NEWPORT BEACH, CA—The job candidate who graduates with an advanced degree from a prestigious university is not nearly as compelling to CRE firms as someone who has direct knowledge and talent in a particular area, real estate recruiting firm RETS Associates' principal Kent Elliott tells GlobeSt.com. The firm recently completed its fourth-annual financial-analysts survey, which surveyed more than 340 real estate financial analysts across the nation. While the survey found that a respondent that earns a master's degree can earn between 5.6% and 9.5% higher compensation than a professional with a bachelor's degree, the real estate industry still values experience over education. We spoke exclusively with Elliott about the survey results over time and how he interprets them.

GlobeSt.com: What are the differences between this year's survey and last year's?

Elliott: Last year, what stood out was that a lot of analysts were job hopping because they could make more money if they changed jobs a couple of times and can tranche up to the next level. In 2014, we saw some of that in the marketplace and in the surveys: 70% of respondents had actively pursued a new position in the previous year and had gone on two or more interviews. This year, we came to the determination that real estate rewards experience and not necessarily education. Employers will pay more for the right experience; they're not going to pay more just because somebody has graduated from a big-name school with a big-name master's program in real estate. Real estate is not like pharmaceuticals or consumer products, which look for somebody with a marketing degree from Anderson—real estate wants proven professionals rather than education-focused professionals. That being said, we found that those candidates that were better with financial modeling skills in Argus and Excel were the ones who had the highest compensation.