CRE Capital Markets to REIB

(Cross post from IB forum — hope that’s allowed)

Is it possible to move from a capital markets analyst to REIB after a couple of years at a big CRE firm (CBRE, JLL, C&W) without banking experience? Has anyone seen it done? If so, how? Humanities BA from top target, MSc in RE Finance from semi-target. Not expecting to break into a BB (or come anywhere close), but perhaps I might have some luck at a smaller firm.

REITs are also on my radar. Would appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks!

10 Comments
 

I have seen a move from CBRE Capital Advisors REIB to JP Morgan REIB before. This is just one datapoint but I don't think it's impossible. You can use LinkedIn's filter search to get a better sense of how many data points there are. Alternatively, an MBA could work well for REIB. Hope that helps. Good luck. 

 
Most Helpful

If you are not hanging your hopes on the bulge bracket firms, this doesn't seem that crazy or hard. But, curious.... why? This may be my personal bias/opinions but banking seems a lateral or even move backward (especially if not BB, then I'd say something different, but the life/deals that JP Morgan sees is vastly different than those at Truist or whatever). Since you throw "REITs" (not sure if you meant to signal all buy-side world, or really segment to public firms or something).... you clearly have some buy-side interest. 

If banking isn't your lifetime goal (and no shame if it is, you can legit make a lot of money doing it, even if far outside of BB land), then what is? If you long-term want to go buy-side, I'd just go direct, probably easier and a better overall job anyway.

 

Thank you for this — very helpful. I suppose a big concern for me right now is I’m not sure where I want to end up yet, and was seeing how broad (or narrow) my options were within RE. It’s reassuring to know that IB isn’t impossible because it gives me flexibility, but buy-side appeals more, and seems to be a more logical path from my starting point. A lot to think about. Thanks again, really helpful response. 

 

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