Looking for career guidance. Any help greatly appreciated
I am a second year university student currently trying to craft some sort of career path to follow, hopefully culminating in real estate development.

I’ve been doing research on entry level positions and have seen all of these mentioned a multitude of times: unlicensed assistant, transaction coordinator, assistant property manager, marketing assistant, relocation assistant, junior analyst, underwriter, inside sales, recruiting, loan approval.

I’ve also found a number of different possible careers: commercial broker, residential broker, private equity, property management, cre analysis, portfolio management, credit officer, loan officer.

Which of these career options would be best to pursue if finding a mentor and a future in development are the goals in mind? Which will allow me to meet and form relationships with architects, general contractors, accountants, lenders, investors, property managers, inspectors, title/escrow, feds, analysts, and everyone else in between? And what is the career progression like in this field for someone who is not an agent? How does one progress from an assistant to a commercial broker with a specialization?

Additionally, my school provides an undergraduate real estate program. Would this be viewed as better than a finance degree on a resume? Before graduating I plan on getting my license as well as the CRS and GRI designations.

Thank you if you read this far. Any advice and input would be tremendous and go such a long way.
[{"id": "hvk1mec", "text": "I\u2019d work at a private equity firm or a commercial bank if you want to immediately get involved in real estate development. Keep in mind that a private equity firm may require an MBA. You could start out as a commercial real estate analyst/underwriter at a bank and learn the underwriting side of things. From there you could jump to private equity or even work directly with a development company. Hope this helps.", "replies": [{"id": "hvn1e9k", "text": "Could I go right into analysis or underwriting right out of college? What\u2019s a job in the field I could obtain before graduation to gain experience? \n\nAnd yes very helpful! Thank you again.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hvkjxf9", "text": "Don\u2019t set your sights on one career. Diversify into a minor that\u2019s easy to Segway into the job you want if the market tanks while your in school.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hvkwtok", "text": "Developer here. There are a number of ways to break into development  but here are a few that come to mind: \n\n1) Brokerage- join a brokerage firm and get involved with land sales or debt/equity placement. Strong underwriting skills will make brokers value you, get you placed on projects, and lead to promotion or offers at other firms. You will meet private equity firms that way. Some wil be developers (sponsors), others will be capital partners who invest in developments.\n\n2) Banking- Get a job at a bank in the CRE lending side or get a job in i banking or consulting covering CRE and learn how to underwrite. (I highly reccomend adventures in CRE if you\u2019re not learning at your job or if you want to boost your resume and increase your chances at getting hired). Once you\u2019re here, it\u2019s not hard to change jobs and go into brokerage or PE. It is good to go the ibanking/consulting route because there are so many jobs, both inside and outside CRE, that list that as a preferred requirement. It makes it much easier to change careers if you find CRE is not for you. (Projects take forever/high stress/chaotic work environment/ high pressure/ steep learning curve)\n\n3) Architecture/Civil Engineering- either of these will give you exposure to design management/project management/permit acquisition, which is a huge part of the business. Pay kind of sucks and it\u2019s a different skill set than the finance/marketing skills you\u2019d need for brokerage or banking, but these jobs give you essential skills for being a successful developer. You can always learn these after you start working at a developer as an acquisitions or asset management guy, but the learning curve is steep.\n\n4) Law- CRE has so many legal issues and contracts to work through. Having a background dealing with contracts and researching legal issues and talking with attorneys is a huge plus.\n\n5) property management- the un-sexy side of CRE. Show you\u2019re a solid manager on the leasing / tenant improvement  side of the business and the owner could promote you to the development side of the business.