Jordan Parratt

"Property and Law stood out to me as subjects I wanted to learn more about. Property was kind of my passion, and I thought ‘wow, this sounds so cool, I really want to know more!’ when I was reading through the prospectus at the end of high school.

"In my Law degree, I chose more business and corporate-oriented courses. By the time I got to my fourth and fifth year, I knew I would go into property as my career.

"I was involved with the Business School’s Property Case Competitions, and that really helped me gain the scholarship which led to my current role. I was able to travel internationally to Sydney, Vancouver, and New York to represent the University through the Competitions, which was amazing.

"My involvement with the Case Competitions came about because during one of my second-year scholarship interviews, one of the representatives from the company advised me to get more involved with extra-curriculars, which would help me stand out to employers.

"I was also applying the knowledge I gained from the Case Competitions to my studies and vice versa, which really helped. I really encourage Business and Property students to get involved with extra-curriculars because they really do feed into one another and help you in the long term.

"At the end of my fourth year, I was awarded the Goodman Scholarship. By the time I had applied in my fourth year, I had done enough at university and through extra-curriculars to land the scholarship. This meant I got an internship at Goodman, which led to a full-time role when I graduated.

"The Case Competitions also helped me realise what roles I wanted to have in my career, and what I wanted to do when I graduated. I’d already had Goodman down as a place where I wanted to work because what they do really aligned with what I had most enjoyed about the Case Competitions.

"In the last four years at Goodman, I’ve had four different roles. I started as an intern. I was able to spend a few months understanding different aspects of the business and how the industry worked. From there, I was able to get a full-time role as a Junior Property Manager and Business Analyst. From here I was able to gain more knowledge about the day-to-day operations of the business before I was promoted to Property Manager. Here I was able to develop relationships with clients and take on more responsibility.

"I was then able to move into the Investment team, and now I look at the whole fund instead of individual properties. The day-to-day responsibilities of this role involve financial modelling and forecasting, as well as investor presentations and property evaluations.

"I also have the opportunity now to be involved with the Business School. I mentor Case Competition teams, including one which made it to New York last year, and I’m going to be lecturing in a Stage III Property course alongside a few of the Business School staff.

"The staff have really built relationships with industry – my involvement with the Stage III course is an example of that. The Property programme is so connected to industry – every Property student I knew gained part-time roles, internships, or some experience in the industry before they left university.

"When I was at university, the industry involvement was so useful. I was able to see what the day-to-day of a future career in property would look like and figure out what I wanted to do within the industry.

"The biggest skills I have taken out of university and into my work are team-building, problem-solving, and taking initiative. These skills gave me really valuable transferrable skills which I use daily in my role, and that has been one of the most useful parts of doing this programme."