Career progression isn’t always the straight path we envision it to be. Until a real estate practitioner has tested his mettle or proven her worth, there seems to be a fault in the road, and catching the eye of a highly placed mentor is no sure thing. Erik Dowling, president of the New York chapter of Young Real Estate Professionals, says the five-year-old group can build some bridges. Boasting something on the order of 3,500 members locally and roughly 20,000 nationally, YREP caters to the real estate fledgling (regardless of age; don’t let the name fool you). It’s not only a networking thing either. Dowling, who’s also assistant VP at Greenwich, CT-based development firm Antares, says the group also caters to the cash-strapped self-starter as well, and dues can be either nominal or non-existent, depending on the chapter (corporate sponsors, he says, provide the cover charge). Here’s the mission, as Dowling explained in a recent exclusive interview:

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