How College Graduates Can Jumpstart Their Real Estate Project Management Career Track

Commercial real estate projects require more than hard hats and hammers. While the building component is an essential piece of the puzzle, a project’s success truly hinges upon careful planning at each stage.

This is why it’s important to foster the next generation of real estate project managers. College graduates with a degree in real estate, real estate management, construction management or business can pursue a career path in real estate project management. In the context of construction, this work focuses on how projects are planned and executed from beginning to end. This often includes creating a schedule and budget, overseeing contractors and vendors, obtaining permits and managing risks.

Many candidates start in one of two pathways:

1. Development analysts: Perform analyses into the market and its demographics as well as finances, and conduct due diligence for the site.
2. Assistant project managers: Assist project managers with planning and close-out, keeping tabs on the budget, overseeing change orders and communicating with internal teams and contractors.

Real Estate Project Management Skills

1. Organization: Create schedules and keep track of each stage of construction to ensure coordination among teams.
2. Communication: Walk stakeholders through the project’s goals and details, and provide frequent updates about its progress throughout.
3. Risk Management: Pinpoint issues that could arise in each segment of the project, and create strategies for risk reduction
4. Financial Competency: Predcit potential costs from the jump; put together a plan for how to allocate the budget, keep tabs on spending and take steps to pinpoint and correct any discrepancies.

What Comes After Graduation

A development analyst or assistant project manager would continue on to become a project manager, who may juggle multiple tasks or even multiple projects at the same time. From there, they may move up into executive-level roles like a construction director, who oversees the whole construction process.