This year she won our Sales Consultant of the Year Award, recognising the top performing consultants across our business. The award win has helped fuel her ambitions to advance her career after changing sectors.
As her interest in the property sector continued to grow, Lutfiye was looking to follow her passion. When a family member shared a temporary role at our Colindale Gardens development, Lutfiye jumped at the opportunity.
She was initially nervous about going from a desk job crunching numbers to a role that involved extensive in-person interaction but was ready for a change.
She explains: “If you have an interest in the sector, I really recommend finding a temporary role or even an apprenticeship. Working in a temporary role gave me the opportunity to discover a sector that I love and led to a permanent job. I couldn’t be happier.”
When asked her favourite aspect of the job, Lutfiye emphasises the very thing that made her nervous at first – interacting with clients.
She continues: “Coming from a career centred around accounting where your main interaction is sorting tricky formulas within a spreadsheet, I didn’t believe I would be suited as a sales consultant as it is such a relationship-based role. However, upon joining Redrow, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed engaging with clients and residents. My favourite part of being a sales consultant is making connections and helping clients find their dream home, and the things I was once nervous about like showing people around homes, are now something that is so part of my day-to-day. I really enjoy building strong relationships which carry on after the sales process.
“My team is fantastic. Everyone is collaborative and supportive; we really work together. The open-mindedness of my colleagues also really helped when I started out. They were willing to help me learn about the property industry from the ground up, accepted my opinions and embraced my ideas. As I assumed greater responsibilities, I developed a deep appreciation for the proactive nature of the job and the satisfaction of completing tasks.”
On winning Sales Consultant of the year, Lutfiye said: "It's an amazing feeling to have won the Sales Consultant of the Year Award and I am determined to repeat this success next year! “It's gratifying to see my efforts acknowledged by Redrow as I take great pride in being a team player and contributing to the success of Colindale Gardens. I feel my managers really take the time to listen to me and talk about my career aspirations which is another reason Colindale Gardens is an amazing place to work. Working at Colindale Gardens is more than a job to me, it really feels like my home. I hope other people thinking about a career change can be inspired by my journey – it’s never too late.”
To find out more about career opportunities at Redrow visit our dedicated careers page.