Acquisitions endgame
Currently an acquisitions analyst at a large global pension fund. Transitioned from a role at another large asset manger doing a different role in real estate. Knew I wanted to do acquisitions from the start when I was leaving school.
Have been doing a lot of thinking recently. Is everyone trying to start their own fund or just happy rising through the ranks. Seems like most of the people at my firm are pretty happy where they are and at the senior ranks there are a lot of people who have been here a while.
Seems to be a really good gig when comparing comp to hours. Anyone else a little confused when you finally got an acquisitions role and now not sure what the next goals are. With all that said I am happy to grind it out here for a bit.
do you mind me asking what your comp and hours look like? In acquisitions too and would love to learn more about pension funds. Sorry I dont have info to answer your post (incoming acquisitions analyst)
curious as well.
150k all in range
Not too sure how much the more senior people are making
If this is a public pension all salaries will be public record.
I work with someone who was at a public pension for a few years. The upward mobility was extremely slow. People get comfortable and never leave, as you alluded to. It's a nice cushy job, though.
A lot of people do not want to go the entrepreneur route and are happy being an employee for life. The comp and work life balance can be good. There are also people who want to start their own thing but don’t for one reason or another.
If you are thinking about doing your own thing then you should go for it. You’ll probably regret it if you don’t.
Most people are happy to work 50-60 hour weeks and make a lot of money as an employee "risk-free". If you're in your late 30's or mid 40's and making $250k or more in a LCOL city then you can live very comfortably, have a family, and with proper personal investments there isn't a need to run your own deals and risk hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars of your own savings. A lot of people in their early 20's can grind out long hours for months/years on end and so rather than work for someone else and work long hours, they fantasize about running their own company and think "I'm already working long hours, I might as well be doing it for myself". At some point in my career I switched from thinking I'll grind forever to start my own firm, to just being very comfortable spending time with a significant other, focusing on family and friends, and being able to just enjoy the other things in life outside of my career.
Everyone is different and so there are people that never want to be working for someone else throughout their career and so they start their own company, but in the end a lot more people wouldn't want to give up a high paying job that's relatively risk free for a dream of potentially making a lot of money and in the meantime they make a lot less.
99% of people in acquisitions will stay in acquisitions as a corporate employee or move to another corporate role like AM. Very, very few people will ever actually go out and successfully start their own shop. Nothing wrong with grinding it out on the corporate ladder if you like the lifestyle.
It is worthwhile to note that there isn't always a "next step". This site is geared towards young people at the beginning of their career, so there is naturally a lot of focus on what internships to focus on to get jobs at certain companies in certain groups, because that leads to the next step, to the good business school, and then the buy side role... but thinking out ten, fifteen years is a long way away so no one thinks what happens then. But sometimes you end up in a career you enjoy and... that's it. You spend a few decades in the same role, doing the same things, getting paid a lot, but with no clear upward trajectory from there. There isn't a magical point at which you then have the money and experience to go out on your own. Or a moment when someone promotes you to some C-suite equivalent role. Jobs don't have to have meaning, don't have to be an uninterrupted rise up the ladder. And frankly, many people don't have the skills or risk tolerance or just plain ambition to hang their own shingle. As someone else mention, making a few hundred thousand dollars a year guaranteed in a LCOL city is a nice gig; you'll live comfortably and be able to send your kids to college and afford some vacations and luxuries, etc. Not everyone wants to bust their ass for a chance at making a couple million dollars a year when they've got that lifestyle already.
All good points, a lot of young people are very ambitious, driven, and entrepreneurial (myself included), this comment led me to think decades out, about how people change, priorities change, responsibilities change, lifestyle change, etc. Too many changing variables to have a clear picture, all the changes piles on and i could definitely see how insane the opportunity cost will be for starting a business at that stage, people will become much more risk averse compared to their 22 yo selves.Interesting how the more capable you are, the higher the opportunity cost it is for entrepreneurship (or any significant career changes), this may be the hidden force working against us that many people are not factoring in.
1) no exit, just climb the corporate ladder or lateral to another investment management company in acquisitions (if you are ambitious, look at what department the previous two CEO’s came from - if internal promotion).
2) BIMBO not talked about yet; work as a CFO/CIO of a smaller company; work there for 10 years; and be part of the management team that buys out the legacy founders via a PE acquisition (acronym BIMBO, buy in management buy out)
3) start your own company
People will say "start your own fund" but realistically its just become a senior acquisitions person or move to another management role in a RE shop.
I started doing some small deals on the side and quickly realized I am not nearly ambitious enough to try to grow it into a full fledged business, but its nice to have some deals for some extra income/diversification, and perhaps I'll slowly grow it enough that I don't need a "real job" down the line. However I've realized 1) I don't want to be responsible for a significant amount of outside capital and 2) I don't want to be responsible for a bunch of employees. I doubt many people in acquisitions truly have the stomach (or the resources/connections and luck) to "start their own fund" and have it be enjoyable and a long term success.
Also, I started moving away from acquisitions into more of an AM/operational role at my W2 job because I could see myself getting tired of all the travel and networking related to acquisition work. Its kind fun in your 20s but I'm getting older and don't want to spend my time flying around to look at potential acquisitions or getting drunk with brokers during what should be my free time.
What kind of deals are you doing on the side? Are these LP deals where you're passive, or direct property investments?
small mixed use properties, I am the operator/GP and currently self-manage too. I've also made a small passive/LP investment into a friends deal.
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