17/04/2014
ULI panel: Commercial real estate still reflects 'good ol' boys club'
Recruiting more women to study and apply for jobs in commercial real estate hasn't gotten any easier in recent years with the "black eye" that bruised the industry in recent years and the perception that it's still a 'good ol' boys club,' says Lynn Fisher, a real estate professor at UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan Flagler Business School.
"But almost every speaker and potential employer who has walked into my classroom comes in looking around: 'Where's all the women in your class? I am looking for women to recruit,' They say they recognize they have a more diverse client now and they need a more diverse workforce," Fisher says.
She was addressing a crowd of about 60 students and women professionals from commercial real estate organizations across the Triangle brought together April 17 by a partnership between the Urban Land Institute's Triangle chapter and the UNC-Chapel Hill Wood Center for Real Estate Studies.
It was the first such ULI event of its kind, says ULI Triangle director Julie Paul, and the brainchild of UNC MBA student Laura Quinn, who moderated the panel discussion.
Quinn was joined also on the panel by development director Deb Anderson of Wood Partners, development director Anne Stoddard of Grubb Ventures, real state broker Deb Boucher of Cassidy Turley and real estate portfolio manager Alison Garcia with the State Treasurer's Office.
Boucher, in her remarks, acknowledged that like many traditional sales jobs breaking into the commercial real estate industry requires a thick skin. "It's a really hard business. You need to be aggressive and willing to be rejected and failing a lot. Women internalize it a lot of times, and you have to learn how to coach yourself out of that."
By: bizjournals.com
BrD Consulting è iscritta all'Albo Aderenti Assofranchising e ne osserva il Codice Etico.
