More than 150 students representing a record number of colleges and universities across the country participated in the 19th Annual Career Day event hosted in Chicago by the Harold E. Eisenberg Foundation.
The two-day event took place on Thursday and Friday, September 25 and 26, and provided students with a further understanding of the world of commercial real estate.
Over the course of the two days, 110 N. Wacker Drive served as corporate headquarters as the students participated in networking activities, gained insights from seasoned Chicago-based commercial real estate professionals, toured one of Chicago’s newest entertainment facilities (the Salt Shed), listened to a panel of young professionals in real estate, and learned from keynote speaker Spencer Burton, Co-Founder and CEO of CRE Agents and Adventures in CRE.
“Career Day is an exceptional way for students from across the country to spend two days getting immersed in the commercial real estate industry,” said Christine Bissler, Director of Real Estate Education, The Harold E. Eisenberg Foundation. “In addition to what they absorb over two days of career programming, they begin to make some very powerful connections that will be foundational and transformational for years to come.”
In his keynote presentation, Spencer Burton, Co-Founder and CEO of CRE Agents, Co-Creator of Adventures in CRE (A.CRE), shared the creative path he followed in launching his professional career and how it fed his passionate entrepreneurial focus. He told students that, in 2025, the most powerful way to differentiate themselves could be to create AI solutions that unlock time and drive efficiency at scale.
“Anyone can now leverage AI to build bespoke solutions to dramatically save time and/or increase revenue – it just takes understanding what work AI can help accomplish,” he said.
In the conclusion of his presentation, Burton outlined five key action items and prefaced his remarks saying that while he typically delivers them to senior-level real estate professionals, they also are relevant throughout the industry, including graduate and undergraduate students:
1. Experiment personally
2. Nominate an AI champion
3. Audit repetitive work in an organization
4. Train by doing (and learn by sharing with others)
5. Measure and communicate the impact
“You need to be number two, the AI Champion,” Burton said. “Get to know the limitations and capabilities of AI, understand what it can do for you and for the broader real estate and financial community.”
The 2025 Career Day Program co-chairs were Hannah Saed, Attorney, Elrod Friedman LLP, and Natalie Belloff, Associate, Retail Brokerage, JLL. Approximately 30 professionals from the CRE community in Chicago took part in Industry Roundtables, nine led Career Readiness discussions, and seven discussed their careers thus far on the annual Young Guns panel.
There were 15 colleges and universities from the Midwest, six from the southeast, three from the east, one from the west, and one from Japan. The Big Ten was the best-represented conference with eight sending students. Marquette University had the most students participating with 29 in attendance.
The Sponsors of the 2025 Career Day included ARC Real Estate Group, Buckingham, Busey Bank, CIBC, CREW Chicago, CRG, Greenstone Partners, Horvath & Tremblay, Imperial Realty, JLL, Kite Realty Group, Logistics Property Co., Marcus & Millichap, Matanky Realty Group, Mid-America, Prime Finance, Pritzker Realty Group, and Wintrust.
The Harold E. Eisenberg Foundation has two primary focuses: to raise awareness and funds to support gastrointestinal research and to continually inform and educate the next generation of real estate industry leaders and professionals. In addition to its annual two-day Career Day event, the Foundation sponsors the Real Estate Challenge that attracts colleges and universities from across the U.S. and ongoing networking and mentorship opportunities with some of Chicago’s most active industry members.
