve worked on various things for the different directors whether that is cleaning up and analyzing data, working on the model for the streaming service, looking up competitors and making sure distributors are following their agreements. My day typically ends around 5:30 to 6 PM.

Fall 2021

Position: Global Sales Productivity Intern
Student: Economics

Oracle NetSuite is a company that supplies cloud software and the services needed for it to other growing companies for them to manage their businesses, finances, sales, and other relational data. My internship is within their Global Sales and Productivity division, which primarily deals with the operations that occur behind the scenes of their sales department. I originally heard about this position through a family connection who at the time, served as the Regional Vice President of Sales in Austin, Texas. He sent me the link to apply, and the process was smooth and well-managed from start to finish. The typical day in this position mainly tackles very entry level operational tasks such as managing shared calendars for different aliases within the organization, sitting in on meetings, and working on various projects. These projects revolve around reporting various sales data, combing through the systems used in the sales process, and putting together the onboarding process for new cohorts of Business Development Representatives and Sales team members. My favorite part of the internship would be the tasks related specifically to the onboarding process because I am able to get a thorough look at what BDRs and the Sales Organization go through for their initial training, giving me a better insight to their day-to-day as well as big picture roles. This allows me to explore different career paths that I might find interesting straight from the source that provides them with their onboarding. It has not only taught me more about the company, but also more about what I would one day hope for my role to be within the company or what I would hope my role to be in any company within the big tech industry.

Fall 2021

Position: Intern
Student: Sustainability Studies

The name of the company I interned for is called Preserve Partners. Preserve Partners is a real estate investment company currently focused on the multifamily market. They build contemporary and sustainable communities while sourcing value creation for their residents and investors. I found this internship through a mutual friend who had done it in the past. They had recommended the company to  me and provided me with the email of the head of operations and I scheduled an interview from there. My duties throughout the internship were plentiful. I created financial statements, rental comparisons, and updated data for commercial and residential real estate investment. I was also the lead intern for devising a holistic approach at achieving energy efficiency at all the properties. I create solar projection models and research new technology to help Preserve look forward as they grow their portfolio to 50+ RV/Outdoor Hospitality projects in the next 10 years. My favorite thing about this internship was the communal aspect of the company. Every employee is willing to help you learn and grown and always push you to become the very best version of yourself

Fall 2021

Position: Tenant Advisory Council
Student: Human Dimension of Organizations

HPI is a full service commercial real estate firm with over 28 years of experience developing, managing, and investing in commercial real estate. HPI values trusted relationships with their clients through proven results, professional integrity, and exceptional service. I found this internship through friend connections who thought I would be an awesome intern to have due to my outgoingness and my willingness to work. Throughout my time with HPI, my internship has been focused on Tenant Advisory which is a sector of commercial real estate that exclusively represents companies with their faculty needs. During my time on this team, I have put together several prospecting lists, gone over surveys, attended weekly team meetings, had one on one informational sessions with others on my team, and gone over several financial analysis and lease agreements. My favorite thing about this internship is the team I work with. All of the employees at HPI are driven, hardworking, and collaborative.

Fall 2021

Position: Intern
Student: Sustainability Studies

The name of the company I interned for is called Preserve Partners. Preserve Partners is a real estate investment company currently focused on the multifamily market. They build contemporary and sustainable communities while sourcing value creation for their residents and investors. I found this internship through a mutual friend who had done it in the past. They had recommended the company to  me and provided me with the email of the head of operations and I scheduled an interview from there. My duties throughout the internship were plentiful. I created financial statements, rental comparisons, and updated data for commercial and residential real estate investment. I was also the lead intern for devising a holistic approach at achieving energy efficiency at all the properties. I create solar projection models and research new technology to help Preserve look forward as they grow their portfolio to 50+ RV/Outdoor Hospitality projects in the next 10 years. My favorite thing about this internship was the communal aspect of the company. Every employee is willing to help you learn and grown and always push you to become the very best version of yourself

Summer 2020

Position: Sales Development Intern
Student: Human Dimensions of Organizations (HDO) Senior

Quicken Loans is the largest mortgage lender in the United States with offices in Detroit, Phoenix and Cleveland. The company has been in business for over thirty years and had over $30 billion in mortgage volume last month alone. My specific internship is focused on the sales aspect of the business where bankers are on the phones with potential clients, trying to provide them with a program that meets their current financial need. While there are a number of different areas of specialties within Quicken Loans that includes underwriting, solution consulting and others, my specific area of focus this summer was on the banking side of the business.

