I started this blog because, as I might have mentioned a million times before, it’s like a friend to me. I talk to it, and through it to you, the amazing followers and readers of my blog. I’ve always openly shared my feelings here by writing some stories or poems or random posts. Whether it’s been my love for science or a person, sadness because of heartbreak due to a person or my irritation with life, in general, I’ve expressed it all. One thing I haven’t done here is a life update. So here it is. Starting now, whenever something is going on that I think is interesting, I’ll write about it. As of now, I’m not going to keep any fixed interval or anything.
What’s up, Ket?
I’m doing an internship in this company called CBRE. It’s one of the largest real estate companies. Why am I doing this? Because it’s new lol. I wanted to give it a shot. I don’t know if the college will consider this. No, I’m not a broker and I don’t show people houses to buy or rent, my role is different. So my internship is basically based on something called Space Utilisation Study.
What is Space Utilisation Study?
So basically a lot of companies have these large buildings as offices. The price per square feet of these offices goes really high. I’m doing the internship in the office of HSBC which is a client of CBRE. The price per square feet here is around Rs. 350 per square feet, which is HUGE. Now, my role here is to make sure the company is making the most out of all the space that it uses because every square feet wasted is 350 bucks wasted.
How do I do this?
I’m doing the internship along with 7 other friends of mine. Apart from my friends, there are 10 others too. 3 among the 17 of us are backups, as in, if one of us can’t turn up, they will do our part on those days or if one of us are too tired, they can take up our role.
Each of us has been assigned a particular section that we have to cover which has, on an average 250 points of investigation. We stop at each point and see if that space is being utilized or not every hour starting from 9 o’clock am till 6 o’clock pm. We have been provided access to an online tool for this. The tool has options that have to be chosen for each spot which goes something like :-
- Is the space :-
- Empty
- In use, not occupied
- Occupied on phone
- Occupied with collaboration
- Occupied
- How many people?
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6-12 and so on
- 24+
- Number of paper used :-
- One
- 2-10
- Significant and so on
- Technology used :-
- Computer
- Smartphone
- Video conference
- Headsets .. etc
And we are provided with the route map which shows us which points are what. The map basically checks if each cubicle, informal meeting space, meeting rooms etc are being used in each hour. CBRE collects this data to come up with a better design for more efficient use of real estate, which could mean hiring more people or giving off some amount of the real estate and saving up all that amount.
On the first day, it took me 40 minutes to do each round. So I got only a 20 minute break before I had to go back for the next round and 10 minutes of that 20 minute break went in going back to the room allotted to us where all my friends and I met. Also, I got back home very exhausted and slept almost as soon as I went to bed.
It was my third day today and I completed each round in less than 15 minutes and I’m pretty fresh too. The traffic while getting back home is a bitch and it’s almost the only reason why I’m as tired as I am now. But apart from that its all cool
Am I enjoying this?
I won’t lie, it’s pretty boring to do something that hardly requires any brain power but my friends and I have fun in the breaks. We somehow always have something to talk about and man, I have been laughing a lot the past few days. This is helping me keep occupied. So a part of me that requires healing is benefiting from it. I don’t have the time to overthink and later, I’m too tired to.
Also, there’s free coffee – latte, cappuccino, espresso, tea – Tulsi, lemon and some other tea idk, tomato soup, spicy tomato soup, corn soup, milk and SUGAR CUBES in the pantry. Unlimited. So I start my day with a nice shot of espresso, then I have corn soup then spicy tomato soup. Then I have lunch which I take from home (and share my friend’s lunch) which sadly isn’t free. Then I have a latte, then spicy tomato soup, then lemon tea and finally a cup of ‘random’ tea. HAHA! Why leave something be when it’s free, right? xD
What’s the catch though?
To all things that is even slightly on the better side, there’s a killjoy, right? That, here, is traffic. It normally, when there’s no traffic, takes me 15 minutes to reach this place. But now, I have to leave at work hours so it takes me 30 minutes to reach in the morning if I leave by 8.30.
It takes me 45 minutes to get back home if I leave at 6.25.
1 hour if I leave at 6.35.
1 hour 15 minutes if I leave at 7
I’ve always considered myself lucky that I lived near college but now I feel terrible for people who don’t and travel so far. I guess it’s a learning in itself.
So what next?
I want to do an internship in which I learn a lotttt. So I’m looking for another internship to do right after this. I didn’t have the energy to do anything the past few days and couldn’t even touch my laptop for the past 5 days. I’m getting back in touch with a bit of web dev which I’d gotten bored of so I hadn’t done much of in 6 months.
I’m also trying to make it so that I start going for a jog every morning and get back to my pushups, which I’ve taken a break from since a month (unwantedly).
I’m reading a book. It’s pretty interesting. I’m looking forward to finishing that soon. I’m a slow reader so my target for the year is 6 books. I’ve finished Circe which was VERY fun. But I started that in December so I don’t know whether or not to consider it.
That’s all for this time.
Until next time.
Ket.
Cynical Souls 