From Bauer to Towers
SACRE Connects Bauer Students with Top Real Estate Employers
The Bauer College Stanford Alexander Center for Real Estate (SACRE) recently hosted the Fall 2025 Commercial Real Estate Career Fair that brought together leading professionals in commercial real estate. The event provided students with valuable opportunities to engage directly with top employers and explore potential internships and full-time career paths.
This year’s commercial real estate fair was the largest to date, bringing in 22 employers and 120 students in total, SACRE Program Manager Zach Schmidt said. He said that leading up to and the day of the event, his main priority was making sure the students had what they needed to succeed. From making a company profile book to helping tie students’ ties, he was there.
“We’ve gotten positive feedback from the employers and students,” Schmidt said. “Students come to our career fair knowing that they can find good opportunities in a niche area like commercial real estate. Then from the employer's side, they know that the students who are there are actively looking for roles at their company.”
Another added benefit of the SACRE career fair is that because it’s smaller it allows students to have longer conversations and build quality connections, Schmidt added.
"As long as you work hard and do the right thing, you’ll be successful."
Matthew Skalka, Stewart Title Guaranty Company Senior Vice President
“Prioritizing industry-specific career fairs gives students targeted exposure, higher-quality connections and better insight into how to successfully break into the commercial real estate industry,” SACRE Program Manager Miranda Torres said. “Instead of meeting with many companies outside of their area of interest, students can focus on those that align with their career goals.”
Transwestern Senior Vice President Steve Ash is a repeat recruiter at the SACRE career fair, noting that the Bauer students who have interned with his company have all been self-motivated, professional and prepared to enter the workforce.
The event also brought new recruiters, including Stewart Title Guaranty Company Senior Vice President Matthew Skalka, who was impressed with how motivated the students were.
He said he was looking for candidates who are genuine, honest and solutions-oriented.
“Everyone (at Bauer) comes from such a different background, and it really represents the city of Houston,” Skalka said. “We don’t care where you come from, but as long as you work hard and do the right thing, you’ll be successful. I think the college represents that well.”
To prepare for the career fair, students said they researched all the companies that would be in attendance to find out what they look for in hiring. They practiced their elevator pitches and one of the students said that he practiced STAR (Situation, Task, Action and Result) — an interview method to help create structured, concise and engaging responses to interview questions.
Other students said that the Undergraduate Real Estate Scholars (URES) and Graduate Real Estate Club (GREC), two Bauer student organizations, helped them prepare. The mission of both clubs is to help educate students who are interested in pursuing a career in real estate by building a solid foundation with industry professionals and other resources.
A week prior to the career fair, SACRE, URES and Rockwell Career Center hosted a professionalism workshop to help students practice their interview skills and workshop their résumés. They said they found the feedback from their peers invaluable in preparing.
To learn more about educational opportunities in real estate at Bauer, visit Stanford Alexander Center for Real Estate.
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