Only five percent of REALTORS® stated that real estate was their first career in the 2018 Member Profile. Most commonly, members held previous full-time careers in management/business/financial sector (16 percent), and sales/retail (16 percent). Respondents are able to select from a list of options that best represents their previous career. For 19 percent of REALTORS®, they felt that their previous career fell into the “other” category. By taking a deeper look into this category, we can determine some of the unique and noteworthy previous careers of our members.

  • Respondents of the “other” category are able to describe their previous career. The top previous careers included:
    • business owner/entrepreneur
    • finance/banking/accounting
    • restaurant industry
    • sales
    • insurance
    • marketing
    • entertainment
    • airline/aviation industry
    • real estate related
    • human resources
  • Some of the more unique previous careers included:
    • actor/actress
    • choreographer
    • equine therapist
    • fashion designer
    • firefighter
    • mayor
    • professional golfer
    • polygraph examiner
    • hospital chaplain
    • seismic processor
    • jet broker


Thanks to Research intern, Bronwen Leibe, for categorizing the responses from the "other" previous careers category.

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