Post graduation job fear

Also would love insight from seniors. What would you do if you're young trying to break-in to institutional brokerage at the analyst level right now?

I do my best to think positive but when I read VP/MD posts on here about how turbulent times ahead may be it destroys my optimism 

Current senior here.

I understand your fear and it makes sense given the market. The spring semester will have many opportunities available. Check SelectLeaders, your school’s job board, Handshake, LinkedIn, etc. Network to connect with people that work at firms that have job postings up. Look at opportunities in asset/portfolio management, and other principal side job functions in addition to brokerage. Before you interview, do a mock interview at your school/with a friend. I did all these things and am happy with the offer I have. You got this.

Its struggles across the board. Headcounts are being reduced and hiring is frozen. Best to lean on your network and think about roles that do well during downtimes. 

For example, the "shining stars" graduating from USC are taking lesser roles or can't find anything. A lot of them are delaying graduating due to no offers sticking. I personally wouldn't do that because it's just going to get worse.  

I am graduating college this month and have a job lined up at a boutique brokerage. Of course it is great working at one of the big firms but apply and network with the small companies too. Some of the top teams for different niches are at a boutique shop and not at the big dogs like CBRE, JLL, etc. There are some great teams that aren't with the big companies that you will be able to learn a lot from. Brokerage is all about creating opportunities for yourself so start cold emailing asking to chat and maybe a opportunity will come knocking.

If you really want to be a broker, your ultimate fallback could be becoming a one man brokerage shop. Slap together an LLC and sell a 4 flat to your doctor. Any prestigious institutional group would love that story when they're recruiting again. 

I guess it depends. I came into CRE after being exposed to it late, after my internship is something completely different. I wasn't able to get a job in CRE right out of school, went Big 4 and then ended up networking and finding after. The most important thing will be finding just about anything at first, the first step is usually the hardest. If you can't find anything then I'd recommend joining ULI or something and networking more aggressively.

Transactions are down significantly and many brokerages are cutting headcount. The market isn’t great right now. Just giving some color on the transaction market which effects brokerage opening. 
 

most analyst jobs won’t recruit until the spring. So just keep networking. Also, don’t only recruit for institutional brokerage. There are maybe 5 shops in each city that do this level of brokerage. CBRE, JLL, Newmark, C&W, Avison Young-that’s probably it. That’s not a large basket. Expand your horizons. You can always work in another vertical and transfer in later. Maybe go to an acquisitions team. Or maybe a valuations team. Try for something on the buyside. Try to do brokerage at different firms in your market. Just keep networking. And remember most jobs won’t pop up until the spring. 

This will be lengthy but I hope it helps because I was anxious as hell about this stuff as recently as this spring too and I know how you feel. It sucks.

I was/am a CRE junkie. Was very on top of the final summer internship stuff (even had a brokerage office job during school year since my UG is in a major metro) and got no bites on probably 100+ apps during fall recruiting cycle. Bombed the couple interviews I got over winter break- the big one being a private equity shop that I had no business even making it to the super day with my resume. That crushed me and I thought I had blown my one chance at a front end investment track. Ended up getting a property accounting internship in March just because I needed something.

So I went and did the best I could for accounting and begged acquisitions for work on the side. Made maps for IC, took the SVP to get his tire changed, etc. Bothered older guys until they taught me how to underwrite/model in my downtime.

Fast forward, I got lucky and acquisitions liked me and helped me switch over to them with a FT offer. I had followed through with some other interview processes while they procured the actual offer letter, and actually got 2 other great outside offers.

I went from not having an internship until March (in property accounting for $14/hr) to having 3 offers.. the non-CRE corporate finance offer being the most lucrative at about ~115k.

Point is while I obviously benefited from some luck to be in acquisitions, it’s far from over for you man. You are ahead of the game if you land any sort of internship. Say I never got to switch internally— a boring, low-pay property accounting internship still got me 2 other great offers at large institutions and I don’t have a target school or high GPA.

Try not to stress and don’t give up- just keep shooting out apps. Even if it’s not CRE at first there are a ton of good jobs out there and I guarantee you are better off than most people you pass on the sidewalk.

When I was a junior I didn’t land my internship until the spring. There will be many more internship openings over the next coming months and I would just focus on getting something that gives you experience related to what you want to do post graduation. Asset management and valuation roles are going to be much more prevalent in comparison to acquisitions or brokerage so getting experience in one of those roles and leveraging that with your alumni network I’m sure you would be able to get interviews with any of those large brokerages when you are recruiting for full time.