I'm 21 years old and going to school to become a civil engineer. I am currently working for a engineering contractor company and have a lot of experience in the construction field.I've always loved real estate till the market got bad. I plan on getting my real estate sales associate license in January here in Miami, Florida by doing a 4 week course at a real estate school.Can I somehow tie the civil engineering to real estate career as well. Also if I get a job as a real estate sales associate would I have enough time to continue my schooling for my civil engineering degree?I am a people person and love to persuade people. I also believe I have a lot of wealthy contacts from working in the construction industry currently. Just want to get some feed back from you guys and see what you guys think. Thanks
The best path to take in this venture is: 1. Read books about real estate, specifically on the areas you want to concentrate on. 2. Try to get an internship, mentor, or work at a commercial RE brokerage and gain hands-on experience. Just a side tip, figure out where they are playing golf. Socialize and network. These are the top two priorities on your list if you're seriously wanting to learn what to do. Getting licenses is only the first step and classroom time is helpful only to a point.
Civil Engineer is a real job/career. Selling real estate is sales job. No intelligence needed. Just good sales technique etc. Forget the real estate license unless you plan to buy houses yourself as investments.
You can definitely be a real estate broker and still go to school at the same time. I know a full-time pharmacist who has a real estate license and acts as a real estate agent on the side. I'm pretty sure there are different types of real estate broker jobs - ones like with new constructions where you have to be on the job certain hours (which sounds like is not for you) and others where you set your own hours. You should ask your real estate school about your options in these regards prior to signing up for the school. The only ways I can think of of tying the 2 degrees together are a) becoming a builder so you can use your degree to say stamp the structural plans or something like that and then your real estate license to sell those homes. b) make contacts through your civil engineer jobs of people you can sell the homes to. Being a civil engineer can be time consuming though so you might not want to do both at the same time (or prioritize finding a CE job that isn't so time consuming like a government job or a company that will let you work part time). If you sell a lot, you can actually make a lot more money as a real estate broker than a civil engineer, especially right out of college. Of course the market is really bad right now so unless you have good connections (which sounds like you may) you may end up making crap too as a real estate broker. In my state, the civil engineering market is down as well and new grads are having a hard time finding jobs here. I think though that overall, civil engineers are still less hit than other majors. You probably know more about the new CE grad market than I do though so I'd trust your own judgment when it comes to how easy it is to find a CE job once you graduate.
I think it would be better to keep on your civil engineering degree. You will make more money. If you have wealthy contacts, perhaps you can turn that into being a developer.
