Need advice, current sophomore

The advice I usually give undergraduates who are interested in real estate but want to learn more about specific roles in the industry (i.e. private equity vs. appraisal vs. debt lending, etc.) is to first observe activities you enjoy doing (“know thyself”) then network with those who are professionals in the area you think you’d enjoy.

The best thing you can do initially is think long and hard about yourself, focusing separately on what you enjoy doing and what you are strong at:

• What activities do you enjoy so much that you lose track of time? 
  If you have a free afternoon, how do you spend it?
• Think of yourself in 10 years living your ideal life (one with no restrictions), what does that look like? Where do you live? How do you spend your time? Focus on the details
• What classes did you enjoy in elementary school and now in college?
• How social do you consider yourself to be and how much would you like to be in your job?
• How quantitative would you prefer to be? What % of your job would you like to be handling math?
• Intellectual curiosity, how high is yours and would a research based position appeal to you?
• Strengths - what have people around you (that you trust) commented on that you do exceptionally well?
• What skills have you put an inordinate amount of time into refining?
• Why real estate? What specifically appeals to you about it? What is the first thing you notice when you walk into a building? Do you enjoy walking properties?

Ideally you should be looking for cross sections between the two lists to see what the requirements of a job are versus what you are good at. Once you have this list put together I would speak to your mentors or advisors at your college (or here, if you are willing to share) and see what roles they think would fit. I would then go speak with professionals in that particular field and get specific on the in’s and out’s of their position to see if it’s a fit for you. This is also a great way to network if you want a full time position.

WSO is also an amazing resource so if you’ve narrowed down your skill set or jobs you think you’d enjoy I would recommend googling through the posts here to see if you can gain insight from posters who already do the jobs.

The reason many do not recommend going into CRE early from IB or more traditional finance positions is that real estate has a lot of industry specific knowledge and language which can leave you “pigeon holed” as a real estate professional which makes it hard to pivot back to traditional finance. That doesn’t mean it can’t be done and there are certainly roles that have a blend so I would focus on finding the best position for you, agnostic of the industry.