Help me - Career advice feel overwhelmed what should i do! mentally stressed
Hi Everyone,
First post here and sorry in advance. In short, I graduated and went into banking (around 4 years) in debt financ/some real estate finance and then bonds portfolio management. Left to a small boutique to do debt advisory but due to covid was let go. Interviewed with a Big Broker (CW/CBRE/JLL) and have joined what looks like a cap markets team as the sole lead analyst to basically build models/financials. We do fewer deals but make big fees in an operational re asset.
I am so unsure on this role as I am not a broker and do not want to do that - I thought I was hired to do modelling/jvs etc. but have not done that yet - been runing valuations. I feel really sick and like I am going to vomit. I thought I was going to do corp transactions and model debt etc. but it looks like this is not the case.
Getting back into banking will be difficult and I cannot exactly move internally since Ive not been here long enough. I like the aspect of acquisitions and buy-side work. Although I am told of big things to come I feel like I am shafted.
Does anyone have any advice for me on what I should do as I feel so depressed (UK based)
This is deffo a cry for help.
Learning to cope with stress was one of the toughest things in my career. The way I've dealt with it is thinking about the worst that could happen (usually involves me losing my job, moving to a small town in the countryside and working as a janitor/security for a school, IDK why)
How long have you been at the job? Do you need to work, do you have people depending on you for a pay check?
If you haven't been there very long and nobody will starve if you aren't paying the bills you could just quit and pretend like it never happened.
I don't really understand why the job is making you so sick? Can you elaborate on that? Is the work that distasteful?
"usually involves me losing my job, moving to a small town in the countryside and working as a janitor/security for a school, IDK why"
You too? Mine is losing everything, getting fat and living under a bridge with nothing but boxer shorts and a blanket that my wife let me keep in the divorce. It does reduce the stress levels though.
Yeah, was a technique one of my bosses taught me a while back (though usually the worst that could happen is the client gets something late and we move on). The positive side of it though was I still have a family who loves me and wonderful children who don't care how much money I make, they just want me around, so what happens at work matters a lot less (and being that security guard, but seeing my children a lot doesn't sound that bad)
I pretty much want to be modelling deals and building that kinda stuff - to then ultimate go into a financial inst. or repe. The issue I am having is I feel so out of place coming from banking and seeing my team just use plug and kinda play models - im doing some bs research stuff at the moment and just feel this is not where my desire or skills are. I was thinking maybe stay here and try to network into the corp finance team/reib team.,,,
Dude you went to a brokerage and thought you'd be doing corporate transactions? What?
FYI - real estate is all plug and kinda play models. CRE finance is not complex in the grand scheme of things. For any analyst/associate role, modeling is important but so is managing DD, coordinating with consultants, market research (can't emphasize this one enough, know the market know the market know the market), etc. There is so much more to CRE than modeling.
Like others have said, you're 4 years into your career, you really shouldn't be building models all day anyways. You should be trying to get into a role where you're managing the guys doing that.
Dude if you are 4 years into your career you should be trying to figure out how to stop being the guy who lives in excel, not the other way around
Word up brotha. But hey, I’ve met folks that just want to build models and good at it. Aint nuthing wrong with that.
Look man, you still have a job. You have some previous experience and some RE knowledge, so start looking for something else. Not sure why you’re so stressed out, a lot of worse things can happen in life. Chin up and good luck!
It sounds like you have a pretty classic broker job, this is what they are most of the time. If you are at one of the large firms you indicate, making an internal transfer shouldn't be all that difficult, but I have clue as to the politics of such (I just see them happen frequently enough). But @cre_questions brings up a good point, just "modelling deals and building that kinda stuff" is pretty junior work (least in the banking/brokerage world side of things). There are legit buyside quant type roles that are more high level, as are some very complex models in valuation/consulting fields. Still, it can be difficult to swim backwards in this world.
So my advice is this.... try to find a happy place here, learn what you can. Brokerage work is legit, and the transactional element of life is good to see/learn. Spoiler alert... models in real estate do not need to be that complex most of the time, and plug and play can work in many situations. Thus, you shouldn't lament that, you should ask yourself the real question.... why is that true! It's not that your team is BS, or the work is BS.... it is that you have haven't figured it out!!!!!
Before you move on from this role, you should really try and figure out why it works the way it does, trust me... this will greatly empower your understanding of the real estate and finance world!
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