Steers Center, Jackson Lucas Partner to Improve Career Readiness

The Georgetown University Steers Center for Global Real Estate, which offers specialized classes and experiential learning opportunities for students interested in real estate, will partner with a research firm to provide a career development and practical training program, the university announced Jan. 27. 

The McDonough School of Business (MSB) partnership with Jackson Lucas, an executive research firm focused on real estate, is the newest iteration of Jackson Lucas’ “JL Access” program, which aims to make the field of real estate more accessible to future leaders by offering exclusive information and skill training to universities and organizations. Georgetown undergraduates and students in the M.S. in Global Real Assets (MS-GRA) program, a collaborative real estate and international business curriculum, along with other business graduate programs, will benefit.  

Matthew Cypher, the director of the Steers Center, said the desire to expand real estate career opportunities offered to Georgetown students drove the partnership. 

“Our primary value is that we care more about the student than any other program in the country,” Cypher told The Hoya. “And caring about students’ career outcomes is maybe one of the most important things we can do. So this came from just the sincere desire to try to do everything we can to enhance students’ career outcomes.”

Denise Durgin (GRD ’16), the assistant dean for graduate and executive degree programs at the McDonough Career Center, an organization that provides professional development guidance and mentorship to students, said Jackson Lucas’ successful recruitment history will contribute to the career center’s mission.

“We help and support students in the following ways: Resume preparation and edits, LinkedIn profile reviews and edits, career discovery, job search strategy, networking strategy, interview prep, communicating with employers and job offer negotiations,” Durgin told The Hoya. 

Frank Cohen, the head of JL Access and compensation at Jackson Lucas, said the partnership will provide a variety of resources to prospective real estate professionals.

“There’s three main things that we’re going to be providing,” Cohen told The Hoya. “The first one is job opportunities. The second one is when their opportunities arise, we’re giving the skills needed that the students need to be in the best position to get the job. There’s individual sessions that students can book with us. There’s group office hour sessions. And then the third piece is compensation.”

Chris Papa, a founding partner at Jackson Lucas, said the partnership highlights the willingness of both Georgetown and Jackson Lucas to advance student professional success.

“We’ve spent time on, not a formal arrangement with different firms or schools, but we’ve helped schools organize things here and there,” Papa told The Hoya. “And then it really took off when Frank joined. He started working with us and we were approached by a few universities. And I mean, frankly, Georgetown seemed the most committed to helping their students get jobs, which was very refreshing.”

Cohen said Jackson Lucas aims to ensure new professionals receive appropriate pay for their services through transparent communication and data. 

“We have probably the best data source of real estate compensation around. The website that we manage and maintain has got about 5,000 data points in it,” Cohen said. “All people working in commercial real estate with their base bonus and long-term incentives. And so we can bring that to the JL Access program and give students a real leg up in their negotiations.”

Lisa Flicker, senior managing partner and head of real estate at Jackson Lucas, said the company hopes to bring real estate to the forefront of career conversations.   

“Seeing the process of all of these firms, their hiring process, I feel like real estate often misses out on top talent because the banks are recruiting these people their sophomore year,” Flicker told The Hoya. “And I feel like the people that we’ve spoken to in a lot of universities say that it’s not until later junior year that they even know real estate is an option. So we wanted to bring awareness to how exciting a real estate career could be.”

Flicker added that Jackson Lucas would act as an intermediary between Georgetown and other real estate firms.

“Generally there’s a few very large institutional firms with very robust recruiting processes where they come on campus and stuff, but I would say 95% of the real estate firms out there do not have that,” Flicker said. “And so we act as that, we’re kind of a good interviewer between the school and these other firms.”

Cypher said he hopes the partnership will expose students to the real estate industry. 

“In most industries, it’s most important to be able to speak to somebody that has proper relationships and has an understanding of how the industry works,” Cypher said. “And we need every industry, in my opinion, for career services. You can’t have too much industry or connectivity. And that’s really what this is about.”