EV Charging Real Estate Interview
I have been approached by an EV charging station developer (think WattEV / Greenlane / Terawatt / Renewable Properties / Voltera etc.) about a real estate acquisitions role. The company focuses on acquiring and developing sites for heavy truck & fleet EV charging.
I am meeting with their real estate head later this week, and was told I could expect an underwriting exercise if I move forward (that supposedly requires no EV knowledge).
Anyone have any thoughts on what questions & topics could expect in an interview, and what the underwriting test could be like?
I have pretty solid real estate finance & development experience, but this is a little outside my usual box.
Probably revolves mostly around land acquisitions similar to open storage
Thanks. Any tips on what to expect for that interview & case study wise? I don't have a lot of experience with land acquisitions or open storage.
i'd say also on top of land acq price and maybe tax incentive or municipal incentives for such a type of infrastructure being built up, current vs hope of federal funding. I'd also ask how they figure out unique features like energy cost and infrastructure.
Yes, I have a pretty good roster of questions to ask them around their business plan, grant funding & incentives, how they underwrite sites, etc.
Unsure what to expect in regards to questions from their side.
As CRE said if it's little to no previous exp. Prob basic workbook, but they might not even do that during the first interview. As he said be calm and just read up a bit on the company and be collected and cool with them. Do you know if they will make you do a model before another round.
Yes - they have said there will be an underwriting take home exercise before I meet with the rest of the team.
Perfect then be informed but don't speak to what you don't know about or overstep it's more to judge if you seem sharp enough to pick up a niche role quickly and would gel well with what they envision for the role. This coming from someone who usually is the first non HR person people talk to and then will sit on the big team interview later on, this is just what I look for in the first round interview.
Try to find something you have in common with one of them and bring it up and ask about that, with the role mainly ask about growth and what they see you transforming into and improving to. What growth they see of the company and industry in general.
Don't overthink it. They're going to ask you the same type of questions as any other interview. If the underwriting exercise doesn't require any EV knowledge, it'll probably be a basic land takedown and calculating returns exercise.
Seems like a cool niche. You got this.
Appreciate it - thanks for the vote of confidence. Always easy to get down on yourself in a tough market.
Why is no one mentioning powaaaaaaaa.
I felt like that was a little too obvious to even need mentioning for an EV charging interview haha
Yeah I just wanted to type powaaaaa
I appreciate everyone's feedback. Had the call today and it went well; was mostly about introducing the non-HR person & their background, background on the company, my intro, and then all the industry & company specific questions I had.
Interestingly they underwrite all their acquisitions as actual real estate deals in case they don't get the approvals for power / interconnect (powaaa), so I am guessing the UW exercise will truly be a fairly simple modeling of an asset with in-place income. Will update as the process progresses.
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