Is it too early for me to work at a pension fund?
I'm deep in the process of interviewing with one of US's largest state employee pension funds for an associate role on their real estate team. The role, pay, and team culture and WLB are all awesome, but I'm having second thoughts about being at an allocator at this stage in my career.
I'm early 30's and currently an asset manager at a large institutional firm (UMM player) where this particular pension fund is actually one of our clients. We do direct deals and LP positions so it's not like we're in the weeds on all operations, but we're not simply underwriting capital placements and monitoring portfolio metrics as an allocator does (from my understanding). We're managing the real estate real time across various mandates, geographies, asset classes, etc. and it's "higher octane" than the stereotypical "sleepy pension fund". I think at this stage in my career I still prefer to work hard, grind, and accelerate my growth and learning. Maybe I could get that at this PF but not sure.
My long-term goal is to operate my own investment platform, whether as a GP (to start) or as a smaller LP. I have experience at GP's, the current LP firm, and would complete the trifecta with this allocator role. I feel that getting the resume stamp of this pension fund would set me up well in terms of credibility. Or maybe I should go the other way and try to go back down to a smaller operator. I don't know...
So question for you all- if you were in my shoes, would you take this allocator job, stay at a large institutional private equity firm, or try get a promotion at a smaller GP shop? Thanks yall
bot begone
Left the GP world at a top 10 PERE firm for a pension fund, and it was the best decision I've ever made. One thing to note is that what you might deem as "sleepy" may not actually be the case (depends on the pension fund as there is a difference between some of the majors and minors). That was a soft impression I had, but surprised to the upside at the asset-level execution the role entails. The prior experience will serve you well, and you should be able to differentiate yourself by being involved in the execution alongside your partners.
Buyside is nice, higher quality of life. Get wined and dined.
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