[pirepresent]

I interned at a big brokerage firm, and you're right - it's VERY male oriented. Just be prepared to either put up or shut up - if you're going to work for one of the big ones, there's not really much room for mistakes whether you're a man OR a woman. So the pressure is on. There's a lot of testosterone involved, and a lot of ego EVERYWHERE.

The successful women brokers that I saw were ones that were confident and didn't get caught up in the office rat race of who-is-making-how-much-money-off-of-which-clients.

Also, I'm not sure which firms your looking at, but the one I interned at (PM me if you want name) had two ways of entering - one was by joining a group, and the other was trying to cut it on your own. If you're a rookie with no clients and no experience, I would DEFINETLY recommend joining the group, because you'd have older and more experienced mentors with a client base already built in. The only downsides are, they're harder to get into (if you don't mind doing it alone, usually the managers will stick you in an office alone until you pass your series 7, then basically throw you to the wolves - not a lot of training or mentoring, so the turnover is high, and they hire a lot of people), and groups are kind of hard to break away from later when you want your own clients, but to get started, it's definetly better than trying to cut it on your own, especially for the tiny salaries they pay these poor brokers.

Just what I learned during my summer internship - take it for what it's worth! Good luck!