Leave Shitty first Job off of Resume?
I worked as a property manager my first year out of college and then maneuvered into an offer with a developer about a year later. Kind of a shitty/'unprestigious' first job, but I come from a working class background, was dead broke with no offer in RE finance on graduation and chose to do what I had to do to pay the bills and support myself without leaning on my parents while I looked for a better job.
Honestly it was great experience for what it was and really put my ego in check and made me grow the fuck up as a person. But i feel like it's looked down upon by people in 'more prestigious' CRE roles. I have gotten some incredulous questions in interviews and I feel like it has gotten me dinged, although that's speculation.
Anyways, my question - it's been a few years since then and I've got some good experience under my belt - can I just leave it off my resume / Linked In profile?
Obviously i'll speak to it if asked about what I was doing that year, but doesn't seem like it would come up since It's my oldest job and I have years of more relevant experience since.
What do you guys think?
Anyone who ‘dings’ you for that role you wouldn’t want to work for anyways. Interviewing has a huge story telling component and working in property management shows you have had a genuine interest in real estate since graduation. Sure it was a shit job, but frame it as something positive and how it influenced your desire to transition to development. I’ve seen guys on here talk about lateraling from working construction to eventually working in acquisitions and asset management at reputable firms. I worked at a nnn lease brokerage with 3 total employees doing cold calls my last of months of college and deemed it an ‘internship’ on my resume. I interned at a VC fund my junior year, but the shit brokerage gig was my only relevant RE experience outside of the classroom.
Fast forward a month after that shit internship, I got an offer from a highly regarded brokerage firm as an analyst based on that ‘shitty job.’ It showed my desire to learn and passion for real estate and that will always be an asset to you. This isn’t the IB track where ‘prestigious’ internships/jobs make or break a candidate. Keep it on there because you likely have a better story to tell then the kid that interned at JLL and was a full time analyst at Eastdil after grad.
The owner of my +20B firm started working in property management 40 years ago as his first job out of college and he is a billionaire. If you don't understand how hard it is to run the assets, you don't fully appreciate the finance side of it. In my opinion, that makes a good story, fuck prestige - this is RE, no one cares about that shit.
Dude..... be proud of it! You started in property management and made it to development in one year! If you omit, you would literally be taking the most impressive success story off your resume.....
Think about it, who "ranks" higher.... someone who fights up from the bottom and beats all the "trust fund" kids or someone who "lands it" easily!!! You should be leading with this story, how you did it, and why it makes you awesome in all future networking/job interviews. Tbh, I really don't think any legit firms/successful people would do anything but be impressed. Could this bother some "trust fund" types... YES, but guess what... if you are not in that club already, omitting this isn't going to help.
Seriously.. make this part of your power play!
I think it's worth keeping on your resume because of how you were able to pivot after a year. I think the big institutional shops might not look at it favorably but like these other posters have said they might not be people worth working for. Property management is an aspect of asset management, it's working directly with the tenants to make sure rent comes in and analyzing how the property is performing or what capital expenditures need to occur. I think people really forget that real estate is a tangible physical asset unlike other assets in finance.
Absolutely leave it on your resume.
Firstly it shows you were able to make the pivot. Secondly there are a TON of shops out there that have LDPs that start first years off in property management for 6 months to a year. Property management isn't glamorous but it is absolutely crucial to the industry and is important knowledge to have. Hell, a lot of institutional shops will also put new/next in line C suite execs through a year rotation in Operations/Property Management to give them a taste of the entire business.
I won't add anything extra that hasn't been said other than I was in a similar position earlier in my real estate career. Only as I advanced into more significant roles and into companies that actually cared about my story did they become truly interested about the beginning stages of my real estate career. Absolutely leave it in and take pride that you're taking a different route than most. My two cents.
Thanks for the input everyone - feeling a lot better about my situation. It's a good point that's been made - if an employer was really put off by my this that's a red flag as it is.
It's easy to start feeling like an outsider in this corner of the professional world for those with an atypical background and I appreciate this site for that reason. Good to hear people's uncensored perspectives.
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