24 Comments
 

2024 grad, been aiming for any role in acq. Currently a research analyst at a big brokerage, been applying and getting interviews past few months but most end up ghosting, going on a hiring hold/pause, or just genuinely not good opportunities. Hoping to get something in acq, AM or dev by the end of year.

 

The challenge is you're trying to double pivot. Not only are you looking to move from brokerage to the principal side, but you're also changing functions from research to AM/AQ. This is a doable move in a regular market, but the reality is today that you're competing against 10 kids that already work in similar positions on the principal side, which likely explains why you aren't getting traction.

FWIW, I've been looking at moving to a different REPE fund since late '24... have gotten very little traction desite having generalist experience and a really solid deal sheet, but YMMV. 

 

Doing good! About to sign with a boutique REPE shop. Will decline offers from two larger REPE shops. I&L industry.

 

2025 grad here. it is bloody

got pushed out hard, BB M&A SA to UMM PE off-cycle. was not able to convert both due to headcount issues, moving to REPE in an acquisitions role

 
Most Helpful

Another 2025 grad here. Had a return offer going into the Fall of 2024, but recruited again to see what was out there. Did not network very hard, so most, if not all of my applications were cold. Here were my stats:

~80 applications
3 interview processes
2 super days
1 offer

Ended up declining the offer and took my return offer. Hopefully this serves as a good data point.

 

How long did you have to accept your return offer? I imagine it is exploding, but figured they wouldn’t allow much longer than a month for decision making

 

my friend graduating May 2025 and saying there's barely any roles out there. Networking is super important, especially at this time - he said 4/5 of his recent interviews came from networking. Definitely is tough out there right now, and unfortunately the tariffs create the cherry on top for uncertainty about the overall economy. I think once there's solid clarity on the tariffs and what they look like then you can expect hiring to pick up soon. A lot of firms might be scared with increasing costs / inflation - especially in industrial asset class where a lot of your tenants can be direct impacts (automative & manufacturing parts, etc.). But Multifamily seems to be the strongest right now

 

Secondhand information but among current students at a known RE MBA program, story I heard with this recruiting season: first year students did generally well with internships as employers want to maintain some kind of medium-term talent pipeline (which isn't much of a commitment with 10 weeks of relatively low  intern comp).  However for 2025 grads, it has been a struggle.  

 

2025 grad here. Had investment sales return offer for middle market brokerage and kept recruiting for debt & structured finance roles. Had 2 offers and was going through interview process with another but accepted one of the offers. Submitted a lot of cold applications and networked a ton. Tried to find smaller shops that could be looking to grow their team or might've needed an analyst but weren't necessarily advertising it.

 

2025 grad here, feeling the pressure to say the least. Have had to grind to get into three processes for an acquisitions role, an originations role, and a tech job lol, but got rejected after the final round for each. very demoralizing when each process is 4 or 5 rounds. Do not know what to do from here, cannot see where to find opportunity, very depressed. Not sure how to improve or what to do differently.

 

2025 grad here. Have been networking my ass off since fall. 3-4 calls a week. Basically all I heard all year was “keep meeting with people…you are doing the right things…maybe in a few months the market will change.” Landed an acquisitions roll at a REIT. Have been in contact with them for over a year. Hope that helps.

 

The reason you hear this is because we're basically telling you we don't control the market. We all want to do more deals, grow our teams, raise more capital. But sometimes the market is fucked and there is nothing any of us can do about it. Until that changes you should expect more of the same. Perhaps it resolves in a few months, it's possible it takes another year or two. No one knows. 

 

2025 grad here as well. Networked every week since last August leveraging every connection I had and ended up landing a debt investment role at a $10B+ AUM firm. It's a complete numbers game as cliche as it sounds. 

 

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