Advice Needed
Hey guys, would appreciate your advice on my situation. I just got an internship offer for next summer from an investment real estate position at an insurance company. The company is very reputable and has a great culture, however, the location is not where I want to be. Additionally, I would prefer to work at a company that specializes in real estate investments, whether a repe firm or an investment management firm. Would taking this offer for my junior summer screw over my chances of entering the repe world? Should I reject this offer and take my chances on getting an internship offer from a repe firm? I believe it is still early on in the recruiting cycle and I have more interviews scheduled, but I'm afraid I will reject this offer and not get another one. I also only have 5 business days to accept the offer. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated, thanks.
IMO kind of shady on their end to put such a short timeline on your response. I'd wait on it if you're not 100p excited for it and are confident you'll get something else, but equally its always good to know what you don't like, which you may find out during the internship.
Depends what your other options are. If you're at a target and think you'll have other opportunities maybe wait, but if it's a great name and in the real estate investment department I wouldn't worry about location. Can always get a job somewhere that you didn't get your internship in in a different market.
You should just accept it and if something better comes along later you can always take them.
I would not fear about reneging an offer, especially for an internship.
I’d lean towards taking the offer especially if you don’t have any other offers in hand. Insurance companies are a massive source of capital in the CRE and if it’s a reputable firm you should be able to recruit into repe no problem
My main concern is the amount and type of deal flow. Insurance companies see less deal flow as they are more conservative on their investments in addition to investing in mostly trophy assets that are fairly easy to underwrite. The main reason I am looking for an internship is to gain as much skill as possible during the ten-ish weeks I am at the firm and I'm afraid I won't see enough deal flow to gain that level of experience.
I can assure you if the offer is from a big/reputable insurance company you will see plenty of deal flow. You would be surprised at how active insurance companies are in CRE whether that be as a debt provider or actual LP equity investments.
Sounds like USAA or PREI. Regardless of who it is, take it and continue networking. Should be a good learning experience and it’s just an internship.
I'd take this honestly. Can always go full time elsewhere and I'd personally hate the thought of not accepting with the possibility of not getting another offer.
I like to look through this with worst case lens to give perspective. Worst case if you don't accept is you don't get another offer, and have to do a random summer job not related to real estate. Worst case if you do accept, is that you don't enjoy it and learned about an industry you would not like to work in.
My advice would be to accept it and then if you do get a can't-pass opportunity down the road, you can renege the offer and potentially burn a few bridges. But if it really is a cant-miss opportunity, it will not matter at all in the long-term.
Great advice
Assuming it's from a name brand insurance company, take it. These are reputable shops with solid deal flow, solid comp, good career advancement opportunities, and are often hard to get a foot in the door.
Pretty simple solution: take the offer and if a better one comes up, just renege. A massive insurance company would do the same thing to you if a better person for the job showed up. Also you’re not going to burn any bridges as an intern, no one really cares.
As someone who is old. Take the insurance company job. No so many REPE's/developers have interns, Megafunds yeah. Plus you're not going to be modeling anyway. As you have zero experience, nothing better than understanding the institutional world for CRE. Hard to go up in the chain from small/middle market to institutional, but easy to go down.
Plus insurance companies are doing interest stuff now, different buckets of capital etc.
You can always reneg.
I’d take it and as others mentioned, renege if you get an absolute can’t miss opportunity. You mentioned the point about deal flow, I don’t think you really need to worry about that, no one that is interviewing for Analyst roles is expecting someone off a 10 week internship to have an exhaustive track record of deal flow.
Make the most of it, internalize 2-3 interesting deals that you got exposure to over the summer, practice speaking about them eloquently, work it into your interview script and you’ll be in great shape.
Something other people aren't asking is what the location is. If you don't mind sharing, where is it? Maybe we can provide some color on that.
The location is a major city in Texas. I don't want to be too specific.
just deal with San Antonio for 10 weeks and don’t work there when you graduate haha.
Renege if you get a better offer.
Bro go work for USAA. They’re a blue chip name.
I don't mean this in a snarky way, but it is an internship, I wouldn't overthink it. If it's a good name with a good reputation, most likely having it on your resume will help you. Not sure if the location comment means you have to relocate or it's just a shitty commute, I could understand passing on it if the former.
Neither--just meant maybe someone could speak on how living in that city is like.
If this is the one in Texas they're essentially "repe". The insurance firm is one of their clients - they manage capital from other institutional firms, and do everything under the sun. Would essentially be the type of firm you would be looking for.
I don’t believe the firm I got the offer from is the one you are thinking of. I would be working for the investment department at the insurance company, not a separate one that invests on behalf of an insurance company
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