Politics Major to begin an internship as an analyst at a Real Estate Investment Firm - Need Advice

yes, many people have been in your position. best advice i can give is to start reading. Books, magazines, websites... familiarize yourself and ask questions even though you will not understand everything you read and see. spend the extra time.

Just learn some of the basic real estate valuation calculations:

Internal Rate of Return Net Present Value Time value of money

Try ahead of time to understand discounted cash flow analysis and how valuations work, but don’t stress too much as you will get a lot of hands on experience as an intern

Wondering how you went about your networking? Cold emails and phone calls? And is this a Summer internship? Still in school? I'm in a similar position, I'm graduating Spring 2019 with a BBA in computer information systems; only one internship with a marketing firm so far. Any advice helps and good luck with your internship!

The Duke of Wall Street summarized it well in a somewhat related thread.

The Duke of Wall Street:

• Buy Peter Linneman's Textbook.

• Buy Poorvu's a Real Estate Game.

• Follow Bisnow in Houston.

• Get your hands on some Offering Memorandums to see how Investment Sales guys pitch deals.

• Walk into your local regional bank and learn how commercial loans work.

Sorry for the edits, hard to format a post properly on phone.

To add to what everyone else has said - turn your educational background into a positive. There are hundreds of finance and real estate majors who all know how to crank out the same models and talk in the same jargon. You'll make yourself more valuable to an employer by deploying your skillset in unique ways; as others have noted, maybe your education will prime you to deal more easily with local elected officials during the entitlement process. Maybe being a non-generic MBA candidate will make it easier for you to network. It's not difficult to find someone who can grind out underwriting after underwriting, that is an easily replaceable skill set. Someone who can source or entitle a deal, even just a little more easily, is someone who will rise quickly.

Also, portray your lack of knowledge as a plus for your specific firm. You don't have any habits, bad or good - you'll learn the way your bosses want you to and not have a difficult time adapting whatever model you used in class to what you're being required to use on the job.

You'll be fine (history and economics major checking in). It's an internship so no one expects you to know anything anyways, and I'm a huge fan of a liberal arts style education. Few extra thoughts:

1. Hustle. Don't embarrass your dad or the guy that stuck his neck out for you.
2. Be a sponge, learn everything you can from here and other sources (the books recommended to you thus far are where to start... Poorvu for a mental framework and Linneman for the manual don't buy anything else yet).
3. Ask good questions, but only after you've spent some time trying to figure shit out for yourself. Most questions have already been asked here or somewhere else on the internet. Don't waste people's time on something that you could figure out yourself.
4. An internship cuts both ways, decide if you actually like real estate (you may not). The money isn't too bad, but the work could bore a certain type of person to tears.
5. For the love of god learn some basic excel functions before you start (google this don't ask me for a list). Most old people will think you're a genius, and the young guys won't fucking hate you if you can handle some basic stuff. Monkey around on Adventures in CRE, buy Breaking Into Wall Street or REFM, and just try and build your own models. There are a ton of resources here.
6. Don't be afraid to ask why you're being asked to do something in a tactful way. Understanding why someone wants a certain type of analysis helps you deliver a better result to them.
7. Smile and say thank you, they're doing you a solid so have a good attitude.