HOW DO YOU RATE THE QUALITY OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE COMING INTO COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE TODAY?

Reviews are decidedly mixed on the quality of young brokers going into commercial real estate. Slightly more than a third of respondents (38%) rate the new brokers as acceptable. Coming in just behind, at 36%, are those who think the next generation is terrific. Twenty-six percent view recent graduates as disappointing. Kim Brennan, managing director of New Jersey operations at Cushman & Wakefield, is unreserved in her enthusiasm for young employees at her firm. Here is what she had to say:

"The young people joining this industry are an impressive group. They have a very good idea of what they want to be and what their interests are, and they're well rounded and surprisingly mature. I compare them to myself at that age and I didn't have the maturity level that they do. Most of them also contemplate going for additional schooling, which I see as the wave of the future. When I joined the industry, we didn't really consider continuing education, but this generation has a very good idea of what they need to do to get where they want to be.

"We have our Junior Executive in Training program. There are 17 young professionals that I've recruited in the past two years in our program. All of them have zero to five years of experience in the industry; most are just out of college, some have a little bit of a sales background. My JETs are enthusiastic, energetic and hardworking. They're eager to learn, they appreciate the guidance of our more seasoned professionals and they're a very service-oriented and client-focused group. I would say they truly represent the next generation of real estate service professionals.