Where Was Your First Job Post-MBA? Where Are You Now?
There has been a ton of talk about which MBA is the best, how do I get to a MF right out of school, and other prestige-related discussions at length.. Yet there are many ways to get to the top and I'd love to hear forum responses on this:
1) Your first RE job out of b-school (firm/role)
2) Where you are at now (firm/role)
3) End goal (if you have one)
If you are a frequent poster and didn't get an MBA, please feel free to send student loan donations to [email protected]
I'll start. I graduated from USC Marshall in May 2016 with a finance/real estate-focused MBA. I came into Marshall with zero finance or real estate experience.
1) I work at a small/medium-sized MF REPE shop. I am an acquisitions analyst. 2) See above. 3) I really like multifamily acquisitions and plan to continue working in the space for the foreseeable future. If I changed firms, I would like to work for a shop that does both development and acquisitions. Farther down the road, I want to work my way up to the VP level and then strike off on my own.
I think it really depends.
Marshall offers some very good real estate classes that are separate from the MRED program, and it's possible to audit MRED classes if you work things out with individual professors (I audited 3 classes). However, you'll have a hard time finding RE-focused support from the Marshall Career Center because it's heavily tilted towards consulting, finance, entertainment, and marketing.
Having said that, I enjoyed being able to take traditional finance classes that I wouldn't have been able to take had I done the MRED (M&A, Private Equity, Entrepreneurial Finance, etc). I signed up for every real estate class Marshall offered, and supplemented that with audited MRED classes, heavy participation in the Graduate Real Estate Association, my own networking, and online financial modeling courses (which are better than any in-person class).
The USC MBA and MRED are both well-respected around CA, so you can really do either/both. I have an MBA and work in REPE acquisitions; a classmate has a dual MRED/MBA and sits across the office from me; another classmate has just the MBA and works at Clarion doing Asset Management.
Feel free to PM me if you have any more specific USC real estate questions.
I don't know if it's a function of the degree or of the real estate industry, or a combination of the two, but it is "unregulated" in all the ways that banking is regulated. There is no path, no structure, etc. and it all comes down to the person.
People in my program come out with truly fantastic jobs, people in my program come out with middle of the road things that they maybe could have got without the degree, and then every year 1-2 get poor jobs that are a reflection of their aptitude and attitude than anything.
You have to remember too that the class structure is so different than MBA programs. There is no ranking, so programs don't have to stat whore, and people don't have the standard scores, backgrounds, etc. that MBA programs have. Some people in my program are here to get their career to the next level. Some are accomplished in another career and are looking to break in. Some are right out of undergrad and just need some direction in their life. Some are kids and grandkids of super successful people who need to get some credentials so their CEO dad/grandpa can justify hiring them outside of shared genetics. It's wildly varied and leads to wildly varied outcomes.