My time as part of Puma Property Finance (PPF) has been a truly rewarding experience. From the beginning, the team made a real effort to get me involved in what they were working on and gave me the ability to explore the different areas of the business I was interested in. 
 

One of the best things was how structured my training was. Chris made a deliberate effort to walk me through each key stage of the deal process, including structuring, execution and monitoring. He also introduced me to legal, risk and  portfolio management functions outside of just the deal team. In this way I was able to understand the wider lending process, which gave me a great foundation to build on.
What really stood out to me was the culture of collaboration and debate. Regardless of whether I was directly involved in a deal, I was always able to ask questions and share my opinions. Everybody encouraged me to look at what they were working on and invited me to discuss it with them. This was one of the best ways I learnt the basics of real estate debt and began to recognise some of the key red or green flags that different deals possessed.
 The way that everyone took time out of their schedules to explain different concepts to me or make sure that I understood different terms in meetings was an extremely valuable part of the experience. Even when team members were busy trying to close deals, I always felt able to ask for help when I needed it.

There were many enjoyable moments. Going on site visits to the Jermyn Street and Rochdale Road properties really helped bring together many of the different concepts involved in underwriting construction risk in a development loan. Sitting in on credit and deal steering committees and seeing how the senior members of the team were able to spot risks and evaluate opportunities improved my understanding of real estate debt.

In my last week Louise and Gus let me get involved in a few live deals which were nearing credit committee stage. Getting to work first-hand on the location analysis and evaluation of a proposed PBSA development was both a challenging and rewarding experience. What stuck with me was the pace at which deals moved, and the volume of information that had to be understood and explained in a relatively short time. I was even fortunate enough to see the interaction between the deal team and some of our external funding partners. Learning about the different perspectives PPF partners had on deals and market risks was great, and it helped me approach research in a more thorough way.
I was also fortunate enough to get the chance to explore areas outside of PPF and within the wider Puma Capital Group (PCG) business. Getting to speak to members of Puma Growth Partners and other areas of the business gave me a great appreciation of how Puma works as a whole while also helping me understand the role that PPF plays.

Overall, it was a great experience. I learnt a lot of valuable information over the six weeks, and I am very grateful to Chris, Louise, Gus and George, with whom I worked most closely, as well as the wider PPF team, who took the time to sit down and talk to me over the internship. I am also grateful to the wider PCG business for making this an enjoyable experience and I would highly recommend interning with PPF to anybody who is considering a career in real estate or just an interest in the sector!