A customer who has a degree in Fine Arts want to leave his successful career in advertising and commercial real estate development. He had already enrolled in a top notch MBA program to learn more about the field. Also had found work in a bank doing real estate assessments. With one more year to go in the MBA program that came to me to work on creating a plan to become a real estate developer. It is not unusual for someone to study something in college, try it for a while and then decide that there is another field that is more attractive. This dramatic shift, however, brought all sorts of fears for my client. His first concern was that potential employers would look at his resume and I see nothing in it to indicate who had the necessary skills to his new career. I was not sure he really knew exactly what a career in real estate development involves, or even if it was the right decision for himself.
Finally, I was worried because all contacts were in advertising. These could be easily answered by someone already in the field. Where can you find some names and one in? A place that many of my clients overlooked when looking to make new connections is the office of alumnae of the university. Most alumni really want to be helpful to fellow students. My client could easily make use of the office of the students in their current business school.
