My time with Sewell & Gardner has been short but incredibly sweet. Sometimes in life you’re faced with tough choices, it’s a given, and this one ranks amongst the toughest. I’ve worked as a Junior Negotiator for 3 months and with much regret it is my time to move on. The briefness of my employment is by no means a reflection on Sewell & Gardner, in fact I cannot express my gratitude, enjoyment, and astonishment at this company. But I’m going to give it a go…
Firstly, I will always be eternally grateful to Jane and Jon for employing me as a fresh faced graduate. From the moment I interviewed I felt comfortable and welcome, and welcomed I was into the Sewell & Gardner family. Like most graduates I had little real experience of the working world, and coming to the interview I did not expect anything more than a pat on the back on my way out. But kindly and quite shockingly I was invited back for a second day-long interview and subsequently I was offered a position. I was instantly taken by Sewell & Gardner as a company, their ethics, standards, and drive are genuinely the best in the industry…. and they do have the awards to prove it! My education did not stop after university, I’ve learnt more about myself in 3 months here than I did in 3 years at university, and it has been a real eye opener. If I’d thought to myself 3 months ago that I would be conducting viewings with people I’ve never met before, managing my own time, and talking to hundreds of people a month I’d have laughed it off and probably gone back to playing Xbox or something. Yet here I am, a much more rounded individual, confident enough to achieve 8 new deals in my third month of letting. And I will always be grateful to S&G for providing me with that social education that’s allowed me to do so.
I have immensely enjoyed my work with this company. Yes it’s been stressful, tiring, and sometimes terribly irksome! But the overwhelming sentiment I have left with, is sheer enjoyment. I’ve mentioned Jane and Jon, however everyone else in the office has played just as an important part in making the past few months some of the best I’ve had. I could not and would not imagine working in any other lettings office, the sterile shop front nature of lettings offices is well and truly booted out of the window with S&G, I’ve worked in an office where we make things happen. There is an atmosphere in the office that is truly unique and I think everyone that comes in notices this. Our management department are always taking care of our clients and our lettings team are always finding new clients! There’s never a dull moment, but if there is it’s probably because we’ve closed up shop for the day. I’ve looked forward to coming to work every day since I’ve started and that speaks volumes for the way the office is run and the ethics behind what we do. All this enjoyment is synonymous with the friends I’ve made at work, genuine friends that I’m genuinely sad to leave.
I’ll keep to the New Deals team for now to remain brief so here it goes: Jon is a awesome boss that you work with rather than for, yet still has that big kid inside every now and then. Julia will always help you out, and in my case answer question after question (sorry!), she must really have an abundance of patience to teach myself and Laurence! Now Laurence started the same time as me, so naturally there was always a bit of competition, but I’ve got no doubt that he’ll be a great neg! and Ben is… well… Ben! I jest, he’s always the light hearted one, despite that grizzly demeanour! He’s also the best Valuer in the country (self proclaimed but I’m inclined to believe him). Working in this team is just brilliant, in fact there is an incredible balance in the office of different personas that just gel and produce incredible results. And honestly, absolutely everyone in the office just makes it the success it really is.
Lastly I’ve been left astonished by a company that, in the industry it’s in, bucks all trends and carves it’s own niche in the market whereby they’ve created an agent that is honest, friendly, and down to earth. They’re innovative in ways other agents can only dream of, and full of real people that hold Sewell & Gardner’s honest and genuine approach at the forefront of their own work ethics. In such a short amount of time, even I have noticed that the company is built on a trust between themselves and their clients that isn’t given, it’s earned. To really understand this, I can only recommend working with S&G, as a tenant, or as a landlord, or even as a Junior Negotiator, you’ll be left as astonished as me at the way this company operates.
Whomever said there are no friends in business was lying; I’ve made loads here!