I am currently working in small market at a family office as the lone associate/analyst in our acquisitions and development group. This is my 3rd year out of undergraduate and 1st year on the investment side. I report to the president of asset management (who is involved in the acquisitions and dev efforts) and the vp of acquisitions and development, who is essentially the department head. Our corporate structure is pretty flat.
Primary tasks for my job are analytic, involving lots of underwriting, market research some transaction coordination and small project management functions. I effectively have no peers at the company to benchmark my development to and want to make sure that I am growing in line with industry peers.
What are some of the key skills/experience that you guys have had along the way at each stage of your career? When did you first begin running deals from source to close? How much of your experience did you get on the job versus prior knowledge/off the desk experience? Any commentary would be helpful.
I am slightly more experience than thou but in a similar situation. My impression is that you generally need to blaze your own trail in a family office and build up a certain amount of trust and perceived loyalty. Curious to hear from others like @real_Skankhunt42" who have had some experience in the space.
If you're in a small market there are no "milestones" because realistically (depending on how small this market is) there may not be an alternative RE position available to you if you left or were fired.
But anyways, more generically with 1 year of experience you're still in a mode where all you shit needs to be double checked by someone and you'll have pretty much zero degree of independence.
To answer some of your specific questions:
When did you first begin running deals from source to close?: On the equity side no one just "starts" running deals solo mainly because DD and PSA negotiation are huge parts of the transaction process and the only way to learn what to look for is to do a lot of deals. Slowly over time you get some independence on this front, 0% solo then 2% then 5% then 10% so on and so forth. Sooner or later you're just bringing up the most critical business issues to the principal for the final decision. Except in some extreme examples (there's always exceptions to the rule) no one in their 20's are "running" deals for their company. Especially in a family office setting where the equity is sitting in the same office as you, they will be a large part of their own deals because they probably do very few of them a year and its their cash.
How much of your experience did you get on the job versus prior knowledge/off the desk experience?: With the exception of the concept of the time value of money 100% of my knowledge that is important for my day to day work has come from on the job experience.
My one piece of advice for you is to beg to be part of (at least listen in and be CC'd on redlines) any lease or PSA negotiation you can. Learning what comments/provisions are or are not acceptable, why and how that affects your real estate are THE most important thing you can learn in the business. Read all the redlines and if you can ask questions. There are tons and tons of 30 year-olds who have underwritten thousands of deals, done dozens of DD transactions but wouldn't know a casualty provision from from an environmental indemnity.
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