"I wouldn’t have stayed in a place where I didn’t feel appreciated and loved by my colleagues."

Rubina Bankapur - Technical Support Lead 

What is your role at realestate.co.nz? 

I lead the Technical Support team; team is probably a big word – it's just me and one other - CK, our Technical Support. My day-to-day job involves coordinating our managed IT provider, Kordia, as well as supporting Client Support, our front-end team, which deals with clients directly. If they face any kind of issues or don’t know what to do, they come to us for advice.

I also work with our external data providers to support them with any issues or changes that need to be made. And, I manage projects, right now, we are working on enabling a robot (named Tahu) to make some of our processes more efficient. 

Where did you start? And how has your role grown and evolved over time? 

I started at realstate.co.nz in 2016 as a Customer Support Specialist. When I came in, I had no idea about real estate; my background was in Telco! 

The role was mainly about providing phone and email support to customers, but there was a bit of technical work around getting listings up on our site. In my third or fourth month, we had a major technical transition, and being involved in this work really helped me to understand our systems and learn how to solve problems. I’m also a person who asks a lot of questions, so that was my first big piece of work, and I learned a lot from it.  

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Then we had a bit of a restructure, and the role changed quite drastically to become a lot more sales-focused. Initially, it was exciting as I like change, but I learnt that sales wasn’t really for me. So around 2018, I started looking at other opportunities within realestate.co.nz, and I was excited to find that there was an opportunity for me to move into a hybrid role that was more technically focused. In this role, I was able to learn a lot of things and it was quite challenging but I had a huge amount of support from the team and my manager. I’ve been really lucky over my time to share a good rapport with all my managers.

Then we hit Covid, and that brought another change, bringing the Tech Support and Customer Service teams back together. This was great as we were able to work more collaboratively, but also, at the time, I needed to go back to India for family circumstances. I was extremely grateful that I was able to go and continue my work remotely – for almost a year! But it also made us realise that the team was very dependent on me because of my knowledge and experience with our systems. So, it became apparent that we needed to expand, and as the team grew, I took on the Team Lead role. 

 

 

How has realestate.co.nz changed over your tenure? 

It has changed quite a bit – I remember when I started there were less than 30 people in the entire company. We were incredibly tight then, mainly because of the small numbers, and everyone would come into the office every day. Since then, we’ve more than doubled in size, and naturally, as companies get bigger, it gets harder to maintain connections in the same way – when the circle gets too big, people tend to break into smaller circles. And, with Covid, as more people started working from home, it was bound to create a bit more distance as you don’t get to see people as regularly. 

Also, as the company has grown, it's become a lot more streamlined. We worked a lot more ad hoc at the beginning, but now we have processes in place for most things. Our Business Manager, Tania has really championed this, and it’s been a really positive change for the business - we’re so much more efficient than we used to be.  

It is sad we’ve lost that really strong connection across the entire company – but we still have really close-knit teams and relationships across the business.  

 

How have you changed since you’ve been at realestate.co.nz? 

I’m a person who takes time to open up, so I remember when I joined, I barely talked to anyone. It took me a little while to grow my confidence and get comfortable, but over the years, as I’ve got to know more people and been pushed out of my comfort zone, I’ve been able to open up a lot more, and I’m definitely a lot more confident today than I was five years ago. The exposure this role and the company have given me, especially with dealing with lots of different people, has really helped me grow. I also haven't been a very decisive person in the past – but through my work and the support of my manager, I’ve become a lot better at decision-making. I feel empowered that if I make a decision based on logic, it will likely be a good decision.  

What do you love most about working at realestate.co.nz?

It sounds like a copy-paste answer because it’s what everyone says when they leave – but it really is the people. People are what make a business, and I wouldn’t have stayed in a place where I didn’t feel appreciated and loved by my colleagues. I can be quite an emotional person, so for me, building relationships is really critical. People make an effort to make other people feel like they belong at realestate.co.nz.  

 

What is one piece of advice that you’d give to someone who is coming to work at realestate.co.nz? 

I’d encourage any new person to have an open mind and make an effort to connect with people. I understand that it can be nerve-wracking, but I’ve found at realestate people will always make time for others, so I really encourage anyone new to step out of their comfort zone and get to know the people around them.

There are so many different people and personalities you’re bound to find your place.


Enjoying Rubina's story? Read more career journeys from our team.