Get Referred at CBRE, JLL, and Colliers
Brokerage job posts draw hundreds of applicants and most never reach a human. A warm intro from someone who shares your school or an old firm moves your resume to the top of the pile.
Find Your Inside Contact →Free · No sign-up · See results in ~10 seconds
✍️ Ready-to-send intro“Hi - we both studied at [your school]. I’d love to hear about your path to a company you are targeting before I apply…”
… plus everyone else in your network who can put in a good word.
See who can refer you in - pick your target company:
Why warm paths beat the CRE job board
Commercial real estate hiring runs on relationships more than almost any other industry. Brokerage teams are small, producers vouch for people they trust, and a name passed along by a current employee gets read where a cold application gets filtered. The public listing on CBRE or JLL careers is often the last step, posted after the team already has someone in mind.
That is good news if you have any tie inside the firm, because CRE people expect to be asked for introductions. The trick is finding the right person and giving them a reason to help that costs them almost nothing.
How to find your inside contact at a brokerage
You are looking for one person, not a hiring manager and not the whole office. The best inside contact shares a concrete tie with you and sits close enough to the team to know who is hiring.
- Start with your school. Search LinkedIn for your university plus the brokerage name (for example, alumni who work at Colliers). Shared-alum outreach gets answered because the tie is real and specific.
- Check every past employer. Anyone you worked with who later moved to CBRE, Cushman and Wakefield, or Marcus and Millichap is a strong contact, since a former colleague already knows your work and their referral carries weight.
- Map second-degree links. A mutual connection who can introduce you beats a cold message every time. Note who you both know before you reach out.
- Pick the office, not just the brand. These firms are regional. Target someone in the specific market and service line (capital markets, tenant rep, valuation) you want, because referrals are strongest inside a team.
Turn the connection into an actual referral
Once you have your person, lead with the shared tie in your first message and make the ask tiny. Something like: we both graduated from the same school, I am exploring tenant rep roles at your office, would you be open to a quick call. Do not attach a resume or ask for a job in the opening line. If the call goes well, ask directly whether they would submit you through the internal referral portal, which flags your application to the recruiter.
Finding which alum or ex-colleague actually works at each brokerage is the slow part, and it is exactly what FindWarmIntros automates: it scans a target firm for the real people who share your school or a past employer, ranks them by how likely they are to help, and drafts the intro so your first note leads with the connection instead of the ask.