Hi all,
I'm a management consultant at a big 4 working primarily on RE clients. I know a fair bit about the RE lifecycle but primarily work with middle & back office functions at my clients (similar to other areas in FS consulting, no one wants to be told how their front office should work). Relatively strong understanding of the tech landscape as well.
I'm mid career so comp is decent where I'm at now (150-200 all in)
Couple questions:
- Is there a reasonable path to a "real" RE investing career? With further education and without
- Is there any situation where the financials might make sense, assuming currently have a reasonable shot at partnership in current firm?
Basically I have a relatively cush but relatively boring gig now (with significant potential financial upside), "real" RE seems much more interesting but trying to gauge if I'd have to take an analyst gig or w/e for a third of my current pay and climb a new pyramid
Thanks
So, my thoughts on your questions...
1. Sure, this isn't that crazy of a "jump". If you are willing to go do an MBA or MSRE/D.... well you would open to that whole world of post-grad degree jobs, really you would be a fairly normal/middle-of-the-road grad school student, so that is as open to you as anyone. That said, do you "need" it.... probably not, your experience should open some doors (maybe with a client....) but options slightly limited, but really only if you care about "prestige" names....
2. Would this make sense financially.... hard to say... what do partners at your firm make (I'm genuinely curious!)? Finding a mid level institutional CRE type job that pays $150-200k all in shouldn't be that difficult with your type of experience. I mean, people with no experience out of school can sometimes get $100-120k (in major market) so seems reasonable. Bonus land in institutional real estate can be 100% and upwards of base, so even a $150k can legit equal $300k in total all-in comp in good years at good firms (this isn't to say this is average, or normal, just not unreasonable).
So, I guess the question is how bad do you want to exit your current world??? If it is boring now, may not get much better. Still, partner life is probably a lot better, so I wouldn't make this decision lightly. I wouldn't jump back to "analyst", you really should move more semi-laterally. In fairness, not all firms would make this an option. To do it right, you may need to take a role that has some relationship to current world tasks.... i.e. some part of role dealing with middle/back office issues. Smaller firms may be ideal that everyone sometimes does everything.... so asset management/IR/finance are really one team. Again, all goes back to what you are wanting/willing to do!
good post, thanks
good to know that lateral or semi lateral is possible
partnership is ~8 years away realistically but new partners make ~600-700k and decent performers are seven figures within five years... so it's a big fucking carrot (albeit one that's kinda far off)
frankly one of my biggest concerns is WLB... i'm at 40-50 hours / week now, and obviously that won't last forever on the path to partnership it's really unappealing to go work 60+ hours for less money even if the work is more interesting
ho hum i think i understand the pros and cons pretty well and it comes out as kind of a wash, which is why i made this post in the first place
Hmm, getting to 600-700k all-in (meaning base + bonus + long term) can occur in 10-15 years total in the institutional world of real estate... clearly market type, sector, firm type, etc. all play in on how fast you get there in buyside world. Probably faster in some high-performing top-tier type situations (or some very lucky turns with carry). Can happen much longer to never some parts also. Bottom line, that is a lot of money, so I wouldn't tell anyone to count on getting there in a career (but CRE is def an above average place to see, better odds than most for sure!).
I think this is really a personal happiness/satisfaction thing. I'd say you "could" out earn easily in real estate (I really don't know the success probability of making partner at a Big 4, I mean, what percentage do it??), but may skew timeline but still come out ahead over a career lifetime (granted, don't know your age....).
Personally, I'd try and not factor the money on this one, both are "highly paid" in all honest reality. If you are not super jazzed and excited about consulting and the Big 4 life, I kind of doubt you will be the one to make partner. Seems like a competitive path, and I'd put money on the most die-hard in those races.
Change is scary, I did similar jump from real estate consulting (economic/market type, not Big 4 or similar) into development in research/strategy, so I know it can be done (in fairness, what I did aligned with legit "front office" style activities, so not a big shift in all reality).
Just as a data point (that could be a strong outlier), I got my MBA with a construction background, work development now with ~$160k all in, max 45 hour weeks. I do know a bunch of classmates who got similar comp at good local developers. Not as sure about comp at REPE or debt shops, but probably still good. I'm in a T1 city, btw.
also, what do you mean by "institutional CRE" - like big 3 brokers? i have worked with 2 of the 3 extensively so you're right sourcing thru a client is the path of least resistance (though they'd put me on the internal consulting team and idk if i want to keep doing what i'm doing, just client side)
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