Military to RE via MBA

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for some help with career/recruiting planning.

I was a naval officer for 9 years and I'm headed to Ross for an MBA in the fall in hopes of transitioning to a real estate career. My undergrad was engineering back in 2010 and I have no finance/real estate work experience. I studied urban planning at George Washington University last year and gained a good understanding of zoning, entitlements, placemaking...., but I decided the MBA was a more practical route to RE since I could get a strong finance education.

I'll probably focus my recruiting at large real estate companies like Related or a REIT like Edens (I'm in DC btw), but I want a parallel recruiting plan in case that doesn't work out. I've come to the conclusion that REPE is probably out of the question directly out of the MBA and probably is still a long shot even if I did I-banking for 2 years.

Is being an REIB Associate a good start for someone wanting to work in real estate development/investment? I'm concerned the analysis will be at the company level instead of the asset level and I may not get the right experience? Is REIB more at the asset-level at Eastdil as opposed to BB banks?

Are their other banking roles that would prep you for a real estate career that would have a better life-work balance than IB?

Are their opportunities at the large brokerages (CBRE, JLL, Eastdil) that make sense for a MBA grad? (investment sales, capital markets, REIB?)

Thanks in advance everyone - any insight is appreciated!