Transitioned to a REIT
Hello WSO folks,
So I recently made the decision to join a public REIT (large city, reputable REIT) and have a bit of a dilemma.
My background/experience has been heavily involved in finance over the last ~5-6 years (traditional PE and then Structured Finance - debt/equity placement at a reputable shop). Given my background on the deal side (all of my stints were on the deal team), I was offered an “Acquisitions focused” role, but upon starting I quickly learned that it has absolutely nothing to do with Acquisitions and is more on the corporate / reporting side. I’ve brought this up with Sr Management a few times but it was casually dismissed. I even had a discussion with the C-level exec who hired me regarding the role and was told that I have a very solid understanding of economics, CRE and overall trends and that I shouldn’t be interested in Acquisitions because it’s “too transactional based and misses the bigger picture”.
I am obviously more experienced and interested in the deal side of things, any recommendations on how to approach this dilemma?
Thanks in advance
How long have you been there? Have they more/less confirmed that they have slotted you into a role that doesn't have deal exposure or could it just be a slow time from the deal perspective and you haven't gotten staffed on anything? What's the product type? If you are doing something like net lease, acquisition work is going to be pretty standard/transactional and they may have identified that you have potential to be looking at things from higher-level strategic perspective. They could think that they are doing you a favor. If this is the case, you'll just need to evaluate what you actually want and be completely honest with your manager(s). Is the work actually reporting? Related to above, are you doing FP&A or are you looking at and helping form the firm's acquisition/growth strategy? REITs have unique/potentially complicated capital structures and this can have a significant impact on acquisition strategy. Again, like above, management might think that they are offering you an opportunity to do some higher-level thinking and get better exposure - will need to decide if this is something you want to do.
The bait and switch obviously sucks, so I would just recommend keeping open/honest dialog about what you want to be doing and how that can align with firm's needs. You're far enough along in your career that you should have a pretty good idea of what you want to be doing and how that plays into your long term goals. Sorry if this rambled a bit, but have been in similar situation and these were some of the things I evaluated.