Is it fair to say that compared to other fields in finance, there appears to be far fewer job openings in real estate? I've been looking to move into the field but only have had a few interviews.
Has it always been this way or only recently due to a slower market?
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The answer is yes and yes
Less jobs and lower pay. Welcome to RE.
Always this way. You simply do not need as many people.
If anything, over the past 5-10 years it has grown SIGNIFICANTLY as real estate companies have gotten a lot more "corporate."
I was musing about this the other day. My path was a little bit less traditional. I went from RE Accounting --> RE Asset Management. As an accountant, I was getting good exposure, knew a lot about the investment return concepts/math, and just needed a "way in" type of role. I applied to dozens of jobs, interviewed many times, and it took me a long time to make the switch.
The truth is, a lot of people want to be in this field. In the great 2020/2021 "candidate's market", our firm did struggle to find what they called "good candidates" but they certainly had no shortage of candidates. Standards are high, experiential requirements can be intense, and it's not easy to get "in" (especially if you're coming from an unrelated industry). Looking at my accounting contacts, they can weave in and out of different industries with ease.
Our field scares me a little, in that there are just relatively few positions in general. If you're somewhat specialized into one asset class - and most firms are now - it's doubly scary. Let's say Joe Dipshit gets an Analyst gig in an industrial properties shop, gets promoted to Associate, has a decent 5-year run, and then gets shitcanned. A residential REIT, lab space investor, or office building developer (if they exist anymore) are going to pick someone who does what they do instead of this guy - or at very least, they will give preference to those persons unless Joe can really make a strong case.
Granted, I HAVE seen people make some interesting jumps across asset classes - it's just hard. Frankly, I think it can be ridiculous. I've known smart, sharp people who would do well in any RE role, and I've seen the very same get shot down due to this over-emphasis on specialization.
The CRE industry is also relationship focused, it is as much about who you know as your skillset/education/experience.
There are also many small firms and players that aren't well known. As mentioned by others, firms tend to run lean on personnel so they do not have resources/time to devote to full marketing when they hire/recruit. The path of least resistance is to ask their network for referrals.
Yes listings have fallen off a cliff in the last few weeks.
Currently trying to relocate from Chi due to to how thin it has been here. Not an ideal time to try and relocate to NYC should be a fun uphill battle...
I strongly second the network and referrals as well. I have always gotten farther with a solid reference than any dry portal application.
Best of luck.
CRE is very niche in terms of investing and for the most part it was spread out over family offices and not as many institutional firms for a long time. Since they were just a few people in those firms there was never a large amount of analyst jobs like there is in banking and more traditional investments. We've seen a large push in the institutional capital space so they are bringing on more analysts as their funds are being raised and growing, but it is still far from the amount of jobs like investment banking/PE/HF. Because of the returns and relative stability of RE investments compared to public equity markets or PE firms, you're seeing more LP investors emerge that are willing to "settle" for 15-18% returns that are much more attainable than the +25% returns that are promised and rarely delivered on in other spaces. The influx of LP capital is meaning that regional developers/REPEs are having more access to funds and doing more deals so they are growing as well. But, these more regional shops are bringing in maybe a new analyst or 2 every few years compared to MF REPE which might bring in a batch of analysts every year. These numbers are still dwarfed by the thousands of IB analysts that are brought in every year.
With that all said, while there is general growth in the industry leading to more and more jobs, we are in a high rate environment in an industry that is highly levered. People can't afford to do new deals for the most part so they are just trying to hold onto the people that already have let alone bring on new salaries.
Perfect explanation. I feel like it's the worst time to be looking for a CRE analyst position since the 07-08 recession. Hopefully it picks up soon
Breaking into CRE is extremely difficult, I don’t care what anyone says. There’s so much nepotism in this industry, and not to bring race into it, unlike other industries, CRE definitely still caters to a certain demographic.
Agree 100%
I know...all those Indian hotel operators. Really ruining it for the rest of us.
Sad but true.
the amount of nepotism in Toronto shops is pretty strong
It's both, to a degree.
It is always worth noting that fields like architecture or structural engineering are very much "real estate" roles, they just aren't real estate finance roles. If you work in an investment bank, all you do is finance, whereas buying or building an asset in CRE is only one very small piece of the pie.
Moreover, I think there is a fundamental difference between finance and real estate, in that real estate operators take risk and have real money in deals, and thus have more constraints around hiring than a bank does, where you run on a purely fee business and don't need to invest equity into a deal, and can therefore hire lots more people to chase lots more deals. There are three million active brokers in the United States... once you include them in the running, real estate suddenly dwarfs finance, even including commercial banking (I'm going to assume that number is right, since it makes sense. If someone has a more accurate citation please provide). Real estate is just so massive that it gets compartmentalized different than finance.
In that weird Associate-Sr Associate-VP phase over here, I'm still seeing plenty of opportunities from HeadHunters but mainly for Associate-level roles.
A Situs headhunter just reached out to me. Not my level, but said the associate placements right now were the most difficult.
If it's anything like I'm seeing, it's a lot of firms still thinking salaries are stuck in 2018 and that's why no one is biting. I love telling them my current comp so they can take the news back to the penny-pinching firm.
How come associates are difficult to hire right now
Have had multiple recruiters reach out for associate roles in past few days, all with comp less than making now as an analyst. Why would I move?
.
Also wondering - what comp are they quoting and in what market?
Have a friend that just left to buyside from HSBC RE IB.
They are busy and hiring juniors.
Not the first firm you'd think of for RE but have done some good deals in a tough 2022 and do a load in Middle East out of London.
Any idea what kind of CRE ops are open these days in the UK? curious to know what's the hot funds out there
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