Caleb Wursten: Building The Career Path with Residential Way — TechGen Intern Spotlight

Caleb Wursten is a rising junior at Babson College, and he recently found his dream internship through TechGen. Now he is exploring tech and real estate with Residential Way, and he sat down with us to share his experience with Residential Way and TechGen.

How did you find out Residential Way?

I was looking for a real estate and tech internship, so immediately that’s a very specific pool. I went to the Spotlight event co-hosted by TechGen at Babson, and I met people from Residential Way there. From all the people I talked to, they seemed the most interesting to me. And of all the industries represented there, the industry is the most interesting to me. So I did some research about them on the TechGen platform and went from there.

How did you apply for the internship?

I applied through TechGen and it was so easy. After the Babson event, I went through The Residential Way’s profile, it aligned perfectly with what I’d learned at the event and with my interests, so it was a bo-brainer. I actually did a little project for them, kind of as a precursor to the internship so that they could de-risk the situation, because they have no idea how strong of an intern I would be. I was able to demonstrate my skills and knowledge and get the job.

What’s your role at Residential Way?

I have done a lot of different things. The biggest project I have done probably is helping design the prototype. The prototype allows you to show investors, users, beta testers and your friends exactly what the platform will do. So it appears like a fully built app but without the complete backend, just a bunch of visual cues in InVision. That was a big thing I spent a week and half helping design and now I can use it for market testing. I do interviews with (real estate) agents to get feedback. Now that we have a really highly functioning prototype we can get a lot of information from each interview we have. To be a real estate agent, I can show you what your life will be like with Residential Way. In the meantime, I also started a blog for Residential Way. We’ve been writing articles about real estate agents that we interviewed and other content relevant to our audience.

What is a typical day at the Residential Way like?

We work all over in the Boston area actually. I really like that there is not a set location or a typical day so much. For example this past week for a couple of days I worked in Allston with (fellow intern) Michelle, writing bios and collaborating on a PowerPoint, and yesterday we were at District Hall with the team. But a typical day involves checking in with one of the co-founders to provide a project update or get a new project. I’m really working on a variety of things, so often times with new projects my first step is figuring out and learning how to get it done.

Any highlights in your experience?

I’ve learned a lot about Sketch and Photoshop, that’s for sure. Actually I’m using one of the co-founders’ laptops because I have a Lenovo from school that doesn’t have these programs. As such, I’ve taught myself how to use Sketch — that was fun, watching tutorial videos at night, and then coming to the office and actually building something with Sketch — I started with something easy like changing colors or making buttons and I went all the way to making whole screens. That was definitely a highlight because I had no design experience before that.

How do you like your experience at Residential Way?

It has been so interesting this summer getting to do so many different things. I do design, marketing, sales, strategy … doing a little bit of everything for Residential Way. It’s ideal, learning so much about building a company, technology and the real estate industry. That’s also something I am interested in. I was not exposed to real estate growing up and I am learning as much as I can.

How did you know TechGen and how do you like it?

My first exposure to TechGen was when went to the Startup Spotlight at Babson, met a bunch of companies and then used the platform to learn more about Residential Way. It is a very cool platform, very useful for Boston.

How would you rate your experience with TechGen?

I would say it’s been a great experience. TechGen takes advantage of trends and lets you conduct more research on the big decision of committing on an internship or shopping around other internships so you can be sure that this is what you want and be really committed to it. I look forward to using more of it in the future.

What are your plans after graduation?

There are so many interesting things. Definitely gonna see this company through. It’s really exciting what’s happening with Residential Way and that’s what I am focusing now. I am gonna focus more on tech and real estate development, and then politics in the long run.

What do you love about Boston?

I love how many students there are in Boston, you can meet peers and really interesting things all the time. At 5:45 pm today I am meeting a student from Harvard, grabbing a coffee and talking about our experience, like the conversation we are having now. The concentration of students, technology, and academics is so high in Boston that it’s a normal occurrence. There’s a lot of focus on innovation. I would love to see Boston continue to be a heart for tech innovation in the future. We have the human capital, the universities, here. We have a lot of big companies, we have GE coming, which can be huge for us. Besides, I love the ocean and being near the ocean is really nice. So what’s not to love??

Are you ready for an amazing experience as Caleb’s? Check out TechGen and find your dream internship!