CRE Recruiting for a Career - crazy?

As we all know, the last several years of CRE have been brutal, especially those of us who were around during the golden years (luckily I caught the tail of it). I personally don't find the industry as enjoyable as it once was, for reasons we all know, and I am not 100% committed to continuing my career in it.

One career path that is never discussed is recruiting done by those who have extensive industry (transaction, management, etc.) experience. I am specifically referring to CRE placement for junior and mid level professionals. 

I have over 8 YoE, mostly on the debt originations side, but have been through countless interviews across the board and know what kind of candidate and background firms are looking for. Why don't more people consider this route? You inherently have a leg up on your colleagues and competitors if they are your classic HR personality, you understand how it actually feels to be in the candidate's position and what their goals are (they likely were yours at one point), and can truly be honest immediately if their background doesn't fit the position. Not sure about you, but I would definitely rather work with someone like that than the classic one call -> ghosting. 

Not 100% certain on pay, but assuming you learn the recruiting game, you can really crush it. I bet we all have friends who were recruiters out of school, and some of mine at this point take home $250k+ working 20-30 hours a week. Not saying it's easy, but sure seems like a nice lifestyle change. 

Curious what you guys have to say. 

3 Comments
 

you're probably right.  i've seen it done and i think those guys are pretty happy/doing pretty well.  nobody on here likely knows the answer to that or wants to do that, but you're prob right.  not sure how long it takes to ramp up.  it's probably not the easiest thing on earth right now when there are a few guys already doing this and not as much hiring as there likely was a few years ago.  heck i'm starting to wonder why i am not doing it as i'm typing this.

 

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