CRE Brokerage or Finance?
Hi all, I'm an undergrad at USC majoring in International Relations and minoring in Real Estate Development. I'm planning to get my masters in finance after I graduate and later on my MSRED/MRED. For some reason I fell in love with commercial real estate a few years ago and haven't stopped since. The question is, what career path should I go for? I know I eventually want to be doing syndication deals and developments but I'm not sure if I should start my career on the brokerage side or the finance side. I do have some investment sales experience with a small unknown boutique firm here in LA, but I absolutely HATED it. For the most part it had a lot to do with my boss (he was a total dick), their SEVERE lack of resources, and the fact that I was forced into residential even after it had been discussed that I would be on the commercial side. I was literally given a pretty crappy territory with a list of about 1500 phone numbers (40% of which were disconnected anyway) and was told to make phone calls with no real training or guidelines (good thing I had prior CRE experience). Any who, point is that I worked there for about 6 months and hated every single fucking second I was there... I can honestly say that it ruined CRE brokerage for me. Today, I landed an interview with M&amp;M on their investment sales team, and quite honestly I don't feel even the slightest bit excited about it. Should I aim for a career in CRE Finance instead, or should I take up the brokerage offer (assuming that I get it)? 
[{"id": "d139pvd", "text": "If you have a tolerance for risk/rewrd, then put your feet to the fire and become a hands on investor.\n\nI assure you, you will not be making shitty cold calls all day .... or ever.\n", "replies": [{"id": "d13bgvw", "text": "Also, there is something very real about moving forward on a property, when it is your money at stake.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "d13e7ud", "text": "Why get a masters in finance and then a masters in real estate development? Why not look for a Masters of Real Estate finance. You won't get as much \"in-depth\" on the development side but you'll learn enough to put you in a good position. Plus the Real Estate finance would equip you with a stable foundation of finance applicable to the RE world.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "d13fv36", "text": "You mentioned USC and Real Estate. Your priority should be to get the degree done and focused on landing an internship during college. ", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "d13hdm0", "text": "Four years brokerage experience in SoCal. Six years out of college. Recently just started looking for positions outside of brokerage in real estate. If you have the opportunity to get into real estate finance or development I would take that route first. Starting off at m&amp;m will get you the commercial and interpersonal experience. But it won't get you the experience that you would want to work for an investment or development firm. Sales is a great skill to have but IMO does not give you the technical experience needed to transition out.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "d13ld5o", "text": "I actually think investment sales is a great way to start your career provided you work for the right shop.  If you can get a position with companies like Eastdil, HFF or CBRE in one of their high performing offices/groups, it could be tremendous in your experience.  Their analysts aren't expected to make cold calls (as far as I know) and they spend their days modeling in Argus and putting together OMs.  No name brokerages without good deal flow may be a tough place to start.\n\nSame thing with CRE finance.  Really, \"CRE Finance\" is such a broad term, it could mean a lot of things.  But when you're young, I think it's all about getting as much transactional experience as you can so you just want to go with a shop that does a lot of deals, whether it's an investment sales brokerage, mortgage brokerage, lender, etc.", "replies": [{"id": "d13qz4c", "text": "Can confirm CBRE analysts don't make phone calls. Their brokers, however, spend 90% of the day cold calling. At least in my office.", "replies": [{"id": "d195fn3", "text": "How much on average are CBRE analysis are paid? And if an analyst does not want to be a broker, what's the career path for an analyst? ", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]