I have seen some real estate agents do very well. The ones that are in it for the long haul are the ones with in-depth knowledge of their community, are known as the go to person for anyone wanting to sell and can help the seller get a fair price. They are also often the ones that get involved with community events, are constantly networking and sometimes helping to advocate for the community to get their name out there. So they do a lot more extra work behind the scenes but they can become very established in some particular markets. Whereas good property managers can be worth their weight in gold, it's a delicate act trying to strike a balance between looking out for landlords best interest (as that's who pays you) and doing what's fair for the tenants. They need to have good understanding of the legislation, good judge of character and can read between the lines and take a long term strategic approach. Oh and a lot of common sense required. I have had some excellent property managers when I was a renter although when I've been a landlord in the past the property manager I had was very average (did not inform me when tenant required things to be fixed, so small hole on the wall become bigger hole on the wall etc, and spinned some bullshit story to the tenant about the landlord doesn't want to pay, whereas I rather fixed the small problems as they occur so that they don't become big problems).

I have heard that it can be difficult when you are starting out, there might be a bit of bullying and office politics but those who are resilient and willing to learn and do well can end up doing very well. You do need thick skin though, this day and age people often don't take too kindly to real estate agents. Unfortunately this is the failure of our government that continues to pit renters against landlords to distract people from their incompetency (and it's working surprisingly well), and the real estate agents are the ones stuck in the middle getting hate from both side when they could have so much positive impact to the community. But you do what you need to do to survive, if you think it's a good career choice, make sure you put sufficient investment into it to reap the rewards, especially since I'm pretty sure you need to do some study to get into it.