High achiever that doesn’t want to work weekends
Currently work at a “preftigious” RE fund with decently long hours (not terrible). Standard day is 10 hours but we often have to work late into the evenings or and/or on weekends when we have a live deal.
comp is great - around $275-$325k for associates. That said, I want to maybe give up some near-term money for fewer hours and less headache. I had the chance to see the IC memo for a senior lender’s deal recently. It was just so much straightforward than ours despite doing similar work (to our sub-debt deals at least).
It got me thinking - what are the types of groups I could work at where I could maintain decent pay, have a long term trajectory of being a lead acquisitions (or originations) professional without having to work in the evenings or on weekends so much?
Are the insurance companies that compete with RE debt funds any better in terms of hours (eg barings, PGIM, etc)? Do traditional life cos pay well (MetLife, New York life, etc)?
I am scared of giving up my great job and getting the same hours somewhere else. But there’s gotta be a better way than canceling on friends and working til midnight every few weeks
****Edit to mods: this is a real estate specific question. Don’t move to job search****
There are plenty of places where this is the case, but they are generally going to be smaller / mid-size shops and it's rare that they are paying associates $300k. I work at one now where I lead acquisitions for a region and work 35 - 50 hours a week but my comp is comparable to yours (albeit I'm in a MCOL submarket and get meaningful promote as well). We pay our associates more like $150k - $170k.
There exists larger, higher paying shops that are like this, but it's like hitting a stroke of luck to figure out which one's they are and getting an offer to work there. As you can imagine, people that find these opportunities usually don't leave so openings are limited.
If I could go back in time, I would stick out a position like yours through being a VP. At my firm, most of the senior management grinded the first 10+ years of their careers at high paying but sweaty shops. They got amazing experience, have a strong network of peers they worked with that all went on to do very interesting things in RE, and they all saved a meaningful nest egg / bought their houses before making the switch to being a Senior VP - MD at our firm where they surely took a hair cut on comp but have much better lifestyles now while also having opportunity to still make great money via promote if our firm does well.
If you don’t want to take any haircut on comp then generally speaking no you’re not going to find better hours with similar pay at your level. There might be a few places that fit into this bucket you’re targeting but the odds of you finding them, them actively hiring, and you landing the job there are probably really slim, especially in the current hiring market. I’m sure you are aware of this, but the reason you’re paid well is because of how many hours you work. More hours, more productivity. More productivity, more deals closed (theoretically)
Right...generally speaking (always exceptions) think about it in these terms. A REPE firm does not bring in enough in fees to be loose in giving away comp. If you're being paid well, it generally means your firm has larger funds and doing larger deals (more fees coming in) and that you're taking on a larger brunt of the workload (less folks eating up the fee pool), so generally your hours will be longer. Some firms just hit a niche where they can get a lot of money out the door while doing less work so you can get paid well while working less, but these are more the exception than the rule.
The other way to make more money while working less is through production meaning your comp is now tied to how much you bring in in commissions or fees and you have built up your rolodex to the point that you're able to bring in big fees via fewer relationships and less work. That's never happening at the associate level though.
Yeah like i said, looking to give up near term comp for better hours. I would love to work 40-50 hours for $200k instead of 60 for 275k.
Lifeco’s and banks are probably your best bet then.
Select groups / debt funds that employ the "elephant hunting" model - few large deals a year rather than $30mm deals every other week
Want to switch jobs? I’m at a smaller shop with decent WLB making $150-170k. Not a fan, want to make the move to a bigger shop. But can see how it’d be a lot more appealing the older/more experienced you are.
It’s all the shops you’d expect it to be. Apollo, Oaktree, affinius, sculptor, ares, etc. Apply though recruiters rather than looking on LinkedIn. My job was never posted on LinkedIn
If you’re will to take haircut to 200k working 40-50 hours then these jobs are everywhere. Hard to have those hours (on a constant basis) though if you’re working for a deal team with a shit IC process.
Yeah honestly I have 40-50 hour weeks fairly often. It’s just when we push to IC or are bidding on a deal (also fairly often) that it gets crazy. I think our process may suck - we have a lot of layers of management. But it’s really hard to know without having experience with other funds
PM me. Can provide color on the insurance space.
Is this a megafund in repe? 40-50 hours if so is crazy
Which REPE funds have you worked at?
Feel free PM me and I am happy to weigh in on MM REPE firms. Feels like that may be a fit.
This is so corny. Just type it out and send it here. Why are you gatekeeping
Yeah this is Op, feel free to share in comments
MM REPE is likely the most volatile comp wise of anything you'd be looking at. I know associates making 120k all in working 60-70 hour weeks and some that make 250+ all in who barely work 30 and are primarily WFH -- outside of reporting season. Most I know now are happy to have a job. Funds are just too different to make wide generalizations. Was happy to talk about my direct experiences for those that express interest, but I'm not going to share my firms info publicly. Good luck with the search.
How much do you like modeling vs soft skills? You can hit $200k working 30 hours per week in brokerage (if you're good).
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