As a best practice you should create and polish your resume as soon as possible because you never know when an opportunity may arise that you want to submit your resume for. Perhaps you have a guest speaker that mentions an opportunity to your class, or you meet someone at a networking or student org event that knows of an opening, or you see a posting on the blog that you are really interested in. Be prepared with a fine tuned and polished resume.
Internship opportunities exist for USP and RED majors both part-time during the school year and full & part-time during summer.
In general if you are looking for a summer internship you should have your resume completed and reviewed by the end of January and apply for positions from ~ February to April.
Note: There are some larger companies, both on the real estate side and private planning side that will recruit in early-mid Fall for the following summer. Many construction management internships also recruit in fall for the following summer.
If you are looking for an internship during the school year, start looking at least two months prior to when you'd want to start the position.
USP Capstone students are required to obtain an internship for their capstone sequence.
This can be done by obtaining a summer internship that has the possibility if continuing into the school year. For this students should start looking in February-April.
Or this can be done by securing an internship that starts in September-October. For this, students should start looking in July.
Looking for full-time employment after you graduate?
As a best practice you should create and polish your resume as soon as possible because you never know when an opportunity may arise that you want to submit your resume for. Perhaps you have a guest speaker that mentions an opportunity to your class, or you meet someone at a networking or student org event that knows of an opening, or you see a posting on the blog that you are really interested in. Be prepared with a fine tuned and polished resume.
Most full-time jobs in real estate and planning are "just in time hiring" meaning a position is posted with the goal of filling it within 1-3 months.
If you are seeking full-time employment after graduation you should start applying for positions 3-4 months before your graduation date (the date when you are done with classes) and have your resume completed and reviewed 4 months before you graduate.
If graduating in March, have your resume ready no later than December and start applying in January.
If graduating in June, have your resume ready no later than February and start applying in March.
If graduating in September, have your resume ready no later than May and start applying in June.
If graduating in December, have your resume ready no later than August and start applying in September.
Note:
Some public agencies, such as the City of San Diego, may post a job opportunity to gather qualified candidates and then pull from that same list of qualified candidates for 6 months rather than reopening the call for applications. If you are targeting a specific government agency it's a good idea to reach out to their HR department to understand their recruiting practices.