Last Fall, when I began looking for summer internships, I started by simply google searching internships online and looked at various websites like LinkedIn and Indeed. I knew I wanted an internship in Cleveland, so I thought about large companies with offices in Cleveland and naturally Quicken Loans comes to mind. I was familiar with the company already and my cousin had interned there a few years prior so I figured I could apply and go from there. Over the course of the last eight or nine weeks I’ve participated in a wide range of events that focuses on my own professional development. I took part in twenty hours of federally regulated licensing education. I pulled reports for my director and RVP to track Key Performance Indicators and create a high level of visibility for the bankers and leadership. I worked on preparing a project and presenting or work to leadership that focused on a “broken window” within the company and how we think it could be fixed. Attended workshops and trainings on a range of areas within the business in order to increase industry knowledge. Ultimately, the thing I appreciated the most about this internship was the opportunity and availability to reach out to bankers and leaders and set up 1 on 1 conversations with them where I can ask questions and learn about their experience and how they’ve found success within the company. Everyone within the company that I reached out to has been incredibly receptive and responsive and willing to talk with me about their role, the challenges they face and what they love most about this job.

Spring 2018

Position: Sales Promoter
Student: Economics Sophomore

RealSavvy is a local start up company that creates websites for Real Estate Professionals. They have two teams that work together to make their company successful. One team is the programming/coding team that creates all the websites in house. The other is the sales team, and my internship was as a Sales Developmental Researcher. This included a range of responsibilities. Since our target clients are located around the country, the majority of our research is completed by phone. The beginning of my internship included a large amount of cold calling. As RealSavvy became a larger company, it transitioned from less outbound lead capture to inbound lead capture through advertisement. Due to this, my role transitioned as well and I began working more with the lead economist. This job included everything from helping produce profit predictions for the upcoming quarters to qualifying multi-market brokerages in different cities. This shift was to be expected with a start up company, but they were always very transparent with what my responsibilities were. A typical day starts off with a short drive to work, their office is located five minutes away from campus so it is very convenient. Everyday starts of with everyone getting settled in and then we would have a team meeting at 9am. In the meeting, we would discuss responsibilities and improvement techniques for the day. This company embraces its local Austin roots and takes on a very laid-back vibe, so this internship is mainly on your own schedule. With that being said, if your responsibilities are not met or you’re not performing to their standards, this freedom will obviously be corrected. I scheduled out my work week to be in the mornings on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The mornings seem to be very convenient for everybody. A lot of the workers there are Texas alumni so they happily embraced this young Longhorn and helped me succeed within this internship.

Spring 2023

Position: Real Estate Intern  
Student: Human Dimensions of Organizations (HDO) Junior
Roxan Coffman Properties is a residential real estate company. I found this internship through a connection from an alum in my sorority and do a bunch of different tasks for the broker. A few of the tasks I do consist of listing homes, running comps to price homes, and making brochures for open houses. I love that I do something different every day and that I am able to work in the same room as my broker and the agents to learn from them!

Summer 2016 

Position: Business Sales Intern
Student: Economics Sophomore
I can truly say that the whole time I spent working with Sprint Corporation ended up being one of the best couple of months in my life. I didn’t only learn real-world skills but I was also able to meet amazing people. The environment at the “1166” New York office was welcoming. Every member made me feel like a part of the team and useful since day 1. I feel I was able to add value to my team by assisting in various projects.

One of the best and most valuable things I got this internship experience was the career and perspective it gave me. Sprint is a large company (Forbes 100) with many opportunities for employees. It’s a telecommunications holding company that provides wireless services and is a major global Internet carrier. It is the fourth largest wireless network operator in the United States, and serves around 60 million people.

A key aspect in the decision to admit students to the program was the diverse experiences and leadership skills they had acquired through the past years. After being hired I spoke with the recruiter and told her why she picked me over other candidates with better GPAs. She told me a big part of this internship would be how you deal with people in an interpersonal level.

During my time I appreciated the work environment, responsibilities, and the people I had to work with. I received great support and feedback from both interns and supervisors. I worked on multiple areas of the company focusing on strategy and operations from the business sales perspective. During the first two weeks of the internship you will be in training under the supervision of a sales coach. The following weeks will consist of working in different projects. For the telecommunications industry summer is a very slow couple of months so what we mainly did was financial modeling and projections for the upcoming high volume sales season. We also took part of a nationwide competition between interns on who got the highest number of business prospects throughout the duration of the internship.

Summer 2019

Position: Summer Analyst
Student: Urban Studies Junior

My internship at Stream Realty Partners was by far an incredible learning experience. The following is a “Day in the Life” as an intern at Stream. I would start my day by waking up at 6:15 A.M. I would do this every morning for five days a week. I would get to the office around 7 A.M. Once I get to the office I would set up my desk for the tasks I knew I would be working on that day. Next, I would get a cup of complimentary coffee and go through my computer looking for news related to Dallas commercial real estate. I would find three articles and send them out to my superior so that the articles could be sent out on Stream’s daily news blast. The next major task of the day would be sitting in on either the office or industrial leasing meetings. Here daily/ weekly operations were covered. Next, I would drive around Dallas with an associate to better learn one of the many offices/industrial markets Dallas has to offer. Next, lunch. After lunch, I would take the time to knock out any particular assignments given to me that day. Knocking out the assignments typically took two hours. Following the assignments, I would attempt to sit in on any phone call/ leasing meeting with a partner at the firm. Next all the interns would sit down with one of the financial analysts who works on the capital markets team and he would walk us through various financial modeling topics. This was very helpful for it helped with excel as well as understanding real estate finance. Next, I would take some more time to knock out any remaining assignments for the day. Eventually, I would leave the office around 7 P.M. and sometimes attend an office happy hour.

