Curious to know if anyone has a rule of thumb that makes a new opportunity worthwhile. Do you have a targeted compensation increase? Analyzing the potential for future compensation? Better work-life balance? Something else?
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Drivers that influence whether or not I would switch jobs, in this order of importance:
1) Growth potential (with or without the firm). "Exit opps". I'm taking the long-view, baby.
2) Culture. I can't wake up everyday hating going into work (unless the growth potential is that good).
3) Nature of the work I'd be doing - is it interesting to me? Am I stuck in the office all day seeing the same coworkers every day, or do I get to underwrite a deal then go out there to meet the broker and walk the property, all in the same day?
4) Location. Is my home office on the outskirts of Detroit or in an architecturally-prominent part of Beverly Hills? (Sorry, Detroiters.)
5) Pay. I would sacrifice this for any of the above. All the way up to a 40% discount if, again, the growth potential/exit opp is that good.
For reference, I'm currently an AM associate at a value-add REPE that operates in a secondary west coast market.
Ycomb
I look at growth potential and compensation potential. If there is nowhere for me to grow - I’m out. I’m trying to move up the ladder, not stay put. And in term of comp., many times sitting in one seat you don’t get as high raises, so just keep your eye on the market and compare.
This is what I'm really trying to consider: What does a 5-year growth horizon look like. Pay increase is great, but that's a one-time increase until a promotion, so you sit back to take the 2-3% annual merit increases until someone retires or takes a new position. Thanks for your input!
My list has definitely changed the further in my career I've gone. Initially I was looking for as much money as possible with the best exit ops to climb as fast as possible. Then over time it really switched as I received the pay raises and promotions. Here's the list now at least:
1. Location. I'm not going to up root my life and the lives of my family for a 10k increase in pay. Working remote could offset this, but most companies are using the pending recession to make employees go back to the office to some degree. Plus, cost of living can negate pay increases or even make them obsolete. Personally, I'd rather live in a Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, etc. where money goes much farther than LA, NYC, Chicago, Miami. Making $250k in a MCOL or LCOL city is much better than $400k in the most expensive cities in the world. Besides, you can vacation more often to more desirable places if you're saving your money in living expenses.
2. WLB. When I was 22 and fresh out of college where I was staying up to 3am partying all through college, I was able to convince myself that I was working late for a good reason and I was already use to being up late anyways so who cares right? Well, you can only do that for so long and at this point I'd rather go to work, enjoy being around my coworkers, be at work from 8-6 then go home to family and see friends for dinner. Burnout is real and everyone hits a wall eventually, it's just a matter of how long can you convince yourself that you're doing it for the future.
3. Pay. Obviously we all go into investments and finance for the money. If you say you don't do it for the money, you're lying. I wouldn't take a pay cut just to have a cooler name on my CV, but if a smaller firm offered me double my comp I'm going to take that call and hear them out.
4. Growth potential. I hope I didn't give the impression I'm in my late 60's and a C-suite already lol. I still want to make more money and there are titles that I haven't received yet that I would love to get eventually. There's not a ton of people between me and the CEO anymore so I wouldn't expect every job posting out there to be a title increase for me like it was from analyst to senior analyst or associate. This is much lower on the list because title only means so much if you're making great money and happy with the rest of the job. Company structures are pyramid shaped and once you get to the VP level and above you're really just waiting for people to retire or leave to take their spot so not a ton of movement after that point.
I'm not going to list it in terms of importance, but I'd be remise if I didn't acknowledge that job function mattered. I am not going to switch career paths at this point in my life so I would only look at roles that are the same job functions that I've been doing for the majority of my career.
Better work-life balance and more WFH, that's pretty much it at this point.
Money?
I'm doing pretty fine money-wise, it'd have to be at least a 80-100% bump over where I'm at. I just started at a new place 8 months ago, not looking to hop anytime soon, plus I have pretty good growth prospects at my current place which includes serious comp increases.
Stick me in the Chelsea midfield and I’ll do a job
Fun fact: there is a guy a first year at HL who went to Wharton... after playing in the MF Premier League. GOATed AF
I'm looking at moving role now. I'm in a great position on paper (good pay, great brand name, great WLB) but pretty miserable with work. Senior management is chaotic, there's shitload of office politics, and going forward for the next 2-3 years we'll be focusing on investments I don't find interesting. Putting up with a lot of bullshit and having lost interest in what I'm working on, I'm now pretty burnt out because I have no drive to do my job well which has always been a big thing for me.
The most actionable move now is to a pretty big decrease in brand name, but I'll still have good pay and great WLB. Work should be much more engaging as it's focused on what I find really interesting (residential development), while being sufficiently broad that the learning curve will pick up a lot again and open up other opportunities down the line. I'm in my early 30s now and have everything I need, so I really don't care about prestige any more. As long as work is engaging, WLB is good, and I can get paid to enough to live the lifestyle I want, I'll be very happy.
Currently make $300k all in, would leave for $400k.
I left my old role (non RE, strategy at a bank) and took a ~30% payCut to join my current firm.
Main reason was trajectory and passion for the job. My old role I was good at but it bored me. My current role I was put directly into a mentored position with a lot of visibility. Will effectively get to choose my path for the next few years at the firm if I keep performing the way I have so far. The money will come so while it stung to lose it, no regrets at all so far.
Off the top of my head, here were three things that stuck out:
A well-defined growth path with strong leadership in place. If the growth path is real, compensation should follow, assuming your leaders aren't duds.
Location. Somewhere I'd want to be for a long time. Not Cleveland.
Better work-life balance where I can go home at 6 PM most nights and not think about work, or where I can go on a vacation for more than three days and not have to work mornings before we leave the AirBnB/hotel and I don't come back to a mountain of work.
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