I have been working in real estate for the last 3 years (2 years in portfolio analysis at a healthcare REIT and 1 year in asset management at a retail REIT) I want to transition to an acquisitions role at a large REIT or PERE firm, but I have had trouble getting interviews / making it past the first round. I am planning to apply to B school (CBS, Wharton, and Kenan-Flagler) to hopefully increase my chances of getting into one of these firms, however, I am questioning the necessity of B school as I feel like I am already qualified.
Do you think I should go to B school or continue to get experience in asset management and leverage that to transition to an acquisitions role?
I don't think it's necessary by any means, but it certainly won't hurt and at a lot of the big name shops it's basically a necessity to advance beyond a certain point.
You can definitely move from asset management to acquisitions...I did it from valuation lol. Just keep reaching out. The market is weird right now, firms are hiring but i've made it to some final rounds recently where they pulled the position due to market outlook. Also had a position defer me for 3 months until the need arises. Maybe I'm just unlucky lol.
I can contest to this I was interviewing for an acquisition associate role and they had an immediate need because of someone leaving, and then acquisitions within the firm fully changed where they are taking a serious pause with writing offers on the deals they are looking at and pulled the position.
I think you could definitely break in to a acquisitions role with that background, but I am guessing you would have to come in at the analyst/senior analyst level. B-School could be good to put you over the hump to land an acquisitions role as an associate as well as make it easier to land first rounds and ultimately have more options. However, this obviously comes at the expense of 2 years of your life and thousands of dollars. If that cost is to much then keep trying, it just takes one
If you want to do B school but are focused on real estate and don't want to take 2 years off, I would recommend looking at the MRED programs (Columbia, MIT, USC, Cal etc.)
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