Summer 2017

Position: Summer Associate
Student: Economics Junior

In my time with Transwestern, I worked on a variety of projects in the various sectors of commercial real estate that the company has to offer. Each morning, I was to be arrive at our office in North Dallas around 8 AM and check all emails and see what daily tasks needed to completed prior to lunch. Typically, this may include a attending a broker luncheon with an experienced broker or helping one of the associates to start and finish some sort of excel contact list.

Once I had completed all my tasks, I was able to go to lunch. This is the part of my internship where I was able to network and meet with other people around Dallas. I was able to meet with people in my specific commercial real estate sector, the tenant advisory services, from other companies as well as different divisions to try to gain a better understanding of the each sector.

After lunch, we interns were to go “stack” buildings. Stacking buildings meant that we would walk through each floor of an office building and update which tenants were in occupying the building and which suites were vacant. This part of our internship helped the older associates to know exactly which tenants occupied which spaces and when their lease expired on their office space. Lastly, each Tuesday and Thursday, we would have a high level associate come speak and teach to use a certain real estate aspect. These included, but were not limited to class instruction about Transwestern’s Industrial, Retail, and Investment Service Lines. Other sectors of Transwestern Dallas’s office include Investments, Development, Capital Markets, and Multi-Family. Specifically, I gained skills in these classes afterwards by teaming on assignments, making “real” team presentations, and learning how to use useful real estate programs such as CoStar.

Summer 2020 Site Review

Position: Sales Development Intern
Student: HDO Senior

Student Name: Daniel Michals

Quicken Loans is the largest mortgage lender in the United States with offices in Detroit, Phoenix and Cleveland. The company has been in business for over thirty years and had over $30 billion in mortgage volume last month alone. My specific internship is focused on the sales aspect of the business where bankers are on the phones with potential clients, trying to provide them with a program that meets their current financial need. While there are a number of different areas of specialties within Quicken Loans that includes underwriting, solution consulting and others, my specific area of focus this summer was on the banking side of the business.

Last Fall, when I began looking for summer internships, I started by simply google searching internships online and looked at various websites like LinkedIn and Indeed. I knew I wanted an internship in Cleveland, so I thought about large companies with offices in Cleveland and naturally Quicken Loans comes to mind. I was familiar with the company already and my cousin had interned there a few years prior so I figured I could apply and go from there. Over the course of the last eight or nine weeks I’ve participated in a wide range of events that focuses on my own professional development. I took part in twenty hours of federally regulated licensing education. I pulled reports for my director and RVP to track Key Performance Indicators and create a high level of visibility for the bankers and leadership. I worked on preparing a project and presenting or work to leadership that focused on a “broken window” within the company and how we think it could be fixed. Attended workshops and trainings on a range of areas within the business in order to increase industry knowledge. Ultimately, the thing I appreciated the most about this internship was the opportunity and availability to reach out to bankers and leaders and set up 1 on 1 conversations with them where I can ask questions and learn about their experience and how they’ve found success within the company. Everyone within the company that I reached out to has been incredibly receptive and responsive and willing to talk with me about their role, the challenges they face and what they love most about this job.

Spring 2023

Position: General Intern
Student: Urban Studies Junior

I found my internship through my sorority's alumni network. The COO was a former member and had her work email listed and was eager to set up an interview with me as she still remains an involved alumni member of our organization. As an intern at Urbanspace your main priority is to be ready to assist in whatever capacity is necessary. Urbanspace is a multidimensional office. There are multiple teams from the sales team, interiors, agents, operations, accounting, logistics, hospitality, and development. While the goal for the intern is to learn which team they favor or excel with to potentially join that team with a full-time position, as many people in the company have started with an entry-level position. Any two days are not alike and you can be working on different tasks with different teams simultaneously or not, it’s best to be open-minded in this position. Typically you can expect to be responsible for the online blog of the real estate website. This assignment is monthly and you along with the other intern(s) have full creative control as long as it fits the brand’s mission and is relative. My favorite thing about my internship is the company’s value for lifestyle and a work-life balance. The office physically is primarily a showroom while the “office” is in the very back, still, somehow this creates a more informal workspace where everyone can work on the couches or in the kitchen, and employees are allowed to bring their dogs into the office. They also host multiple WFH days when the weather is nice or not so nice. This creates a company culture that promotes collaboration and essentially allows for work to be done. It’s a fun and unconventional place to work and I am super glad I had the opportunity to intern with them.