Is the credit/underwriting team a good place to start, looking toward a career in REPE?

I just received and accepted an offer at a real estate investing arm of a publicly traded financial services company on the credit and underwriting team. The company as a whole provides just about every financial service you can think of for businesses and investors. My plan as of right now is to learn everything there is to know in the first 1-2 years of credit underwriting, but then I want to move to deals that include more complex analysis such as mezzanine financing. Note: My firm also has its own private equity arm and real estate private equity arm beneath that.My question is: does this seem like a viable first few steps toward a career in real estate private equity?Thank you ahead of time!