How Would You “re-do” Your RE Job Hunt?
For those of you who have transitioned into real estate from another area of finance (or another career entirely) and those of you who went into real estate post undergrad or grad school, what mistakes did you make in your job search? What tips/tricks/websites/recruiters do you wish you would’ve known about? Any specific tactics or strategies you employed that you found particularly beneficial?
For instance, I’m currently combing through a stack of Real Estate Alert publications and documenting every firm, function, and headquarters that comes along. This has been useful because sometimes they’ll mention a smaller shop that won’t make it into The Real Deal or other popular publications.
What else have you guys found?
(Sorry if this is a repeat, I did some searching but didn’t find anything too similar)
I’m gonna chime in and provide my input, but I don’t think my perspective will carry much weight because I’m only three years into my professional career (and out of undergrad).
I didn’t know that I wanted to get into real estate, but I just happened to end up in a commercial real estate advisory group at a national accounting firm.
The work I do isn’t traditional real estate, and I’m afraid that I already pidgeon-holed myself because the roles that I would qualify for based on skills that I’ve developed here would still only net me entry-level roles, even though I should in theory be one step ahead of those graduating candidates, so it makes me an unattractive candidate. I’m trying to unwind by actively networking, going to events, trying to find mentors, and reading up on this site as much as I can.
So for me, if I could go back in time I would just be bombarding everyone via LinkedIn or other professional real estate orgs like ULI and asking to pick their brains to get as much industry insight as I can, regardless of what line of real estate or what asset class they work in. At the end of the day, you’re still so green to the industry that any information is helpful information, and you should be accumulating as much as you can before you try narrowing down what specifically you’d like to be doing. Too many narrow-minded individuals have this glamorous perception of going into REPE or any other acquisition-related work without actually knowing why they want to do it. There’s so many interesting career paths within real estate that you should be exploring and learning about as many as you can, especially while you’re at a stage where you have all the time in the world career-wise and don’t have other obligations (like family) that would impede you.
Whether or not you see yourself in RE long term, you should be doing yourself a favor and try soaking up as much as you can, whether it’s reading, listening to podcasts, seeking out alum, going to events, etc.
I spent too much time looking for jobs vs preparing for interviews.
Getting that email for the first round interview is a bit of a endorphin / dopamine rush so it makes sense that we chase that high through networking emails and perusing job sites. But the reality is searching for jobs and sending networking emails shouldn’t take as long as memorizing your deal metrics / job responsibilities, crafting your story, practicing technicals, and getting modeling reps in.
Obviously you don’t want to do the reverse either. But I blew some interviews because I was too focused on finding opportunities when I should have been doing the less “fun” parts of the job search such as outlining my “walk me through a deal you’ve worked on” response
Started sooner. Chased jobs blindly for two years and languished in a terrible job before pulling the trigger and going back to school. Hindsight, I'd be done with school by now. It's never a bad idea to keep getting educated but it's a time suck at the moment and sometimes i look back and think "oh i could already be in REPE [or whatever]."
that being said, i don't always look back on my missed opportunities as a bad thing. Sometimes you have to get philosophical and think you're where you're supposed to be at any given time. hard to do most days but it's gotta be true.
This advice is more about the career path. When you start a career in CRE finance, it is critical to get as much reps early on to all types of asset classes, financial vehicles, transactions, etc... For example - a retail or office IS analyst at a major shop will have solid opportunities, but won't have the broad experience as a capital markets analyst who has worked on all kinds of debt and equity placement across all major asset classes. The more widespread experience you get early on, the wider array of opportunities you have even later on in the career. If you go from dedicated single asset class IS analyst to dedicated single asset class acquisitions associate, it will be much harder to jump into a diversified role or a different singular asset class role.
Also - earlier on in my career I cannot count how many times I heard "strong Argus experience" as a necessary prerequisite to being considered for a job. This is by far the easiest way to get into the CRE finance space.
This is wonderful advice.
For me networking has always been the easy part. Though I’m only a few years into my career I’ve built a pretty solid network (In large part due to the role i previously held), unfortunately that network has only been in my product type. When I became ready to move on from my previous role, you can imagine where the best opportunities came from.
All of that to say, try to put off isolating yourself into one product type, or role as long as you can. If you’re interested in acquisitions, look for an (acq/asset management/development) hybrid role. The experience you obtain from holding multiple posts is as valuable as anything in this business. I was obsessed with getting into acquisitions and found out I like other things even more than that after doing the job, so it was nice to have a multitude of responsibilities that allowed me to figure out what i liked.
This is a bit of a sidebar, but I think it's relevant. My job hunt(s) have been fine, in my opinion. My general "path" is what I would change.
I started, like many, with a name brand brokerage firm, and after some soul searching I realized I wanted to be on the development side. Knowing what I know now, at Undergrad+1 year, right there, I should have networked immediately to get into a development company or went to grad school immediately. Instead, I knew that I didn't know shit about development, so I went a roundabout path to try to "learn" more in acquisitions and a wide variety of odd jobs in real estate.
Ultimately frustrated, I went to graduate school for a MRED at Undergrad+3 years, only for 80% of my class to be Undergrad+1 years. Now it all worked out in the end, mind you, but I could have shaved 2-4 years off my timeline had I just immediately went after my goal as opposed to meandering through the real estate wilderness first. There are guys in my role 4 years my junior because their path was far more direct.
Know what you want and be deliberate about achieving it.
Piggybacking off CRE a bit.
As far as I can tell, there are three key and interrelated components to success: relationships, information, and time. Relationships matter not just because people do business with people they trust, but also because relationships equate to information. Information is power in decision making. Moreover, the compounding effect over time of good/informed decision making leads to success (however you define it to be).
That being said, genuine relationships take years to develop and require their own set of rules (trust, integrity, honesty, respect, conscientiousness, reliability, etc.). So, the sooner you can start meeting people, the better.
In short, define who/what you want to be and build relationships with those who can help you achieve your goals.
BTW, networking is a fine way to meet new people, but it doesn't count as relationship building. People who jump from networking to selling never close the deal. People who jump from networking to friend always close the deal.
To be quite frank, I would've gone back to school about a year or two earlier than I did. Starting the MS in RE program at NYU opened a metric shit-ton of doors for me that I spent a year trying to break down with networking, cold emailing, etc. Time might be the most precious commodity you've got and while in the grand scheme of things it may not matter much, I definitely would be in a better position if I had walked down this path by now.
A couple things come to mind:
Seek the top group at wherever you are. If you’re at that non-target, seek to be in the top student club and strive to be active. Repeat this. If there is no club, create one. You need to have that “extra”.
Start local and start early. Ok some of you have the opportunity to jump right into the Big Leagues. For the majority of us, it meant doing something more humble but you gained experience. For me, it was being an admin assistant for the summer at a law firm with a real estate practice. Anyways see the game as local, regional and national. Do what you can do to be attractive for the local jobs, the big regional and national jobs are the next step.
Can you do the job well? Do people want to work with you? Answer those two questions and work on your craft and how you come off to others.
Learn how to write well. It’s an opportunity every day to show how you communicate and formulate thoughts, but be uniquely you (don’t sound like a robot). Come up with original thoughts, approach things uniquely, be frank, truthful and to the point. You’ll earn respect that will go beyond just getting the job. Be methodical and creative.