Development Analyst Hours - Mill Creek, TCR, Greystar
Starting as a development analyst at one of these shops in the Southeast and wondering what to expect in terms of hours. I’ve anecdotally heard it to be around 50 a week. If I’m willing to work 60-70, would that have any impact on me being promoted earlier or would I come off as a hardo? If my team works 50 and I feel the need to work more to accelerate my learning and growth, is that an option or do I have to go with the flow of my team so I can fit in culturally as well?
Not a development analyst, but generally no one will stop you from staying longer to learn and enhance growth, but I don’t think you should assume this will guarantee a faster promotion. If the extra time put in leads to enhanced value this can assist with higher bonus/faster promotion, but this is also varies from job to job.
I often stay late to study but I am very intrinsically motivated so I can do my best work, and I think this is a better way to look at a situation like this.
Nerd
Don't do it to get promoted earlier because that's definitely not a guarantee - if you're not learning faster or being more productive because of those hours then it doesn't matter.
Do it because you want to learn faster and develop your skillset. Advancement is a side effect.
Working longer does not guarantee a promotion or pay raise. If you can demonstrate value add, and be counted on to get your work done on time and in good form plus done well, as an analyst, this leads to a promotion. 70 hours vs 50. You may burn yourself out. Maybe not. You’ll see. But if you do thing on time and well, that’s how you get promotions. Not just working harder. No one cares if you work 70 hours per week if you don’t get your work done.
Echoing poster above but am nearly 1 year into Associate type gig at a regional developer who competes directly with the big shops. Extra hours will certainly accelerate your learning and thereby help in your transition from a cost center to revenue generating team member. But don't expect to get promoted within a year bc of it. A true development role has so many various aspects to it that it will take seeing through a full project cycle until you're ready to manage as a Project/Dev Manager (so likely anywhere from 3-5+ years depending on deal size).
Also don't go overboard and make sure you're maintaining your health, social life, hobbies, networking, etc. to avoid burnout. Basically take the weeks as they come, some weeks will be slow and you'll find yourself doing only 30ish hours of actual work, so supplement that with extra learning on the side. Others you'll be putting out fires left and right working 50-60+ hours.. where you'll be happy to finally get a breath in by the weekend. Balance = career longevity.
Development can be overwhelming at times but it's never boring (to me at least) so long as you're at a good shop doing cool deals.
Agree with this. Development can be overwhelming do to the shear amount of information to keep track of. When it’s slow, take advantage. For example, this week was slow. So Monday and Tuesday I was out of the office by 5. However it picked up as I was waiting on things. So today and tomorrow will be crazy and I’ll be working late. Take it as it comes. Just like any other job.
Exactly, the variety of each day adds to this. Mon I had meetings all day so worked until 6 at home. Tuesday had OAC meeting on site, followed by back-to-back-to-back zoom meetings until about 5. Then listened to a PB public hearing (while watching NBA playoffs), from 6:30-8:30. Yesterday had road trip 2 hours away to visit 2 different sites we have agreements on.. so didn't touch my computer all day. Today I finally can play catch up as my schedule is clear. Basically, take advantage of the slow days and prepare/gear up for the tough ones.
If your genuinely worried about not picking it up fast enough or growing, you can always continue your work at home when you're off and study up, not everyone needs to see how much you are working and you don't have to be seen. The best workers are the ones that work a lot and it isn't for show and they do it on their own time. If its about a promotion, then the person determining if you get promoted will have different values on that will reflect your promotion. Genuinely its about your improvement, growth, value add, etc. I think its rare that someone will weigh most of their consideration to promote someone if they are just working more hours than other employees. When I started I was in an analyst pool at a brokerage and there was a producer that highly valued being the last one in and first one their everyday, but to me that just didnt make sense becasue I was already working over 60 hours a week. I think its different on the principal and especially development shops, but there are still sweatshops out there that will have an MD that cares a lot about how much you work. You will most likely figure that out pretty quick based on what they value and respect the most out of a new employee.
How many projects are you guys generally involved in? Excluding any underwriting for call for offers a ways out. I’m a little higher up the food chain and I’d say it’s consistently 60hrs/wk+ and I’m managing 2-3 projects in the pursuit/development phase. There’s days I can do less, but it’s simply shifting the workload to another day (plus risking a fire drill coming up at the same time).
Right now 1 under construction, 2 in permitting/site plan review stage, 2 in due diligence before acquiring. 2-3 more we’re involved in a more limited capcity (leaning heavily on partners). So.. too much
Damn…don’t know how you juggle that. Even with a good construction counterpart/other dev team members that’s a full plate. I’m at 2.5 years and wondering if the frustration is still ramping up the learning curve or I don’t like project mgmt period.
Right now - 3 under construction, 2 in concept/SD stage gearing up for site plan submission, and 1 that just wrapped up due diligence. As a younger associate (me), you're expected to focus more on execution with the expectation that once you're a VP/MD your experience and the network you build will be bringing in deals. That's not to say that you won't have an opportunity to source deals as an associate, it's just not that realistic as your time is tied up with execution. Still working my balls off to to bring in my first deal!!!
You'll quickly learn that the fastest way to gain respect in development is sourcing deals.........and closing them. Cradle to grave baby.
Not to hijack, but have an interview coming up for a Development Analyst for a similar top firm. Any advice for interview prep? What did your process look like?
Was an analyst at one of the shops called out above...development is a grind and I was lucky enough to be entrenched in all facets of the game; underwriting, design, entitlements, construction, etc. The big problem with a lot of bigger dev firms is you can get siloed early and be an underwriting monkey for 1-3 years, not looking at anything else but a model.
That said, prepare to work some long days and at random hours. I'm not talking IB/PE level B.S. but there have definitely been times where I wanted to say F this and go somewhere else. BUT I love development and it is certainly not for the weak...
IMO I think it is important to think about your time the same way you think about "Time Value of Money."
I wouldn't bank on earning a promotion in a shorter timeline - but one thing to think about is your "Time Value of Time". Those long work weeks over the course of 1-2 years will compound. If you are working 70-hour weeks when those around you are working 50-hrs, over the course of 2 years you have effectively gained ~1 year of job experience over your peers.
With that extra time and experience under your belt, you may be able to leverage that experience to have a more "decision-making" role within the company.
Oh come on...
This obsession with hours per week is 100% a WSO/online thing that dates back to IB analysts talking about working 80-100 hour weeks. No one in development calculates work in "hours." I couldn't tell you how many hours I worked last week and I couldn't tell you how many hours I will work next week. Some weeks it might actually be 10. Some weeks it could be 100. Some days I have a 7am breakfast, work all day, and then have to go to a zoning hearing from 6pm-8pm. Some days I stumble into the office hungover at 10:30am, do some paperwork for a couple hours, and then go out on site for a 1pm OAC that'll last 2-3 hours, before heading home.
The work is what matters. You do the work, you don't watch the clock to see how many hours a week you can rack up. If you're good at the work, you then take on more work. You don't "work 60-70 hours a week instead of 50 to accelerate growth" - you simply take on more projects or more responsibilities.
Development is a results and production business, not an hours at your desk business. Do the work.
Said it before on here and will say it again. Don't be that guy that comes in early and stays late just to show face. If it's actually necessary and the workload demands it, then that's obviously fine. But it makes you look incompetent if working longer for no reason and you're not overwhelmingly outperforming the other analysts working normal hours
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