Career Advice
I interned last summer at a respected acq/development operator shop in my region. I am very close with the founder of the company since he is my dad's closest childhood friend. I enjoyed my summer with them, they make great investments, develop impressive buildings, and everyone is amazing to work with. Luckily enough, I have received a return offer from them as I graduate in June of this year. I can see myself staying at this firm for a very long time, but I have been thinking of other career paths as well.
As I have been unsure of whether or not I was going to receive an offer, I have been networking with the large local brokerages in my region (JLL, CBRE, CW), specifically investment sales/capital markets analyst positions within the same asset class as the company I interned at. I have been interviewing with one of their top teams, and am pretty confident that I will receive an offer. I am pretty sure the pay between both positions will be quite similar as well.
The question I am asking is do you think it would be a good idea to start as an analyst at a big brokerage or jump right into the buy side as an analyst? I am leaning towards the buy side decision since I can see myself in the future at this firm, so why not just start there early? For people on the buy side that never worked as an analyst in brokerage, do you wish you did? Or are you glad that you went straight to the buy side? Would love to hear everybody's opinions.
Nepotism at it’s best. Yes, take the principal side role. Assuming it’s a legit shop, why would you put yourself back one step on the ladder if your goal is to be anything other than a broker?
I'm biased, but assuming you can keep the door open on the principal side, I would take the brokerage role first. I think it turbocharges your network, exposes you to a lot of deal flow, and makes you a much more well-rounded real estate person. We're all selling to someone, and learning how to sell real estate is a really useful skill so long as you learn to moderate your sales-yness and optimism once you move back to the principal side.
From the sound of it, the door will be open for you at the family friend's shop for a while. I think you can make the case to him that this will add some value to him down the road as you'll come in better networked and with more hard skills. You just need to be diplomatic about it, obviously. You can also just ask him for his advice and lay out your logic. I'm sure he just wants what is best for you.
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