A Day in My Life as a Sales Intern at Casa Mia Coliving

Hello! I’m Su Hui, a year-3 real estate undergraduate at the National University of Singapore. I embarked on my internship with Casa Mia Coliving during my summer holidays, and I’ve been here for 12 weeks now. I focus on Sales, so my job scope is dynamic in nature, and there is hardly a dull day at work :) In my free time, I enjoy baking and trying out new dessert shops, which comes in handy when we’re picking out cupcakes for our members’ birthdays ;)

Pre-Phase 2 HA

6.45am 

This is usually the time I’ll get up if I have to head into the office. I like to start my day off with some light stretching or yoga (the link to my favourite morning stretching routine can be found here), then I’ll make breakfast, get a quick shower and prepare for work. Work starts at 9, though our hours can be flexible. 

8.00am 

I’ll begin my long journey from the west side of Singapore to Tiong Bahru, where our office is. 

Phase 2 HA

With the changing Covid-19 situation, I started working from home after my first week of the internship. Working from home has allowed me to wake up much later, which means more snooze time for me, yay. 

9.00am

We have team meetings first thing in the morning, where everyone takes turns to share important updates, though we occasionally deviate from the serious stuff (the 2021 Euro Cup, for example, was one of the key topics of discussion during our morning meetings in July). 

9.45am

I’ll check Casa Mia’s CRM system for my list of to-dos for the day, and start replying to enquiries that came in the night before. On a Monday, usually there will be significantly more enquiries for me to respond to. 

10.15am

I have a meeting with my reporting manager, with whom we’ll discuss the leads that came in and any other updates on events or projects that I’m working on. In a client-facing role, customer satisfaction is of utmost importance. We place our members’ happiness as our top priority, so we strive to keep them engaged through our Casa Mia community events. One of the more prominent events we organise is the Casa Mia First Friday, held on the first Friday of every month for our members to mingle and meet other members from different homes, usually at a pub or a restaurant. 

With Covid-19 restrictions in place, we have had to switch to virtual events, and I was given the opportunity to propose and plan my first event for the members by the end of my second week with Casa Mia. Reaching out to vendors, choosing the right event and collating participants’ details is something I do rather often as we frequently host other events that do not include alcohol or offer something different for those who might be interested to explore other activities. 

It makes me really happy when we receive feedback from our members saying they enjoyed the events, and that drives me to look for more interesting activities for future events. After 2 virtual classes with alcohol involved, we’re switching things up with a virtual soap making workshop for our members.

10.45am 

I’ll continue with my follow-ups, lead generation and listing of rooms in our newly launched apartments on online platforms. 

2pm

We do an afternoon check-in for updates/discussion of anything I’m unfamiliar with. After which I’ll continue responding to incoming enquiries, write my blog posts, source for new events for our members etc.

4pm 

I’ve blocked this time out in my calendar for calls, so the majority of my hour will be spent speaking with prospects.

5pm

Some days I have a second meeting with my manager. This is mostly for me to clarify any doubts, so we do not always have this call. On days that I’m in the office, we wouldn’t have any calls aside from the team meeting in the morning. 

6pm 

The (official) end of my work day! However, as our prospects are mostly working professionals who prefer to do viewings in the evening, my schedule isn’t entirely fixed. There are times where we have viewings in the morning from as early as 11am or as late as 7.30pm (not any earlier/later, as we do not want to disturb our members!). I adjust my schedule accordingly to accommodate the viewings, which also means that there are days where I will be in and out of the office, or going directly from home to do the viewing. 

My first viewing (at Casa Mia La Crystal) was done independently in my third week of internship as Singapore had just put into place a 2 person social gathering limit. I remember being so nervous and I was on video call with my manager as he pointed out the facilities within the condominium to me so that I’ll be familiarised with the place before the prospect arrives. Thankfully, it went well, and we closed the deal that same week :) My manager has been really helpful in providing feedback on how to negotiate with prospects who came for the viewing and convert them to actual sales. I’ve followed him for many more viewings since then, and have done plenty on my own as well, which is an experience I would not have gotten had I pursued an internship anywhere else. 

If you’ve read until here and you’re considering pursuing a sales internship, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn! 

8pm

After work, I’ll head home to shower and have my dinner, then relax in bed listening to music or watching shows on Netflix (Hospital Playlist Season 2 is now available on Netflix!) until my eyes feel tired.

12am 

I’ll usually be asleep by this time (though I sometimes crash a lot earlier than this), getting a restful sleep before another hectic day begins.