Is a layoff inevitable in this industry?

I’m a senior analyst at a development shop and have been in the industry for about 2.5 years. I feel lucky that I haven’t been laid off yet, but I feel like I hear a lot of older heads talking about being laid off in their career or their career falling apart at some point, etc etc.

Do you think, in this industry, lay offs are inevitable at some point? Or do people generally stayed employed throughout a career in this industry.

8 Comments
 

Have been in the industry probably the same amount of time as you - but seems likely. Seems there's a lot of ups and downs, now being a down market with people/teams getting laid off. Many teams run lean tho so maybe they won't layoff, but you also see firms that emerged after 08 that grew and are now struggling with projects like Nightingale (much worse) /JDS/others and I'm sure have no problem laying people off anyway. Firms will do whatever they need to stay alive.

 

I don't think he means "are cycles of layoffs inevitable in this industry", but rather, do most people individually in this industry experience being laid off themselves during their career. Those are two quite different things. I am currently in consulting and i am interested in this question as well, as I'm trying to transition post MBA to CRE.

People here often use consulting as an example of another industry that experiences large cyclical layoffs. This is true - my firm just went through massive rounds of multiple layoffs by our standards over the last 12 months or so. Other firms in our business competitor mix laid off to a similar degree (think MBB/T2). Very importantly though, i never felt in danger of losing my job despite us ultimately losing 15% of our headcount... I'm a high performer who was reassured numerous times that i was safe. so i think its a good question by OP, and one that I've been meaning to ask.... regardless of performance, will one always be at the mercy of a down cycle in CRE? Is being laid off yourself inevitable?

 

I have never considered layoffs an inevitability in this industry nor do I expect to be laid off. Kind of a weird mindset to have IMO. 

Commercial Real Estate Developer
 
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I think layoffs are super, super situational. I wasn't exactly laid off in 2019 but I was given a timeline and firmly persuaded to start looking because the top producer in my team (was in brokerage at the time) left to go to the principal side. I was able to find a great job and quit on my own terms, but I probably would have been laid off if I waited around for another few months. That period of time was a relatively good one for real estate investment / capital markets jobs.

Fast forward to today, not a great time to be a real estate investor or intermediary, as we all know, but I personally don't foresee a great chance of myself being laid off because there are still plenty of AM problems to fix / dispositions to manage at my company.

Not sure if this is helpful at all but I have experienced both a pending layoff during a boom time as well as relative stability during a shitty time. So I am inclined to say that it really is luck of the draw, unless you're an underperformer but that's another issue entirely

 

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