Jump to content

Career Specific Degree Plan


Recommended Posts

As some of you know, I'm currently looking to move from the industrial manufacturing sector into real estate development, construction management or peripheral jobs relative to the built environment.

An opportunity is presenting itself that may allow me to complete my bachelor's degree at The University Center here in The Woodlands.. I currently have a general studies Associate of Arts from NHMCC.

The University Center (TUC) has a Marketing -BBA through UHD, a General Business Admin - BBA through SHSU and a Management - BBA also through SHSU. Although there are degree plans at U of H specific to construction, commuting is not an option at this time.

My question to you, oh wise HAIFers, is this: What degree plan would be best suited for the career paths I've described? Would one degree plan be more suited to say real estate development, or another for construction management?

Companies I've come to admire over the years are Hines and Wulfe & Co. I realize these companies have a different focus. I mention them to give an idea of the breadth of my interests.

The opportunity I have at this time is to follow my passion. My passion is the built environment: architecture, real estate development, commercial and residential construction, urban planning and historic preservation.

If you've taken the time to read or respond to this, thank you for your time.

Keith

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As some of you know, I'm currently looking to move from the industrial manufacturing sector into real estate development, construction management or peripheral jobs relative to the built environment.

An opportunity is presenting itself that may allow me to complete my bachelor's degree at The University Center here in The Woodlands.. I currently have a general studies Associate of Arts from NHMCC.

The University Center (TUC) has a Marketing -BBA through UHD, a General Business Admin - BBA through SHSU and a Management - BBA also through SHSU. Although there are degree plans at U of H specific to construction, commuting is not an option at this time.

My question to you, oh wise HAIFers, is this: What degree plan would be best suited for the career paths I've described? Would one degree plan be more suited to say real estate development, or another for construction management?

Companies I've come to admire over the years are Hines and Wulfe & Co. I realize these companies have a different focus. I mention them to give an idea of the breadth of my interests.

The opportunity I have at this time is to follow my passion. My passion is the built environment: architecture, real estate development, commercial and residential construction, urban planning and historic preservation.

If you've taken the time to read or respond to this, thank you for your time.

Keith

You have a very broad set of passions, so it is somewhat difficult to say what the best approach would be. I would suggest researching the field and the roles that various types of firms play. Do you want to be the entrepreneur or the employee? Do you want to get your hands dirty on the job site or would you rather sit back in an office, visiting the site only once every few days?

For the record, I do not recommend taking Management classes and expecting to get nearly anything out of them. Most marketing classes are also probably not going to be very applicable in most fields of real estate. That said, most folks (including many employers) don't really understand that. If you really want to leverage education as a way to target the real estate/construction industry, you should strongly consider finding a way to take classes at UH's College of Technology. You may also consider contacting some of the larger firms' HR departments and asking for some general input once you've got your goals narrowed down a bit...if all else fails, try attending industry luncheons in order to get your name around--it worked for me.

A few things to bear in mind:

Developers come up with the idea, sell it to a lender, bear most of the risk, and hire people to make it happen. In single-family development, they usually have someone lay utilities and streets and then just sell the lots to builders. In other kinds of development, they usually stay with the project throughout the whole process, allow it to lease up and stabilize occupancy, and then sell it to an investor.

Home builders like Perry, Lennar, etc., are very operations-oriented. Although they do put some thought into the kind of product that they want to build in a given submarket, their goal is first and foremost going to be toward keeping their costs down through efficient work processes.

Contractors like J.E. Dunn build more unique/urban projects, but their focus is very similar to a home builder with the exception that home builders are sought after as customers whereas contractors generally must seek developers as customers. Engineering/architecture firms are similar in some ways, except that they are treated more like consultants.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...