From intern to apprentice, my journey at CBRE

Glasgow student Ellie Buchanan has gone from paid internship to apprenticeship at CBRE, with support from Career Ready mentor Emily. Here, she shares her story.

“Before my internship, I had no clue about commercial real estate,” says Ellie. “I learned so much about CBRE and, ultimately, I learned what I wanted to do when I left school.”

Ellie’s internship took place in summer 2023, when she was a student at Springburn Academy.

“The company was amazing and set up career conversations with multiple different people in the business, so I could learn about all of the different career paths they’d taken,” she says.

“I also did site inspections, sat in on design and technical meetings, tours with property managers and walk arounds with building surveyors. My favourite moment was probably a site inspection at a cinema, as my manager allowed me to have a lot of responsibility and do most of it myself.

“My internship helped me a lot in personal growth. Before the Career Ready programme I was such an anxious person. I was always nervous to speak to new people, and over-thought too much. Now, I’m 100% more confident. I am so much more comfortable meeting new people.”

Practical reassurance in the workplace

During her internship, Ellie also found reassurance about managing health conditions in the workplace.

“I’m a type one diabetic, and I struggled a lot with it in school,” she explains. “I struggled a lot with it in school, as I was embarrassed and scared of people knowing. I would always make sure to hide my glucose monitors and insulin pump and be scared of what people would think.

“During my internship, I met another diabetic who reassured me about how she manages her condition in the workplace.

“I felt so relieved, as working with my condition was always a worry for me. Doing my internship, I realised how people don’t care – or even notice – my glucose sensor half the time. I’m now confident in wearing my diabetic technology, which is a big thing for me!”

Taking the apprenticeship route

Ellie’s internship, and the support of mentor Emily Hughes, also opened up a whole new avenue for her future.

“When I started my internship, I wanted to be an architect,” Ellie says. “Because of this, I had a meeting with an architect to see what my future could look like. After the meeting, I realised I didn’t actually like that type of work.

“I then didn’t know what I wanted to do when I left school.

“But by the time my internship was coming to an end I was sad – I was going to miss working at CBRE. I found the work that Emily, my mentor, did as a project manager really interesting. That’s when I realised I would love to do this job full time.”

With help from Emily, Ellie explored CBRE’s apprenticeships route.

“After my internship, I had meetings with Emily and other colleagues from CBRE to talk about joining the apprenticeship scheme, which was highly beneficial.”

“Now, I’m an apprentice project manager. I do full-time work, and a part-time university course in building surveying, which last four years.

“I absolutely love my job as every day I’m doing something different, and not just sitting at a desk all day. I’m out on sites, or at meetings.

“Career Ready definitely helped me get there, as I didn’t know an apprenticeship scheme like this was even a thing before my internship. It helped me find an apprenticeship for a job I love.”