Hi all,
I'm wondering if anyone on this forum has worked in multiple countries in the CRE industry, and if so how it has affected your career both negatively and positively. With CRE being relatively geographically silo'd compared to other industries, I imagine there are a number of negative outcomes from moving around (irrelevant market knowledge / network).
For context, I plan to move around despite any negative outcomes (personal reasons / young / love to travel). I am wondering if anyone has experience in doing so or any advice on how to make the most of it.
Thanks in advance
I've traveled to Asia and Europe on business (NYC based), and have met American ex-pats on every trip at many firms. Almost all have told a story of stepping out to do what you describe then getting 'stuck' in the city/firm/market they are in. In my own company, we have several Europeans here to which the same applies (our firm makes it semi-easy to transfer within the company to different companies).
'Stuck' is not meant to imply 'bad', in fact, it is the opposite, they became successful and grew roots in that market to where leaving would have been bad for their careers. Some also met someone, fell in love, and got married and leaving was then not in the cards.
So, upside/downside, I have no idea, but I think global market hopping is harder in practice. Personally, get a job where you can (nice way of saying, 'have to') travel globally, that fulfills the travel bug and allows for career progression naturally.
If you don't care about 'coming home' then set out and just know you may get 'stuck' in one of those places by choice. Coming back can be tough because firms 'back home' may not be willing to pay the cost of int'l airfare to interview you, not impossible, but more difficult.
Definitely talk to some ex-pats for their stories, the global nomad thing is harder to pull-off and have career/life progression at the same time.
But I've never done it, did consider it, but found it too difficult, so I just found jobs that made me travel.
Thanks for the response! Definitely agree that it’s difficult navigating the process. If you don’t mind me asking, do you ever regret not going through with it? On that same note what kind of firm/position are you in that allows you to travel to Europe/Asia while being based in NYC? My thinking would be that the firms doing cross border business would have locals on the ground in each market (or at the very least the London’s/Hong Kong’s/etc) making it unnecessary for people to travel like that? Sounds like you have the best of both worlds.
Okay, so first to the question on if I have any regrets...
NO... the closest I got to actually doing it was taking a job in Germany (Frankfurt area) that I was being soft-recruited for as I knew the MD of unit I'd work for well (he traveled to US often). The job I got out of grad school was way better and propelled my career farther and faster than if I took that one (at least so I think with the benefit of hindsight).
As to the question on getting a job that travels int'l. Clearly, working for a firm with cross border operations is part of it, and it goes without saying that seniority can increase the need to travel. This is absolutely the case in my own career. My current role is considered 'corporate' so I have to visit all the regional development offices in the US but also work with those overseas from time to time. (it's very weird to not be traveling now, work from home was very common before, but the travel ban is what's odd to me).
There are roles/departments that more likely to facilitate travel internationally. Those are generally related to capital markets (i.e. fund raising), research/strategy, and sometimes corporate functions like marketing, client mngt (if you have multinational clients/tenants/partners, etc.), and even corporate finance and legal (expect only the senior people to do the travel, but sometimes juniors have to tag along). Traditional roles like acquisitions and asset management are generally non-travel besides conferences and corp. meetings. Those that are closer to 'corporate' or 'support' are more likely to be travel based as they cannot afford or need a person in every market all the time.
Being in NYC, I find and know a lot of people who cross between Europe and/or Asia (or at least did up until a few months ago). So being based in a 'headquarters city' is probably a good idea (like NYC, Chicago, LA, SF, London, Hong Kong, etc.) to find more jobs that have the need.
In short, if you are creative and look for it, you can find more roles that require frequent travel even internationally. To be fair, whether that is the best for a career or earnings early in one's career is difficult to say. And these may be much harder jobs to get on a relative basis. Life is all about trade-offs so if you want to go a path like this, you may need to do something you didn't really think about or thought you wanted to originally, and that may have other trade-offs.
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