I am based in Newport Beach, California and I have my own real estate development consulting practice. In early 2008, my clients started pulling back significantly from the market and by early 2009, work had slowed to a crawl. In addition to seeking out new clients, I started looking at taking a full-time position again back in corporate real estate. Problem: very few real estate companies were looking to develop new product (I do land acquisitions, government entitlements, financial analysis and some construction management). So, I began talking with non-real estate companies to see if my project management skill sets would translate into other industries. However, with so many talented people in the job market employers have had the ability to be very picky about candidates having the exact job qualifications that they need without taking a risk on someone trying to transition into a new industry.
While having lunch with a friend who is a senior exec at Disney, he pointed out that I probably have as many work years in front of me as I do behind me so why didn't I consider going back to get my MBA. He said that Disney still puts a high premium on MBA's and, in some divisions, won't even look at you unless you have one. With that perspective - and the belief that the real estate industry is in for years of difficult times going forward - I decided to get serious about going back to school to make myself more marketable.
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