Case study: ‘I wanted to get the right job’

Paul Jaffe, Property valuation and law graduate

Paul Jaffe, 32, from Kingston uponThames, is an associate director with LaSalle Investment Management, an international real estate investment management firm.

He turned to a Masters course aged 25 after a few years working out what he wanted to do with his life. After his English degree at Sussex University, Jaffe tried sales and English teaching but realised he didn’t want to be a full-time teacher.

“My father is in property and I’d been slightly reluctant to go down that route. But having worked in different roles, I knew the importance of getting the right job. In property, you could be both in and out of the office. You needed to be good with numbers and with people.”

Jaffe did an MA in property valuation and law at Cass Business School. “They also ran an MSc in real estate and finance, which is the other way into real estate. It was a good course and most of the people who wanted a job got one. It cost about £12,000 and I lived with my parents to save money and did some parttime work as well.”

But the property profession, he says, is harder to get into now than it was then. “The majority of people who get interviewed will have a Masters or a first degree in property.”