\n\n6) Construction- find a job working with a GC and you will be exposed to lots of developers. Learn to manage a construction project and you will be very highly in demand by developers if you want to switch.", "replies": [{"id": "hvn2dm2", "text": "Wow I was not expecting a response like this I really appreciate it. Joining a firm or working at a bank seem to be the two most likely options for my trajectory. What\u2019s an entry level position at a brokerage firm that would lead to involvement in land sales or debt/equity placement? What exactly do you mean by debt/equity placement? \n\nEverything you offered in #2 is so invaluable. I\u2019m interested in debt/equity placement but banking seems to be safer and offer more upward mobility. Thank you so much again.", "replies": [{"id": "hvn7hkn", "text": "Placement is a fancy word for sourcing debt and equity for owners. If you know you like real estate I would reccomend doing adventures in cre and then trying to land an internship as an analyst at a loan broker like JLL or CBRE or Eastdil or something in the debt or equity placement teams. Be a good modeler with decent graphic design skills, a solid work ethic, and an easy to work with manner and you will find yourself getting onto plenty of assignments. You could also find a small broker that specializes in land deals and work for them doing underwriting and putting offering memorandums together in photoshop. Land sales are relatively rare and somewhat small compared to normal stuff that it\u2019s usually hard to find a team at the major firms that specializes in it.\n\nI\u2019d say investment banking is safer if you want the option to more easily switch careers, and ibanking does offer a clear path to going real estate PE which will put you in direct contact with developers. That said, I do not know know if you have much control over what companies you get assigned to cover. And i-banking Im told is super uncreative, super stressful, and boring as shit. It\u2019s just a mark of prestige and a stepping stone to something else.\n\nIf you want to be more RE focused from the get to you could go for analyst training programs at a big pension advisor like Prudential, a big mortgage bank like Wells Fargo, or you could work at a REIT. Those are less flexible but may be more interesting and could lead to getting into development more quickly. \n\nYou really need to love buildings and construction to survive in the development game. It takes way too long and is way too complicated for the money alone to justify doing it. But maybe that\u2019s just doing biz in CA, and developing in Texas or something is more fun. Who knows.", "replies": [{"id": "hvnbeso", "text": "I\u2019ll definitely check this adventures in cre thing out. I\u2019ve read that loan brokers directly connect with all kinds of people in the industry through their work too. Investment banking is unfortunately painfully hard to break into and as you said one of the least fulfilling jobs to work in the 20s. \n\nAnd I\u2019ve landed on development as something that can bring financial gain yet still fulfill me. I grew up around a lot of newly constructed mixed use development and loved what it did to the communities. Combine that with investors in pe and I\u2019m making bank off fees alone to positively transform growing suburbs. Sustainable architecture seems to be really untapped too and something govt is bound to like. Sustainable development also boosts ESG ratings if you\u2019re working with companies traded on the S&amp;P. There just seems to be a lot of fulfillment, money, and creatively in development.", "replies": [{"id": "hvnca3k", "text": "If you like it I\u2019d say go for it! Take a class in urban planning or architecture if you can squeeze that in, and try to intern for a local developer to see exactly what they go through.", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hvmgutz", "text": "What do you want to do in development? I\u2019d say try to start out as an analyst at an equity shop that does development. You\u2019ll learn from the acquisition team, development team, and potentially the asset management team if they are longer term holders", "replies": [{"id": "hvn1jo7", "text": "I\u2019d like to eventually start my own small development firm. In the meantime I don\u2019t have any specific area I\u2019d like to specialize in. I just want to save money, make connections, and learn the business.\n\nThank you for the response!", "replies": [{"id": "hvn1ykr", "text": "Np - can you minor in the real estate program? Personally I\u2019d stick with finance and take some real estate courses", "replies": [{"id": "hvn2kuu", "text": "Unfortunately no minor. I can take two real estate related electives to satisfy my major\u2019s requirements so I\u2019m thinking that is what I will do.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hvr10g7", "text": "1st, don\u2019t be a dick, second be nice, third, be nice, 4th understand pronouns, 5th don\u2019t assume being a \u2018leader\u2019 is right for everyone, 6th be nice and don\u2019t be a dick again, 7th put others before yourself, 8th realize you can be replaced at anytime", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hxjti4n", "text": "Commercial lender here. 5 years into the role. I was an commercial underwriter for 5 years prior. Analytics is invoked, plus sales skills. I work for one of the biggest banks in the US. Total comp is over $210k per year. Pretty laid back job. Great work life balance. I don\u2019t know the last time I worked 40 hours a week but I also have an established network and I\u2019m one of the top performers in the company. Just takes time to develop like any sales job", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]