Finding Lesser Known/ Smaller Firms

Look for alumni from your school who started firms, maybe your career services office could help with his

I feel like there as a long thread on this same topic not long ago, so you should search it.

That said, the alumni recommendation above is a good one. I'll add the membership directories of the local NAIOP/ULI chapters are great for this purpose, as only legit CRE people tend to join those organizations. 

When I was looking, I used Curbed to put together a long list. But I think the site shut down or is at least no longer publishing new articles.

I would google new developments, you’ll find stuff about new construction, projects under construction, and projects going through approvals and you can put together a list of companies you’d want to work for that way.

If you're in NYC or the tri state area, trying scrolling through YIMBY and see which names keep popping up.  Obviously a lot of heavy hitters, but you start to see trends that certain developers are very active in building lots of 20-50 unit buildings in Brooklyn.  Or TradedNY is an instagram account you can do the same for

mulithousing news. commercial real estate business journal/your local business journal.

A friend is now working at a boutique that does $1bn+ deals. Had a mentor who was major force at a BB and hopped to start own firm. Just happened to see on linkedin and reached out. Says base pay is slightly less than street but bonus on a good year is fire. Greatly appreciates the experience and learning curve

Scope out members of the Economic Development Corps in your region (if you have them). Often times a Principal for a local real estate development firm will be on the board or Be involved somehow and you can find out more about their business.

All of this is good advice, but also network, network, network. After you exhausted all the online lists and alumni databases you probably only covered half of whats out there. Start talking to those alumni and anyone you can and ask for leads in that direction. Small shops will start popping up. 

Background: Summer at a SFO based in Toronto, worked part-time throughout final school year, returned for full-time since May. A lot of the work I've been involved with have been RE related - Canadian REITs on public equity side and development/re-development on private equity side.

I came across a job posting on my school portal (UofT/Ivey/Queens).

A lot of these smaller shops have weird names with "Capital, Partners, Group..." names of that sort. All I did was scope out these companies that for the most part no one has heard of. Once you get your foot in the door, you'll greatly expand your network of institutional investors and GP's alike.

Uli contact list 

I landed one this year, exactly as described. Networked on LinkedIn, he knew a guy that needed a guy, bingo.

Hi. I'm networking/job searching for exactly this kind of firm in the Los Angeles area. I have a giant list of LA companies I can send you if that would help. 

What I do is I google search for RE investment managers and then I do intense LinkedIn stalking. Most CRE professionals work at a handful of different firms during their time. If it isn't the big companies (CBRE, Starwood, George Smith, etc) then its always going to be a small player.

1. Go through someone's LinkedIn 

2. find a company

3. look at their team of employees

3. search their linkedins

4. repeat

Every time you find a new company, write it down in a list so that you can come back to the list to do your reach-outs. 

Interned at medium REPE firm - leveraged alumni from school plus talked to as many people as possible everywhere I went till I finally met a few people with good connections to help me out. Honestly gained insane experience that wouldn't have been possible at a large firm