Need help deciding between internship offers
I am currently studying accounting in college and I’m trying to decide if I should start pursuing internships in public accounting, or jump straight into an internship in CRE. My ultimate goal is to work in CRE on the principal/investment side, ideally (but I’d be willing to explore other areas of CRE as well) - and I also want to pursue an MBA or masters degree in real estate down the road. 

My current internship offers are:

1) Audit internship at a top 10 accounting firm. I would be working with large companies to audit their financial statements. This would potentially expose me to lots of real estate companies and I would learn the back end of their business. 

2) Internship with a local CRE brokerage firm. I know the agent fairly well and he is pretty successful in my local market. I would learn about all different kinds of deals and gain more exposure to people in the real estate industry. 

I am wondering which of these career paths would be a better launching pad for CRE jobs down the road on the principal side. As well as acceptance into an MBA program

Any advice is appreciated, thank you!
[{"id": "fhgkebr", "text": "Describe the offers more so you can get better feedback.", "replies": [{"id": "fhgkq4f", "text": "Just edited the post- thanks", "replies": [{"id": "fhgkujc", "text": "What size deals does the broker do?", "replies": [{"id": "fhgl0jb", "text": "His highest listing right now is 2.3 million and his lowest is 200,000. He does a lot of new development. He looks for landowners and convinces them to sell to developers. He usually finds the developers himself and gets the full 6% commission", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fhhtw7x", "text": "College dropout career developer now getting his MBA 10 years later here. \n\nFor the MBA, the accounting job is probably a better choice. \n\nHowever. \nIf you are certain CRE is truly what you want, i would recommend getting in on #2. I doubt you will have any exposure to the intricacies of real estate doing audits. When the auditors came to our offices every year, all they did was review paperwork and they never spoke to anyone except the controllers. You MAY get some insights on how money is spent, how much revenue projects generate etc. \nBut, you won\u2019t get exposure to negotiations with lenders and brokers, managing investor relations, managing sales and leasing teams, getting entitlements with the city, improving property then refinancing or selling, dealing with inevitable surprises with the construction team, NIMBYs etc. Etc. \n\nAlso, real estate is a massively tight-knit community in all cities, so whatever you choose, make sure you take the time to partake in industry events. \n\nGood luck", "replies": [{"id": "fhhxdlz", "text": "Yeah I\u2019ve noticed the same thing about real estate being tight knit. I\u2019ve also heard that the hiring process is extremely informal. It\u2019s mostly just who knows who. Is that accurate in your experience?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fhhzokr", "text": "It is. But in my experience, people are for the most part very friendly and open to helping. Especially if they have a chance to work on transactions with you. \n\nWithin 2-3 years of hustling you should start to see more and more job opps present themselves for you.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fhink8h", "text": "If you want to work on the principal side you ideally need to get internships that are on the principal side. \n\nI\u2019d take the brokerage position if you will get good underwriting experience and the public accounting one if you will just cold call and do bs work all day at the brokerage.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fhiy8nt", "text": "If your goal is to be in CRE then start learning CRE", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fhj0z7s", "text": "CRE. Obviously we are biased here but it sounds like you want to get into CRE and a the best place to get experience is CRE. \n\nI am not speaking from experience but I don\u2019t think you will be able to learn much from auditing a real estate company.\n\nBrokerage is a great first step into CRE especially if you are in investment sales. The skills transfer over very well from dispo to acquisitions. When you end up on the principal side you will also be able to read through the bullshit and fluff us brokers put in our offering memorandums. \n\nPM me if you want to chat further.", "replies": [{"id": "fhj1k50", "text": "thanks for the response, I\u2019ll PM you if I have more questions !", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]