Full-Time RE Private Equity Recruitment
Hello All,
Currently a rising college senior looking to recruit for a real estate private equity role (interned at a top real estate investment banking team, received an offer to return but want to move to the principal side ASAP). I was wondering if anyone knows which top real estate private equity firms / investment firms recruit out of undergrad? I know Blackstone has its REPE analyst program but the process is already completed - would be interested to see which firms of a similar caliber have analyst programs.
Hilariously long, as you mentioned. You have to remember that most real estate firms - ESPECIALLY development - are purposefully lean. This means no HR, or one small HR team in the main office halfway across the country. This means no one driving the internal process to hiring someone.
In development companies, things have to be driven to completion. Often, executives will come up with ideas or recognize issues and then pass it to a mid or lower level person to execute and complete. When it comes to hiring, however, the executives will finally realize that they needed a new person six months ago, perhaps talk among themselves about that need, and then it immediately goes to the back burner because they spend most of their time putting out fire drills across all of their deals.
What this means is you have to be the person, as the applicant, to drive your hiring to completion - almost acting like a lower level employee trying to get his or her boss to do something. There's a tact to this, as anyone who has to manage up can tell you, but it's essentially being relentless without being annoying. These guys have 2394823984283 things they're thinking of daily. You are number 2394823984282 on that list, and you'll stay that way until you bump yourself up. Keep following up.
Why would you be disqualified for the next position if the current position is full? That doesn't make any sense.
Of course you should apply for current postings, and you should then immediately reach out to various people in the firm letting them know that you applied and asking to speak with them about the opportunity. Sometimes, you can get a jump start on the next opportunity.
Consider this - a company is growing in deal flow far beyond their personnel's capacity. They realize they need to hire a few people, but because of the lack of time and no one driving it to the finish line, they're going to do this one step at a time. They put a posting up, went through the resumes, picked a handful to interview, did the interviews, found one they really like, etc. right when you contact them. They might have already offered person #1 for role #1, but boom - they know they need more and you're right there in front of them without them having to re-do all the above effort if you're a good fit.
Easy - you ask "When are you looking for this position to be filled?" or "What is the timeline of this interview process?" Interviewers aren't people to be feared.
Network endlessly. Network, network some more, and network more after that. You meet with people, tell them you want to work for them, they tell you no, then you ask or they just tell you other people to meet with. You meet with those people then, and they all tell you no, and then you ask or they tell you other people to meet with. You meet with those people then, rapidly expanding your network by now, and they all tell you no, and then you ask or they tell you other people to meet with. By the end, they're going to be telling you people you've already talked to, and they'll be impressed you've met with everyone they know.
Then, out of the blue, one of the people you've talked to or have had recommended to you will be interested. When you meet with the interested employer, you'll have an absurd list of people that have met with you, and liked you, that can go to bat for you as a reference. Real estate is so small - chances are a few of the execs you've met with and told you no, if you've stayed in touch with them correctly, will literally be best friends or old co-workers of your potential bosses.
Keep networking. Go completely overboard with it. It works.