For Millennials, Real Estate And Construction Offer What Passion Careers Can’t

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For most millennials, the first half of our working lives was defined by a specific kind of optimism: do what you love, monetize it later, and trust that the rest will work itself out. That optimism built creative careers, cultural relevance, and for many—deep professional identity. It did not, however, build much protection against volatility.

Amid repeated layoffs, rising rents, and a permanently fragile economy, a growing number of millennials are now reframing their ambition altogether. Rather than quitting their careers, they’re adding to them. Youngish professionals are quietly building second tracks in real estate and construction as a form of long-term insurance.

For Jessica Cruel, editor-in-chief of Allure and Self, real estate was never a dream. “I don’t love real estate,” she told me flatly. “It is not a passion of mine. It’s a plan B.”

Cruel’s entry into property ownership wasn’t driven by aesthetics or lifestyle branding. It was driven by lived experience in a notoriously unstable industry. “Someone told me early on, ‘You will be laid off at least once,’” she recalled. “And they were right.”

Instead of exiting media, Cruel built around it—using real estate as a stabilizer rather than a replacement. Her first purchase, a multifamily home in New Jersey, eliminated her biggest expense altogether. “The tenants pay the mortgage,” she said. “I don’t pay rent.”

That distinction matters. Cruel is clear that real estate does not automatically equal wealth. “If I wasn’t running these houses like businesses, it would be cheaper to rent,” she said. “People need to stop believing homes always go up in value. That’s not true.”

What real estate does offer, however, is optionality. “It gives me freedom,” she said. “It makes me less afraid to take risks at work because if something goes wrong, I’ve built my financial life outside of my job.”

She is not the only one with this line of thinking. More than 156,000 new agents joined the ranks in 2020 and 2021. Also, real estate investors—both individual and institutional—bought one-third of all single-family homes sold in the second quarter of 2025, according to a report from CJ Patrick Co. using data from BatchData. That figure is up from 27% in the first quarter and marks the highest investor share in five years, following a year in which investors accounted for 25.7% of all residential home sales. As competition intensifies and ownership feels increasingly out of reach, some millennials aren’t just trying to buy homes—they’re learning how the system works well enough to participate in it.

That desire for stability is what’s driving interest across adjacent fields, including construction.

Shoshiwa Mabina, a Chicago-based construction professional and workforce development advocate, has watched the shift accelerate, particularly among Black women navigating economic instability. “People are more educated now,” Mabina said. “They’re seeing the numbers. Average rent is about $2,000. The average mortgage is about $2,000. That’s waking people up.”

But Mabina is quick to push back against the idea that construction is a last-resort career, or a low-skill one.

“When you drive across a bridge or sleep in your home, that’s math. That’s science. That’s reading comprehension,” she said. “This idea that construction is unskilled labor is completely false.”

What often goes unmentioned, she noted, is how accessible some entry points actually are. Workforce programs funded through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) can provide up to $10,000 for training in construction, infrastructure, and skilled trades—often covering tools, certifications, and job placement. “People don’t know these pathways exist,” Mabina said.

Importantly, construction doesn’t require everyone to swing a hammer. Administrative roles—document control, project coordination, procurement—offer stable entry points for professionals coming from corporate, legal, or creative backgrounds.

“You can be front-of-house or back-of-house,” Mabina explained. “But either way, these are real careers with six-figure potential.”

For millennials shaped by passion-economy rhetoric, this moment requires a mental shift—not away from purpose, but away from fragility.

Cruel rejects the idea that passion must be sacrificed for security.

“If I worked a job I hated just to be stable, that would hurt my soul,” she said. “But relying on your passion alone to fund your life can kill it, too.”

The solution, she argues, isn’t choosing one or the other. It’s holding both. “Sometimes that means working multiple jobs,” she said. “But it makes me feel safe—and I still get to have fun.”

That realism—unsellable on social media, but increasingly necessary—is where many millennials now find themselves. Not chasing dream jobs in isolation, but engineering careers that can withstand disruption.

Real estate and construction are not without challenges. They require capital, planning, and tolerance for long timelines. But for a generation no longer convinced that loyalty or passion alone will pay off, they’re becoming something else entirely: infrastructure for ambition.

And for millennials thinking long-term, that might be the most practical career move of all.