Need guidance for my career.

First of all, English is not my first language so I apologize for any mistakes that I might make.

But anyway, I'm in need of advice at this moment, any inputs would be really appreciated.

I graduated from a top 60 US college (according to US news) in 2016 with a BS in Economics and 3.81 overall GPA (3.87 major GPA), then I took a gap year from summer 2016 to summer 2017 to just travel all over the US and basically worked as a travel photographer. Then I went to a top 10 non-ivy US college (also according to US news) and got a MS in Finance degree from them. I went into Finance because I didn't know what I wanted to do back then and I thought Finance would be practical. Anyway, graduated in August 2018.

The problem was, I had 0 internship experiences, like literally 0. All the finance jobs I applied were requiring relevant internship experiences. But luckily, I went to a career fair and they were impressed by my academic achievements and the "prestige" of the university I went to for my graduate study and offered me a research analyst job at a regional JLL office under their strategic consulting department.

I really want to work for REPE, how do I get there from here? Any technical skills I need to master?

And if I want to do management consulting then what kind of MBA should I go for? Any technical skills I need to master?

Thank you guys!

5 Comments
 

you have to start somewhere. If you have the means to continue to job hunt and pass on this opportunity for a future repe gig, by all means do it.

 

Is it possible for me to take this job then jump ship to REPE? If that's possible then what technical skills do I need for the switch later on? VBA? SQL? Anythjng?

I'm asking this because I have 0 professional work experiences in any coporation. Quite a lot of recruiters have asked me why I don't have any (I spent all summer traveling and having fun :/). So I'm taking this job to accumulate some "real world" experiences at a corporation and gain some real estate industry insights.

 
Most Helpful

Unfortunately, REPE is a completely different skill set and job function than research at a brokerage. I would recommend taking the job and trying to switch over to a top brokerage team. At least that way, the move would be internal and you would learn actual skill sets that would help you in REPE. Plus, REPE shops regularly recruit from top brokerage teams.

In the meantime, it wouldn't hurt to grab coffees and network around while you have a job. When you hear wind of a good opportunity, pounce on it.

In regards to learning VBA and SQL, it certainly won't hurt since some shops utilize them. However, the key word is "some". Deal specific experience is most important and the best way to acquire it is by seeing deals.

 

Thank you so much for your advice CRESEA, I really appreciate it.

What do you mean by top teams? Any specific department?

Another question is that this regional office is quite small compared to their headquarter in my country, and the city itself doesn't have many REPE firms and professionals. So do you think it is wise to jump to one of their competitors in a way much bigger city after a year or something and then network my way into a PERE if transferring is not an option? (I have heard from my colleagues that transferring office can be pretty hard).

 

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