What's the deal with LA?
I have landed interviews in NYC, Chicago, and DC as someone who doesn't live in any of those cities. And I rarely get questioned as to why I would want to move to the area.
But when it comes to LA (the city I actually want to move to), I'm constantly turned away. Recruiters will tell me "they're only interviewing current LA Residents" or job postings will have in all-caps "MUST HAVE STRONG TIES TO LA" whereas I don't see or experience that nearly as much with opps in other cities.
Why are firms like this? How do you prove that you're serious about committing to the city?
After my graduation the very first interviews I had were in my home town, LA. Every single group wanted to know "my network" and where my alumni was / and how big. I was a bit surprised to hear those questions because I was just a grad, not some rainmaker.
then I interviewed at WME after an internal referral (most of my friends work in media/ent) - same question.
When I networked with a few people they explained that "this city runs on a network", "hard to meet the right people", "you have to be popular", etc
Moved to NYC and landed my job.
Moved back to LA later, but still couldn't break into banking in LA.
(But I am interviewing again within the media space).
Having spent so much time in SoCal, I have to admit it is a wide, open city with a lot of distance between places. It is far more difficult to "run into someone" or "network your way into a group or client" unless you already are running in that circle. Maybe this is influenced by the media industry or this is how things are done in LA. My friends always talk about how they do stuff, and it is almost always a friend, buddy, reference, client or similar.
they have weird sex parties. they don't want any questions
LA is a shithole on par with Detroit. Literally the only place in the US where I would straight up refuse to live. The city sucks, the people are weird, stay tf away lol
Given your post history, your opinion on this has actually helped confirm my interest, thank you
People in LA are weird? Have you been sheltered your whole life? I find the people to be fairly normal and easy going, relative to all you tryhardo Gordon gecko wannabes MFs
No they're weird, toastie coastie
I mean most people are normal-ish, however, the vibe is not for me and I prefer New York by a mile
why you gotta talk shit about Detroit man
I actually like Detroit and I think it’s on the rebound and a good value for a certain type of person. Detroit Institute of Arts is probably top 5 for art museums in the US, red wings are great, suburbs are nice.
Put your friend's address on the resume where you're sleeping on the couch.
I understand the frustration, so perhaps I can shed some light on why this is the case.
For students / prospective summer interns, one issue is that we (I'm going to refer to LA firms in general, not just my bank) get a lot of tourists who may try LA out and decide they want to go back to NY full time, or are using LA as a second-choice because they were unsuccessful elsewhere. The huge issue with that, as you know, is trying to recruit someone else full-time (e.g. after a summer intern turns down your full time offer) is really difficult because the pool of acceptable candidates has shrunk a ton, especially in LA.
For full time positions after graduation, it's kind of similar in that we want to recruit people who will stay with the firm. If you haven't lived in LA before, there may be a lot of challenges you may not be used to and again, firms don't want to be a stepping stone to where you "really want to be."
If you're not getting past this question, you simply haven't crafted a good enough answer. First, why are you serious about committing to the city? If you're interviewing for CRE, full disclosure that I don't work in that business, but I would make sure to emphasize the aspects of LA's CRE world that really interest you, and that while you don't currently have an extensive network here, you are serious about developing one over the long run which is why you're interviewing there. Mention you have visited there a bunch and love the (fill in the blanks and be truthful, if you're a beach person say that, if you're a foodie say that, etc). Say that you have friends / alumni from your university who live in LA and tell you good things about it (again, if you can point to specifics it's better).
Tl;dr craft a better story and really look inward into why you want to work here. In banking it's actually enough if you mention you're interviewing elsewhere / interested elsewhere, it's an instant ding at many banks.
I’m an experienced professional looking at REPE jobs, but this is still insightful. Crafting the story for interviews is difficult, but here are my actual thoughts below:
I basically want to move somewhere with pleasant weather (eliminates most NE cities), somewhere that still has a fairly deep bench of RE career opps (eg not Miami, Austin), somewhere where it doesn’t suck to be a single guy (not Houston or SF).
I also value the more laid back lifestyle of LA - I’ve worked in banking for nearly 3 years and I’m not sure if I can commit to working another 3 years at Blackstone in NYC grinding my face off. This point in particular is hard to convey. Most people would agree LA is more laid back than NYC, but if you list that as a benefit of moving, you look like someone who doesn’t want to work hard. I absolutely want to work hard and have a meaningful career, but I don’t want Saturday emails with 12 hr turn around window, all-nighters for useless analysis that doesn’t get used, staying til 10pm just bc the staffer is still in the office, etc
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