RE Investment Banking vs Regular M&A (London)

Hi all,

TL;DR May have an opportunity in RE, what are the hours/culture/recruitment/pay/exits like?

I’ve recently spoken with a RE banker and he seemed to really enjoy what he did (very senior/partner level). He has very good hours (basically 9-6/7), obviously well-off, and genuinely seemed to be in a good place mentally.

It got me wondering about the general RE IB situation. Are the hours as brutal for juniors as in general M&A? What is the recruitment process like? Is the pay similar/same as across IB? What are the exits like (HF/PE)?

I tried researching here but not a lot has come up. All-in-all the above questions are what I’m wondering about. Another thing I was thinking about were the firms: BBs vs EBs and MMs - does the work generally vary? I know Evr, WB, Cantor and Moelis are quite strong in RE but how do they measure up?

After the chat we ended on a good note and the guy seemed like a good bloke, so maybe, potentially, there may be a door for me for RE. Any and all advice/comments would be helpful!

Have a good one!