No Job Luck - Advice?
Howdy Monkeys,
I am a May '17 Grad from a Big 12 school in TX looking to start my career in Houston, Austin, or Dallas. All of my networking has been in Houston, and I seem to have cast a pretty good net. However, I am not having any luck finding a job. I have a strong resume followed with a strong personality, and am looking for analyst opportunities in development/acquisitions or capital markets. I am not looking for any bland job, but an opportunity to start my career. Does anybody out there have any leads or advice? At what point does time come to call it quits in trying to break into this industry?
I think an overlooked job that has deal flow, diversity in businesses, and geographic diversity is SBA lending underwriting. If all else fails, try look into it.
And there is often times CRE analysis, either on the acquisition, rehab, Construction and leasing. Not to mention understanding different businesses who could be your tenants. Understanding and underwriting risk.
I started my career in Houston (in appraisal). I now reside in the NE because I found that the job market down there wasn't super deep.
I can relate to your situation as it took me quite some time to make progress in landing something after graduating in May. I started my search by casting a net that, in hindsight was very overambitious. I wanted to work as an analyst in development/acquisitions, and targeted jobs of this sort to find that they are extremely hard, if not impossible to get without having prior RE experience coupled with great grades which I, much like yourself, did not have. I also felt that I had a strong resume given that I was very involved in extracurriculars, had great leadership experience, and had worked full time during my last year of school (literally worked 50+ hours a week for a full year while being a full time student). However, I found that crudentials and efforts of this sort were not nearly as dazzling to employers, as I had imagined. They were more impressed with candidates who had demonstrated an interest/commitment to the industry by having already worked internships in the industry. After pursuing many of this sort, I made the ultimate decision to start off in brokerage. My advice- consider working as an analyst in brokerage. It will provide you with reputable financial exposure to a wide range of applications within real estate, and doing so under a big name will carry quite a bit of weight on your resume when you decide to move on. I can't speak to Houston or Austin, but I have noticed that many of the big brokerages in Dallas have posted numerous jobs over the past few months.
Without RE focused internships or work experience it will be very difficult for you to break in as an analyst unless you have a close personal connection. You should strongly consider internships or research/support positions just to get your foot in the door. Another viable route is searching outside of the brokerage/ownership side of the industry. Consider opportunities with a retailer expanding its RE footprint, or even the construction and/or design side of development. Whatever you can do to get relevant experience while meeting/working with people in the industry is your next best step.
Without real estate experience and with a sub 3.0 GPA you need to humble yourself a bit and stop this "I'm not looking for a bland job" stuff. I know people with 4.0s and Masters degrees with 3 years experience that are struggling to get a job in development or acquisitions and a trip to the WSO thread about job hunting will show you how difficult and grueling it can be.
It's a whole lot easier to find your desired development/acquisitions job when you have a job in the industry. This can be construction management, debt/lending, property management, brokerage, etc. The important thing is to get into the industry.
Everything about this is correct. I started as an appraiser analyst making $35,000/year and I lived in a 2BR apartment with an arguing Muslim couple for a year. I, too, had a sub-3.0 GPA and no RE work experience. Humble thyself or likely remain unemployed.
CRE & @Dances with Dachshunds" said it best, but i'm also going to jump on the bandwagon here. I had 3 years of finance experience after graduating from college, had to take a significant paycut and roughly 14 months worth of networking before my first offer as a credit analyst. Currently working two jobs to make up the difference of the paycut I took, however I wouldn't change it for the world. Best of luck and NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK!!
Thank you for the comments. Additionally, what are some creative ways to stay on top of contacts other than emails and phone calls?
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