What does the first year day-to-day look like as an Assoc. PM at JLL, CBRE, etc, look like?
Hey Monkeys,
I'm an architect looking to transition to developer/CRE management for obvious reasons.
I have 8 years exp, none of which is PM related, mostly design and technical, promoted through the years and well liked, but the burn out and effort I'm putting is not paying off.
The only interviews I'm getting in the CRE/management space are for Associate PM roles which sometimes have preferred years of experience listed (1-3 typically), sometime not. I feel over qualified, and will most likely take a salary hit if I take an APM role, though I've been told it's a fast progression to PM (potentially less than a 12 months), and hopefully there's a pay off in the PM, and then Senior PM roles.
Can someone give a summary of the day to day experience/tasks within the first year working as an APM at a large CRE project management firm?
Alternately if there architects who transitioned, how did that go? Leaving your "passion" behind.
thanks,
M
edit: this would be in project management, not RE development.
I was on the capital markets side so I don’t have the best color, but when we did interact with them it was mostly for large scale capex projects and assets undergoing a heavy value add program. I do know they would sometimes work on ground up deals but I think the bulk of their work is consulting on pre-existing projects.
I know not the best answer you were looking for but hopefully slightly helpful
I assume this is a PM role on the PDS team ?
Thanks. Yes, helpful. From what I understand it's alot of tenent fitouts, interiors, etc., with some ground up work.
If you're not feeling architecture, then yes make the move now. You will feel overqualified at an APM, but it is good experience. Make sure you learn about the group the role reports to, and that you will like your direct manager. You will spend most of the first year trailing S/PMs, S/VPs and learning how to work with clients and the project management process. Your life will be tracking items and creating meeting minutes for all projects. There should also be some good learning and training opportunities. You could also be on the corporate account side of the business where you embed with a company that outsources RE services. This can be ok but you get stuck and there's not as much of an opportunity to work on diverse things.
A lot of success in the large 3rd party firms comes from the connections you meet, both internally, and via clients. I really value my network many years after my experiences as a PM. Growing internally is largely dependent on your relationships with senior management, and there will be a lot of politics and bs to contend with. Accept that this is part of a game you need to play while appearing as affable and good natured as possible. Not a fun part of the business but necessary career-wise.
This is very helpful. I didn't think about meeting minutes, but good to know going in rather than having my ego checked.
I did this from the construction perspective and I'm in development now.
3rd party PM work is what developers would consider a Construction Manager/Owners Rep/Owner's Project Manager, something along the lines of that. Smaller shops will have an all-in role of CM-DM-Finance/Acq, but what you'd be doing is basically the "CM" portion of it; maybe a little bit of DM if you're doing ground up as well.
You're largely going to be quarterbacking design teams and GCs, so really doing design management and construction management. Chances are you're going to be working for a shitshow organization without in-house real estate people and it's going to be an absolute mess with a ton of responsibility and variance on experience. You're probably not going to touch any entitlements pieces other than maybe getting permits so it's going to be a little limiting on experience from a pure play development role, but still sets you up with more skills.
If you're in Assoc. PM position, you're likely going to be doing interior fitouts and repositionings, so you're likely going to be limited on scope and running a bunch of small projects and it will probably kinda suck. Pay's better than architecture, gives you a good taste of what CM/DM is about, but to transition to a major/institutional developer you're likely going to need some level of finance experience. To be clear, it's a great jumping off point from A/E roles to kind of an owner-lite role and definitely will be helpful than just staying in architecture. I used this + going back to school to do math and transitioned that way. I was making ~100k as an Assoc PM/PM with around ~2 years of experience but this was back in the late 2010's so it should be a little higher now.
I've seen the transition to small developer roles from the position but it's pretty hard and more limiting without school, not impossible though.
I did this from the construction perspective and I'm in development now.
3rd party PM work is what developers would consider a Construction Manager/Owners Rep/Owner's Project Manager, something along the lines of that. Smaller shops will have an all-in role of CM-DM-Finance/Acq, but what you'd be doing is basically the "CM" portion of it; maybe a little bit of DM if you're doing ground up as well.
You're largely going to be quarterbacking design teams and GCs, so really doing design management and construction management. Chances are you're going to be working for a shitshow organization without in-house real estate people and it's going to be an absolute mess with a ton of responsibility and variance on experience. You're probably not going to touch any entitlements pieces other than maybe getting permits so it's going to be a little limiting on experience from a pure play development role, but still sets you up with more skills.
If you're in Assoc. PM position, you're likely going to be doing interior fitouts and repositionings, so you're likely going to be limited on scope and running a bunch of small projects and it will probably kinda suck. Pay's better than architecture, gives you a good taste of what CM/DM is about, but to transition to a major/institutional developer you're likely going to need some level of finance experience. To be clear, it's a great jumping off point from A/E roles to kind of an owner-lite role and definitely will be helpful than just staying in architecture. I used this + going back to school to do math and transitioned that way. I was making ~100k as an Assoc PM/PM with around ~2 years of experience but this was back in the late 2010's so it should be a little higher now.
I've seen the transition to small developer roles from the position but it's pretty hard and more limiting without school, not impossible though.
Edit: I actually read your post this time and yeah you're gonna be overqualified from a design perspective, unfortunately that's just how it goes. You'll need to brush up on the actual PM processes ie, bidding, permits, payments, budgets etc. so there's definitely a going to be learning curve but it's going to be really valuable for development. Design/technical experience has diminishing returns the longer you stay so if you wanna do something else there's no time like the present.
Super helpful. Thanks.
It sounds like this is the one of the only ways into the industry besides going back and getting a RE finance or development degree.
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