Reneging MBB Offer to search for CRE job?
I’m an MBA at a t10 and have a few weeks to accept/deny a return offer to MBB. I didn’t like the nature of consulting work and I don’t really see it “accelerating” my career because I’m interested in CRE. I’d like to do RE Development and Acquisitions but the issue is that they recruit just in time (probably would get a job right before graduation) and outcomes can be pretty volatile. I was thinking about accepting my MBB offer, choosing the furthest out start date and using that as insurance so if I can’t find a RE job I can go work in consulting.
Based on the highest ranked content on WSO, you're facing a classic "bird in the hand vs. two in the bush" dilemma that many finance professionals encounter.
The Strategic Play: Accept and Keep Your Options Open
The WSO community consistently advises taking the offer with a safety net approach. As one top-rated thread puts it: "If a company gives you an offer with a tight deadline you should take it. Once accepted you can still keep recruiting for 'better' choices."
Why This Makes Sense for Your Situation:
CRE Recruiting Reality: You're absolutely right that CRE recruiting is volatile and just-in-time. The market has become increasingly institutionalized, making entry-level positions more competitive than ever.
Insurance Policy: Your MBB offer provides crucial downside protection. If CRE opportunities don't materialize, you have a prestigious backup that keeps your career trajectory strong.
Bridge Burning vs. Career Security: While reneging will likely burn the bridge with MBB forever, if you land a significantly better CRE opportunity that aligns with your long-term goals, it may be worth it.
The WSO Wisdom: Multiple threads emphasize that in uncertain economic times, it's especially risky to walk away from solid offers. One Associate noted: "I would not risk rejecting an offer, especially this late, unless you are absolutely certain you can secure another offer."
Your Action Plan: - Accept the MBB offer with the latest possible start date - Aggressively network in CRE during your remaining MBA time - Only renege if you secure a development or acquisitions role that truly advances your CRE career goals
Remember, real estate is extremely relationship-driven, so use your remaining MBA time to build those crucial industry connections.
Sources: Guide to Dealing with Competing Offers and Timelines, Early IB Offer with exploding deadline - months before normal recruiting, Turn down FT BB offer for MBB recruiting??, Accept mid-tier BB Offer or continue recruiting?, Job Oppertunity - Commercial Real Estate Finance
This is a no brainer. Accept the offer you have in hand, especially considering it is an MBB offer. You can always turn it down later on if you get some type of dream CRE offer, although based on everything you said and what I understand about the industry, this might be a bit of a pipedream, especially on the limited time table that you mentioned.
What you should really do is accept the offer, get 1-2 years under your belt, then pivot if you hate it. You will have a far easier time opening all kinds of doors with MBB on your resume than without.
True I can always pivot, but from what I’ve heard in coffee chats with CRE professionals they dont heavily weight MBB credentials like a PE firm or corporation would
that’s more because no one weighs anything all that heavily in CRE unless youre coming out of a 2 yr IB program to big institutional RE fund
No one is going to give you a standing O for working in IB/PE/MBB but it makes you a pretty high floor hire for junior work and more importantly makes your “story” very easy to follow. I would rather hire you than some cold call machine at Marcus and Milichap.
Because commercial real estate is a results industy and management consulting is a nonsense industry.
Not earning you bonus points doesn't mean that it's going to count against you though. You'll still come out of it with a brand name company on your resume to go along with your top MBA. You'll get plenty of looks.
Dev/Acq jobs right now are very very limited. I say take the job and recruit while you have a job. This is a tough tough market right now
“I was thinking about accepting my MBB offer, choosing the furthest out start date and using that as insurance so if I can’t find a RE job I can go work in consulting.”
…yes. Do that. Obviously.
I did exactly this out of UG and am glad I did
A very substantial portion of my class at a highly ranked RE school didn't have a job at graduation. If you can pull it off, very good, but one of my mentors always says "sometimes you need a job before you start your career."
I'd take the consulting gig as a safety while recruiting for CRE -- because it could take awhile to turn anything up.
Handful of friends who did MBB, all of which have left the consulting realm but all secured very cool jobs at tech, RE, PE, etc. Take MBB all day long
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