Career Path/Advice
Hello all,
Quick background: I am a student-athlete at a non-target currently in my first year of getting my MBA. Because of sport, I have been unable to get a formal internship in RE, and this being my last year of eligibility, I finally have an internship at a boutique REPE firm this summer. I am a finance major with a good GPA, but found that my lack of professional experience in undergrad was detrimental to my opportunities when looking for an internship this summer.
I am concerned about not receiving a full time offer from the firm I am interning at this summer since it is a smaller firm, and I don't know if they are looking to hire someone full-time. What advice would you guys have for me moving forward in order to position myself to get into some of the more competitive roles? Also, is there anything else that I should be doing in the meantime?
Hah, I promise I don't mean to be dismissive here, but you are a student athlete who will have a MBA and a private equity internship. The only way you could be more custom built for commercial real estate is if your Dad also worked in commercial real estate. This industry adores athletes.
My advice for you is to network your ass off, both by making friends your own age interested in real estate and collecting coffee dates and phone calls with men in their 60s. The people you meet in your internship, in whatever real estate club exists at your business school, and the execs you meet networking will be infinitely more valuable than anything you learn in class. Prioritize accordingly.
Thank you for the response and for the honest feedback. The response that I got from a lot of firms was that they didn't like my lack of experience (even though I am trying to get the internship for the experience). I understand that it is competitive and others on a more traditional path may have had that experience, but I believe that given the opportunity that I would excel in the role, and it has been hard to convey that. I guess my concern is just getting my foot in the door, because the sentiment was that they love athletes, but it felt more as if they want an athlete with experience.
I have really been networking the last year and have met some cool people in the space. Thanks again for your feedback.
Totally makes sense. You are getting the experience though - don't discredit yourself. Make sure you get the most out of this summer and, once you do, work on expressing your experience in a positive way.
Just network your ass off. Plus people often like to hire athletes / former athletes.
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