Shifting from East Coast CRE to West Coast CRE job market?
Hello all,
Currently finishing my MSRE in NYC and have strongly considered moving back to family in Southern California.
Has anyone recently navigated a CRE job market after/before a geography move?
I would love to ask for your experience, challenges and any advice you may have. Building connections with a firm or business contact is challenging when in-person meetings are limited.
So far, I’ve successfully arranged 3 in-person coffee chats during my summer break trip home for the second half of August. Would appreciate any advice or thoughts, thank you.
Make sure you mention you are "moving back" vs. just moving. It will be infinitely easier for you as a result.
I'd also be clear that you have family back there. Makes a difference that you're coming back because you have roots and not just because it sounds like the next best thing
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Learn the white lie. Embrace the white lie. Does anyone need to know you have a small network in Cali? No.
No one is expecting you to have a deep network early in your career.
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They know that. No one expects a young kid to have an extensive professional network. It’s more about you having existing roots there, family in the area, etc.
I’ve lived and worked in 5 states now. It is quite difficult to relocate and takes a lot of work, but the second you have a tie to an area, it’s like getting the key to the castle. Emphasis that tie.
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I'm trying to do the opposite of what you are, feel free to PM me. Ditto on the white lie, create a story/narrative for yourself because you're always going to be asked Why SoCal/Why CA. Also another factor is how deep your job history is too. Title bump changed my interview velocity exponentially.
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When I relocated to join the Principal side I went with "I am moving here with our without a job, it'd be wonderful if it worked out at your firm but I am committed to living here and have enough momentum with shops to figure it out."
A bit aggressive but it did work out. People respond well when you're pot committed... it removes the shadow of doubt which in this case is "he is just coming here he struck out in NYC".
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Market wasn't really a consideration because the shop I joined covered the entire West Coast. The city I moved to was certainly smaller though.
Economy was pretty good. 2015ish so not frenzy just yet but darn good.
I think it really depends too on what level you're at. Different if you're searching for an associate role vs. a VP+
very agreeable
The west coast market (Similar as NYC) right now is pretty weak still. You will definitely have better luck if you are already living there.
Do you have experience prior to MSRE? I ask because associate roles are probably still more existent compared to VP especially if you're willing to work in AM. My west coast firm has made a couple younger hires lately at the AM role, and we got lots of candidates applying from NYC. Honestly, I'm not automatically dinging someone for that by any means, but if I have 3 strong candidates and two are already in California and the other is in NYC, I'm always just going to go with the California guys.
I do think you will have a hard time recruiting for a VP role right now in a new market unless you already worked in that market at some point in your career or have strong ties there. Either way, you need to be the cream of the crop and networking plays a huge role. I would expect this to take a while and a bunch of networking which you'll have to be there to do. Honestly, 3 coffee chats is probably not going to get you anywhere right now unless you're a lucky person.
Make sure you're clear on your ties there and that being a main reason to come back. When we were interviewing, we ALWAYS were cautious with market or role shifters and whether that's what they really wanted or if they were just desperate to find anything. I'm talking someone that was acquisitions telling me they actually want to work in AM now (is that true or are they just BS'ing because they can't find an acq role, and if we hire them they are just going to leave the minute the market opens up again?) or someone in NYC that "wants to move to California because they're over NYC and always wanted to live in California". Is that true or are they going to be over California in 2 years and run back to NYC when opportunities are flowing again? So make sure you are really clear about your intention and family ties to give comfort that you are really serious and not a flight risk.
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