College Internship or Apprenticeship

[Jacob Rowland]

I am a junior at UNC - Chapel Hill and with the onset of the summer season comes the race to find an internship. I recently went on a networking trip to Atlanta where we met with 6 commercial shops. I thought I wanted to go into commercial real estate for a few years after college in order to gain some broad experience and skills within the industry, as well as gaining capital for future investments which is my ultimate goal. I found the corporate approach that these commercial firms operate within to be largely unappealing. I have now tailored my job search to be much more residential-based and one that allows me to be a bigger player in the company. I desire a position that offers vast cross-team exposure where I have a more direct connection with tenants. I want to be a bigger player within the company and community while also learning key skills that will benefit me as a future investor. As a very young and inexperienced aspiring investor, any advice would be much appreciated!

[Matt Burns]

Hi Jacob, I spent 12 years managing large multifamily communities before transitioning into commercial office and retail 4 years ago. Multifamily and residential is an energetic business where marketing, sales and customer service are paramount. The same can be said for commercial real estate but the atmosphere is definitely more "corporate." My recommendation for landing an internship would be to start with your personal network if you know anybody who is connected to any real estate in the area. Also, look into some of the industry associations. They post job opportunities on their sites. Namely, the triangle apartment association (multifamily), BOMA (commercial) and IREM (management). Creating a great linkedin profile and resume is definitely important. Whatever prior experience or education you have can be applied to real estate. Once you have that setup, I'd reach out to HR people, managers and brokers. I'm in Raleigh/Cary. Email me if you have any questions.