CBRE vs. JP Morgan

I am a senior Finance and Marketing major with a certificate in investments. I would like feedback on two different options, CBRE vs JP Morgan.

CBRE: I would be a financial analyst and could after two years move to a different position such as a broker. I think commercial real estate is a good fit because I enjoy finance, but also have strong social skills.

JP Morgan: I would be in a rotational program and after the program ends you are placed in an analyst position based on performance. I am uncertain as to the intensity here, is everyone in the top 95 percentile of intelligence in a location like SF or NY? I am passionate about investments and think there would be more options for career growth here. Would strong social skills even matter much in this industry?

 

Yes I do want to be in commercial real estate, I love this area as well as investments and have earned a certification in Argus Enterprise. What would some different opportunities down the road in commercial real estate?

 
Best Response

Keep this in mind, real estate is a very narrow focus, once you take this route it will be very hard to switch into another area of finance. You will be pigeon holed, and will need to get your m.b.a. to potentially switch career tracks.

I would take the offer with JP, it is a global brand and no matter what you do everyone in the U.S. has heard of them, as opposed to CBRE. While they are a very respected firm I would venture a guess that maybe 30% of people know what they do, and even less that they dominate the market.

My advice to you in this stage of your career is develop your hard skills, modeling, analysis etc. You will have a much broader range of options at JP doing this. As an example I constantly see job ads for RE P.E. and they are looking for candidates with investment banking experience, with real estate as a plus not a requirement. So you can always switch over to real estate later, but you cannot switch back into a JP finance role. Also you can transfer over to one of the MANY real estate arms JP has, and working in one of their RE divisions is easier to do if you are transferring internally.

 

What division of cbre? Institutional Properties? Private Capital? Are you an analyst on a leasing team? If so, agency or tenant? If you want CRE, then go to CBRE. My advice would be to become an analyst on an institutional properties team, private capital team, or structured debt team. This way you will pick up the modeling experience. Institutional Properties and Private Capital are both investment sales, the institutional properties team works with only class A central business district though. Some analysts from the institutional properties team in my cities move to major developers and private equity firms after 2 years.

 

Not like you are turning down IBD at JP. Exit ops will be limited from the operations group. If you want to be in real estate, take the CBRE offer and don't look back (its for the wheel program right?). Options from there include sales brokerage, leasing brokerage, capital raising, principal investing, lending - just about all of which require social and analytical skills. Also consider that you are posting in a real estate forum so people here are naturally going to gravitate that way.

 

Vel aliquid tenetur provident mollitia. Similique et id laudantium inventore temporibus atque. Pariatur fugit hic est est. Non natus asperiores eos cumque dignissimos. Eum autem illum repudiandae et impedit nisi libero.

Minima aut illo eius dignissimos dicta vero. Assumenda incidunt et omnis adipisci soluta modi rem consequatur. Et aliquam occaecati illum delectus adipisci sint et. Voluptates reiciendis et porro saepe. Eius non est fugit omnis.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. (++) 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (86) $261
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (13) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (202) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (144) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
6
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”