Real Estate vs Philosophy
Hi everyone! At the college I will be attending, I was accepted into the Philosophy Honors Program. Meaning, instead of the normal general education courses, I would be taking classes in philosophy and english literature instead. Is this worthwhile for a finance career, or does nobody care about these type of classes? Like, I could spin it as "analyzing the works of contemporaty thinkers" but do hiring managers care? Or should I just take more finance classes? Thanks everyone
Seriously?
If you're considering majoring in Philosophy instead of Real Estate, maybe you should question if you even want to work in Real Estate.
If you really do want to work in the field then you will have to have some way of showing employers that you have an idea of what's going on.
I'd just major in Finance, Math, or Economics.
I agree that the best direct way in is to focus on finance/math courses, however having taken roughly 1/3 of my undergrad+grad courses in philosophy, here are my two cents on why the field is underrated and why it can be combined with RE (or any form of investing for that matter):
There is *nothing * wrong with studying philosophy and pursuing a career in RE/investing, so long as the particular strand you are studying can further your analytical thinking skills in some way. If you pick more logic-focused courses and less ethics, this will definitely be the case. I would go so far as to argue that you cannot gain such an in-depth understanding of causality, analysis, and out-of-the-box thinking anywhere else, and that even if you may miss a few of the "hard skills" courses along the way, you can easily pick these up on the job. Especially the entry-level positions are more grunt work than rocket science anyway. As you move up, analytical skills help exponentially to make sound investment decisions. George Soros *only * studied Philosophy, and look at how he did. He attributes much of his success in investing to his studies in this field.
To some it may be difficult to see the connection, but I can only speak from personal experience from having taken many quant courses and logic / philosophy of science courses. I believe the former have helped me be good at my job (capital markets / VC) most of the time, but the latter can help me make really sound decisions and complex analyses when it counts (and can help me get noticed). Hard skills are very important for the industry, but an expanded way of thinking is something vastly underappreciated, and something that the right philosophy courses can definitely give you. Think about it ;)
I don't think there is anything wrong with majoring in philosophy (I have degrees in history and economics), and I'm a big believer in liberal arts-style education. However, when I look at your resume, I better be able to tell that you're interested in real estate by something on that one page piece of paper otherwise you're not getting a call back, because I want someone that wants to do this for a living and is passionate about it. In my view, there are a few big boxes you'll need to check to get a job in real estate finance that other people with tailor-made majors will already have checked:
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