International student Chelsy turned a natural passion for real estate into a career in valuation, with UTS.
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About Chelsy
My name is Chelsy Gautama and I am from Indonesia. I came to UTS as an international student and studied Bachelor of Property Economics (Honours). I graduated from the Undergraduate Program in 2019 and completed my Honours Program in 2020. I work as an Assistant Valuer and in my downtime, I enjoy playing guitar and console games.
Why UTS?
Before choosing this course, I knew I wanted to learn something business related but could not decide on which degree to study. One day, I walked around Sydney’s Martin Place and Wynyard and realised I really enjoyed looking at heritage buildings and skyscrapers. During that walk, I thought about the development potentials and value of each building and when I got home, I started do a lot of research about these buildings out of curiosity. That was a profound moment for me because I realised that I am naturally passionate about real estate. However, I knew from early on that I did not want to sell properties/sites, instead, I would want to be the one who does the research, due diligence and makes the call on the value. Hence, I started looking for well-established universities that offered real estate related study and discovered that UTS offered the best program.
I chose to study at UTS because they offer a specialised degree, but also provide broad knowledge within that specialisation (e.g. Property Valuation, Property Finance, Property Investment, Property Development, Property Management, Property Law, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Urban Economics and more). Whereas other institutions either offer a very specific degree (e.g. Property Valuation or Property Development) or a very general degree (e.g. real estate study). I believe showcasing all career options within the industry is crucial so that students have the ability to branch out and explore along the way.
I also chose UTS because it offers the Capstone subject that deals with real clients, which I believe not all institutions offer. This was very important to me because we had the opportunity to understand what real clients wanted in a professional setting.
I took part in the UTS Career program and received the Platinum Award from that program. The Career Program helped me to update my LinkedIn profile, enhanced my resume and cover letter, helped me prepare for interviews and helped me to be more comfortable undertaking professional networking. Thanks to the UTS Career Program, I landed a paid internship as an Assistant Property Manager for six months during my second last semester.
One of the most memorable experiences I had as an international student was finding my group of university friends. We had such great moments studying together, mentoring one another, doing assignments in the UTS library and working on a lot of group projects together. Not only that, but we also attended a lot of networking and non-formal events together, even receiving the UTS Platinum Award together.
What’s Next
I am working at Charter Keck Cramer, an Australian based independent property advisory firm that specialises across advisory, capital, projects, research and valuation services. At the moment, I am working as an Assistant Valuer in the Residential Development division.
A day in my life consists of meeting with clients and potential clients, learning soft and hard skills, reading a lot of reports as part of the due diligence process, assisting in report writing, catching up with my colleagues, and attending professional development seminars from time to time. My long-term career goal is to get my qualification to work as a Certified Practising Valuer (CPV) in Residential Development field.
For those who are still searching for what or where to study, do your research about the university, course and subject that you plan to study. And don’t forget to search potential career opportunities.
However, if you’ve already made up your mind to pursue a career in the real estate industry, I recommend UTS because of its proven track record with so many successful and well-known UTS alumni working in the industry.