Hello,
I am a recently graduated finance student staring down two different career paths.
I recently got offered a position as a Capital Markets intern at a large CRE firm (JLL, CBRE, CW) on the West Coast (Secondary city). I would be an intern for 6-9 months and would be able to make analyst afterwards. I realize this is a very hard industry to break into and so I understand the value of an offer like this. I think the work would be stimulating and I don't mind the grind / long hours.
I also have a third round interview for this Friday at a pension plan/ defined benefit retirement plan consulting firm in my home town (Chicago). I have a strong feeling I will get the position as the first two interviews went really well and they seem very interested. It's a small firm (~15 employees) and my title would be "Investment Analyst" looking at different mutual funds etc. that would fit with the pension plans we are consulting for.
I just sat for Level 1 of the CFA and intend to eventually complete it. I always saw myself working with investments and stocks with the ultimate goal of working either in a hedge fund or PE if my path takes me there. With that said, I graduated from a complete non-target with very little internship experience (one PWM internship) and this opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a great, young CRE team seems really good. I'm indifferent on where I end up living but I do think being in Chicago would lead to more networking opportunities, but the CRE job probably has more exit opps in general (development/acquisitions, REITs, etc.). I don't want to get pigeonholed into the retirement consulting industry at this Chicago job, but that job would allow me to work with mutual funds and the market whereas this CRE job obviously doesn't involve that.
Comp at CRE is ~15/hour during internship then likely 50-60k as an analyst. Chicago job I'm unsure of but would guess around 60k.
Any advice, especially from people in CRE or the retirement pension plan consulting industry would be very welcome. Thanks.
This early in your career, I would not make salary a priority. I believe you should be saying to yourself, "If I take this position, what can I be doing in 5 years?". From what you have outlined, I believe the CRE job would be better. You will learn multiple asset classes at the brokerage, and if you decided to switch over to the buy-side (pension funds, asset managers, institutional investors), they will always be looking to invest in real estate.
Best of Luck.
I agree with the vision 5 years from now, thanks for the reply.
Pretty sure I know the firm you're talking about in Chicago. Just wanted to let you know that I know someone that exited to PE after about five years with them
Do you want to be in real estate or not? Seems like you need to figure that out first and foremost. I would imagine that a capital markets analyst job would set you up for a fairly easy transition into traditional banking finance, significantly harder moving the other way around into RE from elsewhere.
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