Graduated in 2021 and have about 5yoe at a highly respected institutional firm in my VHCOL city. Learnt a lot but there's been a ton of churn with senior execs on my team and the leadership/growth path is basically nonexistent. My current comp is borderline illegal, but I was fine with it for a while to get a good resume and jump. I'm an associate with basically no room to grow here, morale sucks, and pay sucks, and not learning much anymore.
I'm about to get a potential offer from a corporate fashion company (think along the lines of Ralph Lauren, Armani, etc...) to manage their North American portfolio. Total comp is ~150k. Good exposure to national markets (lots of travel) and learning a very different side of the business. I could definitely see myself climbing the ladder on the tenant side, and use this as a stepping stone to become VP of RE somewhere else in a few years.
Is this a good jump, to go from institutional to corporate ? What are the risks? If I hated it, how hard would it be to get back in to LL side? Is this seem as a promotion, pivot, or a demotion? Also, is ~150k total comp horrible for 4-5yoe?
(Also note - I've been applying to most other major landlords for 12-18 months to no avail. I've spoken to many of them and there just aren't many opportunities right now. )
The risk is that it’s a very different business from what most people here think of as commercial real estate. Your skillset will not necessarily transfer, nor will it transfer back. Something else to keep in mind is that you may make strong base & bonus comp, but you’re almost never going to actually make the big bucks from things like carry or promote that you otherwise would in the REPE or Development world.
That doesn’t mean it’s a bad move though. Most people in REPE or Development aren’t entrepreneurs either and I know a number of people who work in corporate real estate for brand name companies who do quite well for themselves. But their exit opps are less “switch to REPE specializing in retail” and more “switch to another brand’s real estate department” or “become a retail consultant.”
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