38 year old Associate - Am I Cooked?
Coming out of a semi-target undergrad, I started off in a non-RE industry for 4 years. Then I worked somewhere for a long time that never really promoted me. Then add in COVID chaos and a lil gap year, and I'm an Associate at 38 in a HCOL market.
I'm now worrying if I will ever reach the middle management level. Am I damaged goods to recruiters who will wonder why I never got promoted? Has anyone here convinced a hiring manager they are Assistant VP or Director material despite having an Associate title? My experience is strong enough to warrant the title increase, but it has been a tough sell just to even get interviews for higher roles.
I genuinely don’t think it matters when taking the Associate to VP step, but we’re also the same age so throw in the obligatory bias and wishful thinking against age discrimination.
I think if you are in your mid to late 30s and trying to get into a coordinated analyst or associate class, the age difference between you and the 24 year olds might be odd. But standalone VP and Director roles? Nah.
You’re not 65. Plenty of years of work left.
In your resume you can just put VP and apply. On LinkedIn do not put Associate at ABC, instead put Acquisitions at ABC, Asset Management at ABC, Originations at ABC, Debt Capital Markets at ABC, etc. keep it general. It’s your resume where you put VP as your title and apply.
I've been doing this without realizing it and anecdotally it works. I've always had something similar to "Investor L/S" on LinkedIn and people infer the seniority themselves. It's not exactly the same but our titles are mostly flat.
If clear out Associate from the "Experience" section of LinkedIn its going to notify my entire network of a role change though.
you can turn that off
Also, consider dropping years you graduated from school and the 4 years that aren’t applicable from your resume (if not more). You really only need ~10 years on the resume so they know you have the experience for VP, but don’t ask the question of why you haven’t gotten it already
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