What comes after REPE
Aware this is kinda an annoying college student question, but just genuinely curious what folks do after REPE. Obviously it’s difficult to have a family with the hours at the big funds, and most of the potential to achieve large amounts of wealth has been diluted into the public markets at these big funds, so what do different types of people do after MF REPE? Like what’s the RE equivalent of moving into corp dev/startup/big SM fund etc?
Portfolio Management, Asset Management, etc.
Who knows how the hours pan out up top. Some of the VPs on my team grind hours, some don’t. Some MDs the same.
Start your own fund? Go work in a more senior role at a smaller fund? Go work for a family office? Go work for a REIT (e.g. a corporate role)? I don't know... what comes after any non-entry job level job? You have to figure out how to write your own ticket. If finding a role that pays millions and has a 50 hour work week was a matter of just grinding out the ladder until you reach that, everyone would do it. At some point, if you want to make that kind of money, you have to be a little entrepreneurial and take some risk.
I feel like I say this every other week, but few people on these boards really has a sense of what "risk" means. It isn't (just) opportunity cost! And I know it's tough to realize this at the beginning of a career, when there are a lot of well-defined steps ahead, but life/career isn't one ever-ascending ladder, whereby doing a good job means automatic advancement to the next rung, the next paycheck, the next slug of carry. There doesn't always have to be an "after," and often there isn't. You gotta make that part up yourself.
This is really helpful tangible advice thanks sm. I never really thought you could start your own fund given the big players have such big platforms already, but good to know that it’s still possible!
Yeah, it is tough to raise a fund which is going to compete with a Core+ fund from Blackstone or KKR or whatever. But if you want to play in a specific asset class or geographic market, it's certainly possible! Or concentrate on smaller deals - bang your head against a wall doing ten $5mm deals instead of two $25mm deals. Big funds don't touch small deals, usually. I mean, you won't make as much money, but... expecting your career to end in "running a billion dollar fund" is pretty aggressive!
There is no "end goal" that is a one-size-fits all. You might be an MD at a REPE and stay there because your lifestyle has acclimated to the income and don't want a pay cut. You might have good enough connections to capital and go out on your own to syndicate or raise a fund for a few deals to make even more money or to just have more time on your hands as you sit on a bunch of ground leases and hire 3rd parties to manage your portfolio. Someone might decide to transition to a family office or smaller Dev shop to have slower deal flow and receive more carry.
A lot of people in college and early in their careers typically don't think enough about the whole picture and just focused on "I want to end up at C by 40 which means I need to be at B by 30 so that means I have to start my career at A right now". The reality is that you might start in RE and realize that the actual day to day job isn't for you so that 20 year plan you laid out is worthless. Or you might realize that the first step in that plan is amazing and you want build the entirety of your career there. There are also outside factors that might not seem important when you're 18-22 like seeing family outside of maybe once a year/building a family of your own (while giving your spouse and kids the appropriate amount of attention and not being absent)/living in a city that you can save for retirement or a house/being around friends and people that matter to you.
The best advice that I can give you is to not answer your initial question at all. Don't focus on what's after REPE, focus on your first job (which very well could be REPE or it could be a stepping stone job) and then prioritize life outside of work. The "after REPE" should be dictated on what makes you happy at the time, not an arbitrary timeline or career path.
Yeah definitely agree w everything you said. Funny how much more balanced the perspectives here are compared to the IB forum
Often its portfolio management.
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