Realty Times April 14, 2006

Podcast Your Way To A Real Estate Career
by Blanche Evans

So you're fresh out of school, attached to your iPod, and looking for a great job? Urban Land Institute's (ULI) series of podcasts shines a spotlight on careers in real estate.

If you've never heard of ULI before, it's a nonprofit research and education organization that bills itself as the "think tank" of real estate. It's mission, says ULI.org, is "to provide responsible leadership in the use of land to enhance the total environment." In other words, the org is designed to help its 30,000 worldwide members create better places by implementing the problem-solving, idea- and practice-sharing to create the best land use policies.

To stay on the cutting edge, ULI is looking for a few good folks -- by recruiting the way they believe the future's thinkers are already communicating -- via the Internet.

As the job market becomes more difficult to break into, young "hire-me hopefuls" are turning to technology to learn about the careers that would best fulfill them, inspire them, and of course, pay them, says ULI spokespersons. While yesterday's generation looked to want ads and phone books for career research, present-day job hunters go straight to the source: the Internet. With its infinite spring of information, the Net provides researchers and employees a playing field more than equipped to give and receive valuable knowledge.

ULI says it knows how to leverage the new world of technology to profit young career-seeking adults everywhere, particularly if they're interested in real estate. Recent grads may want to consider tuning into ULI's new podcast mini-series entitled, "Careers in Real Estate."

For those who may still be a little lost in cyberspace, a podcast is like a radio broadcast you can listen to on your iPod® or over the Internet. The careers mini-series is free of charge.

Starting the week of April 17, listeners can tune in as a seasoned real estate veteran and a new hire discuss the ins and outs of a life working in real estate. Nine free programs will be broadcast (one weekly), each one focusing on a different chapter of real estate king Stan Ross's new book Inside Track to Careers in Real Estate (Urban Land Institute, April 2006, ISBN: 0-87420-954-4, $19.95). Ross is a life trustee of ULI.

These pre-taped podcasts will highlight the process of carving out a career niche in this very lucrative field. And still-idealistic grads will be happy to hear that it's not all dollars and cents. The programs also will cover the various ways real estate can be incorporated into today's diverse and evolving society in a way that benefits humanity.

"The bottom line is that we can make money while serving others," says Ross. "As long as we have a society, there is great opportunity for new people with talent and vision to continue innovating and developing the world's resources for the better."

To access the real estate career programs, go to itunes.com. Launch the Music Store. (You may have to download the iTunes software if you don't have it already.) You may use the search feature to locate it or you may browse all available podcasts, choose the Business category and the subcategory of Careers. Look for the ULI name under "careers-real estate."

Sign up for the auto-send feature and you'll receive each podcast as it becomes available. Or you may visit the Urban Land Institute website at uli.org and download the "Careers In RE" MP3 file. New podcasts will be posted weekly beginning the week of April 17 and continuing through the week of June 12.



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