Victoria Dalziel (2016), Assistant Fund Manager
One of the best ‘field trips’ I attended was the Cornell International Real Estate Case Competition in New York. This was an intense experience but an unforgettable one; the competition challenged my ability in working under pressure and working within a team efficiently. It was a great group I went with and, although we didn’t win, it was excellent to experience something like it.
I find practical experience is the best way to help bring relevance to what you are learning in the classroom and I gained practical Real Estate experience from Easter and summer internships. I had an internship during the Easter break at JLL in Edinburgh and I was fortunate that they asked me to come back for a summer internship. The following summer I completed a 10- week summer internship with Standard Life Investments within their Real Estate department.
Following my internship at Standard Life Investments, I joined as an Assistant Portfolio Manager in September 2016. I was working on the Pooled Property Pension Fund which is a £3bn UK based real estate fund investing in prime UK properties. My role within this team was to asset manage a portfolio of Real Estate assets and assist the fund manager in acquiring and disposing of assets. I also assisted the fund manager in fund reporting and analysis. In 2017 Standard Life Investments and Aberdeen Asset Management merged to form Aberdeen Standard Investments.
My degree was essential to getting my job at Standard Life Investments as they were looking for a graduate with a Real Estate degree. A lot of what I learnt at university provided good foundations to build further knowledge in.