RE Acquisitions Opportunities out of UG

Hello, I currently go to a Target for RE and I am looking to pursue a career in acquisitions out of school. While I have prepared myself well through internships and classes, do you guys have any recommendations for firms to target outside of BX and SW? Looking for summer 2022.

I have been doing some research but I am not truly sure what firms hire UG for acquisitions roles

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So, best advice I would give is not to narrow cast your search. You and everyone wants to aim for acquisitions at places like BX/SW, how many slots will be open in 2022 at those firms and others is a total crapshoot. If you can get an analyst position (regardless of acq/am/etc) at any firm on the PERE or IREI lists direct from UG you are doing well. A lot of the principal firms in CRE rather not hire out of UG given the amount of experienced and grad degree holders out there very happy to take analyst/assoc. roles at those firms. 

Getting transactional experience at an I-bank or IS/DE brokerage is awesome training for doing acquisitions work, and those places like (or tolerate and abuse) UGs. 

 
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To be blunt, I have no idea on the particulars of BX/SW or other "big name" PE shops.... so these comments below are more generalized to real estate/finance

- Intern programs come and go and can be expanded or contracted year by year, generally by function of planned hiring needs (which is a function of firm growth, attrition, and other strategic aims of the firm at large)

- There generally two "types" of intern programs - 1. The large formalized one operated by HR in some centralized capacity (i.e those with OCR, etc.) and 2. The direct hire by business units (i.e. the informal ones, where HR just processes paperwork and/or does the job post for BU as client). These can happen at the same time at the same firm, no rules unless they make them. It is the second one where networking and family connections become valuable (i.e. the internship was created when so and so's kid needed an internship). 

- Only in the "direct hire" situation are you likely to be guaranteed onto the team you want, as they are doing direct. The larger programs may have "slots" for acquisitions but you may not have any guarantee or can specify application (nor should you), and some even attempt some "rotation" around the firm (this is really the best).

So, bottom line, better to cast a wide net, work on networking and alum connections (some intern slots are literally held for schools/programs where exec/founders sit on boards and give big $$$ money to). A firm like BX may literally 2 UG acquisition intern slots in a given year in a given office (I would seriously expect it to be a number under 10, maybe under 5 in any one office, so my 'best useless guess' is 2). All you can do is fight like hell for the best spot you get.

Note, the banks and brokerages (at least pre-covid) have much larger intern programs due to need to fill more FT slots out of UG, due to the short tenure of analysts. Hence why those programs are so "big" and prominent. 

 

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