Building Career Confidence Through Behavioral Insight at the University of San Diego

The Solution

Karras says that for more than 17 years, Burnham Real Estate had found McQuaig reports to be “spot on” in describing an individual’s behavior and predicting on-thejob performance. In order to meet the University of San Diego’s challenges, the BMC turned to a solution that leveraged the power of McQuaig tools.

Karras and Greulich drew on behavioral profiles best-in-class performers within the world of real estate, established during Karras’ time at Burnham Real Estate. They solidified benchmarks for roles such as brokers, property managers, financial analysts and researchers -- a diverse collection of career paths that all fell within the real estate industry.

Next, real estate students would take the McQuaig Word Survey. After completing the survey and with guidance by Greulich and Karras, students would compare their profile to benchmarks for a number of roles to determine where in the spectrum of real-estate opportunities they best fit.

“If there’s not a reasonably good match, you’re probably going to last at most three years in a job,” said Greulich. “In year one, you will be saying ‘I don’t like it.’ In year two, you will be thinking ‘how can I get out of here?’ And in year three, even if you don’t have a job, you may be leaving.”

The project undertaken by Greulich and Karras offers significant career guidance for real estate graduates and undergraduates, including:

• Career profiling to map out a student’s recommended real estate career path
  
  
• A detailed individual behavioral assessment
  
  
• One-on-one personalized consultation to uncover natural personal strengths
  and accelerate the career journey
  
  
• A mentorship program that matches students with seasoned professionals,
  based on the behavioral assessment

The Results

Determining which behavioral traits lead to success in a position is one-half of the puzzle. The other half involves being able to match individuals to that benchmark. At the University of San Diego, Greulich and Karras created a way
to do both, which is what makes the University of San Diego’s solution so powerful. In partnership with McQuaig, the Burnham-Moores Center for
Real Estate developed a program that allowed students to obtain practical career direction and to increase the probability of employment in roles that stimulate long-term retention. Students from other programs at USD are
already calling to participate in the program, simply based on positive word-of-mouth feedback throughout the university.

The response within the university has been outstanding. Since implementation,
Greulich and Karras’ program has produced:

• Personalized job matching and guidance for over 300 students
  

• A 90% participation rate from graduate students

• A 30% participation rate from undergraduates, which continues to increase

• A 97% response rate from students indicating that they strongly believe the results of the assessment provide a very good representation of them

"This assessment tool can be as important as grades, where you went to high
school, what your GMAT or SAT score is,” says Karras. “Maybe even more important.”

Student success stories are already rolling in, but one student’s story stood out in particular. A graduate before McQuaig’s involvement with the University of San Diego was unable to find a job for an entire year. Eventually, the alumnus
came back to the BMC center for guidance, and participated in the newly established program. After being debriefed on his behavioral assessment, he discovered that he was pursuing a career that did not match well with his profile. Equipped with new insight, he left the center to pursue a career direction consistent with his behavioral traits. Thirty days later, he had a job.

Karras refers to the Burnham-Moores Center at the University of San Diego as “the exception in academia,” and emphasizes his mission for student success.

“We implemented this program because we know it’s the right thing for the students” says Karras. “My desire would be to assess every real-estate student at USD before they leave the university to give each student the best opportunity to succeed within the industry.”

Looking Ahead

For Karras and the BMC, the work is about more than teaching, it’s about giving students the tools to succeed long after graduation. The next step, Karras says, is expanding how the university uses behavioral insight to support students earlier in their journey.

He envisions a future where every student benefits from understanding their strengths before choosing a career path. Karras also believes the data could help employers see beyond transcripts and test scores, creating better matches between graduates and organizations.

By deepening its use of McQuaig, BMC continues to align education with real-world preparation, helping students enter the industry with confidence, self-awareness, and purpose.