Recent grad - Small fund or bigger firm?
I just graduated and have three options available:
Acquisitions/Asset Management at a small fund (1.5 billion AUM) but rapidly growing, strong developer as well (1 billion in pipeline over the next few years).
Transactions/Valuations Analyst at a bigger firm (think CBRE, JLL, Cushman)
Transaction Advisory Real Estate at a big 4
My goal is to do a masters in a year at a target (think Cambridge, LSE) and REPE at a bigger fund down the line. Second and third option would obviously put the bigger brand name on my resume but first option is already a "buyside" position and since I'll have more responsibilities I might gain a broader set of skills / knowledge. I also interned at the small fund and have been involved in a 100 mm acquisition.
Would appreciate any advice from you guys. Thanks!
Option 1. Hands down if acquisitions/development is your end game.
Thanks for your reply. I would personally prefer the first option as well as the culture there is amazing, but was worried that grad school / REPE recruiters prefer bigger brands on resume.
Absolutely option 1.
1.5 billion is not that small, and you'll get real deal-side experience. Option 2 will mean plugging in someone else's assumptions into a template model, and option 3 is just brokerage. Option 1 will develop your ability to think through deals. This decision is a no-brainer in my opinion, especially if you like the culture.
If you want to REPE, then your first option is probably your best bet. I would put the V&A job at one of the big brokerages above the Big 4 job, most people I know that went the Big 4 route hated it.
Also, why not go with the small fund for more than a year?
Thanks for your reply. Since I didn’t go to a target for my bachelors I figured it might enhance my chances to get into a bigger REPE fund if I went to get my masters from a target as early as possible.
I agree. You want to be in RE so brokerage firm over a big four public accounting firm. At the end of the day, EXPERIENCE trumps all. You want to be as close to the transaction as possible. And you want to think about transaction from the investor side especially if that is your long game.
I interned in V&A and absolutely hated it. I would go with the acquisitions role. Buy-side experience is too valuable. 1.5B is nothing to scoff at either.
Why did you hate the valuations role? What did the daily work consist of? Any deal exposure? We’re you able to learn a lot?
Option 1 is your best bet by far. You can figure out exactly what you're going to get out of options 2 and 3, but option 1 in addition to providing a damn fine floor, has a huge ceiling in that you never know what kind of relationships you can develop with the important folks there. In addition to that, you'll get much more variety in your work which should make your life a lot more enjoyable.
Option 1 like others have said. It sounds like there's a lot of growth for it in the years to come. What market(s) and/or product type(s) do they compete in that they are projected to grow so quickly as a developer? In my market, most developers are slowing down due to not only excessively high land prices, but higher construction and labor costs.
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