Careers

The MRE program provides robust career assistance that starts with networking and continues with connecting. A dedicated MRE faculty member has the task of overseeing career help from faculty, alumni, and friends of the program. Most MRE faculty members are well-known practitioners who enjoy strong relationships with real estate organizations and individuals worldwide. Leading real estate practitioners regularly visit the program, give presentations, and meet privately with students over meals and other informal settings. A student-run Harvard GSD Real Estate Club co-sponsors with its Harvard Business and Law School counterparts an annual spring real estate conference. The Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board and the Harvard Real Estate Alumni Organization tap into Harvard’s vast alumni base of real estate professionals. The Practicum, while not designed to generate job offers, nevertheless does from time to time and furthermore connects students with other industry players.

MRE graduates are prepared to assume a wide variety of positions in private for-profit, private not-for-profit, and public entities engaged in real estate endeavors around the world. Typical employers include developers, asset managers, private equity firms, project and construction managers, community development corporations, family offices, affordable housing developers and managers, governments and quasi-public agencies, real estate advisory and consulting firms, and anchor institutions such as universities and medical institutions. Some MRE graduates choose to set off on their own entrepreneurial path. Others return to the organizations where they worked prior to matriculation, but with opportunities for promotion and new directions. After graduating, the range of employment categories is broad and has included: Acquisitions, Asset Management, Development, Planning and Design, Private Equity/Investment Banking, Real Estate Advisory, and Technology.

The MRE program is a designated STEM program. Accordingly, international students holding F-1 visas may be eligible for a 24-month Optional Practical Training (OPT) extension on top of their initial OPT of 12 months, for a total of 36 months following graduation. Each F-1 student must petition United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to approve the 24-month STEM extension, and Harvard does not represent or warrant that USCIS will grant any individual petition.

In addition, GSD Career Services offers a full breadth of professional development resources and opportunities to MRE students.

Connect GSD is a general Harvard GSD platform that gives students access to alumni mentors trained to offer guidance on career-related matters such as goal setting, skill development, and new and different perspectives. The Connect GSD Mentorship program provides students with a structured means of initiating and maintaining a 1:1 professional mentoring relationship with a suitable alumnus/alumna.

Since the Master in Real Estate Program launched in 2023, the program’s alumni have found high-impact positions in a wide variety of private equity, finance, and development firms and across the public sector. Examples include:

Private Equity and Finance

Development

Asset Management and Investment

Government and Policy

Advisory Services

Technology