Can I recruit for associate roles ?
I will have 3 years of work experience as a civil engineer and will be going for to business school in the fall. Would I be able to recruit as an associate post school?
Talking mostly for real estate development since my technical background aligns there but also acquisitions.
I don’t see why not. Provided you’re at a T15 you have as good of a shot as anyone to get into Hines/Tishman/Other big developers
In this job market if you landed an associate gig you’d be lucky. I won’t say it’s not possible, but I’d say it’s not probable
It’s likely not probable I know someone that landed institutional with a top MRED with 2YOE but as an analyst.
Was this a 2 year program and what was this person’s background ? I’m going to be graduating in 2026
Know someone who fits the same profile as well, although they came in at my firm as more of a senior analyst.
I hire a lot of MBAs, both as interns and full time, and have an MBA myself. If you’re at T20ish MBA program than yes you should recruit as an Associate or whatever the firm’s equivalent is. Working against you is that you are getting your MBA full time on the younger side and without any deal experience, so you may need to settle for a position a half step down (Senior Analyst or whatever firms call it). That said, a full time MBA is really about the “job after the job” - the jump in earnings and trajectory of career really takes off 2-4 years out once you get a promotion or jump to the next firm. So everything you do is about positioning yourself for that future role: learning how to model well, getting your MBA & leveraging that network, internship, industry networking, the post grad job/name brand. If you have strength in all of those, then taking a “lesser” title out of school won’t matter as you’ll climb faster than others without an MBA.
Is it because of my lack of full time work experience, if I stayed out and did construction for say another year or two and then did mba will I be able to recruit at associate level then ?
I am trying to figure out if it Is lack of full time experience in general or the lack of full time experience in real estate ?
A little of A, a little of B. 3 years experience is on the early side for a top 20 program, if that is where you are headed. Most people are 5-7 years into their careers, and I’ve found for most (but not all) people under 27 in an MBA program there is a lack of maturity and polish vs. most of their older classmates. I have seen that both in my own class and in the many interns I have both interviewed and hired.
End of the day, if I am hiring an MBA grad I am going to have to pay them a lot more than a non-MBA, and in the the first year maybe two accept they don’t even have on the job experience equivalent to my current Analysts. Hiring MBAs is a J Curve investment - so those MBAs better 1) have potential for a much faster learning curve on technical matters (underwriting, property operations, how to run DD) than a non-MBA and 2) be mature & polished enough to lead people as well as take ownership of processes, both internal & external. Prior experience helps with #1 and overall life/professional experience can help with #2. Not saying you cannot succeed (one of my close friends in my MBA program had 3 years experience and is doing great) but you just need to recognize that you’ll have to put in more work outside of class to make up ground.
Multifamily guy is def at Truamerica
To me the most important pieces are the state of the job market and the type of firm you’re targeting. In this current job market, I’d be shocked if someone with zero experience came in as an associate over candidates who have had 2-4 years of reps. In 2020/2021 whenever the job market was hot, it probably happened a bunch of times though. I’d say keep expectations low and hope for a better job market whenever you graduate.
I have a similar background, I studied mechanical engineering then worked for a GC for (just under) 3 years, then a T15 b-school and was able to recruit for an Associate level development job after school. I will say, it wasn't easy. I was selling them hard on my construction experience (so I know how to read drawings, manage a project, etc.) and my MBA classes (so I can build a proforma, understand real estate finances, etc.), and most firms really appreciated the first but didn't believe me for the latter. They wanted to see real life experience in underwriting/acquisitions work. Granted, these were more institutional level shops where that matters a lot, the job I ultimately got was for a family office that felt it's harder to teach project management and construction knowledge than understanding excel and a proforma (I happen to agree hah). But they had to take the "leap of faith", so to speak, on my financial knowledge/skills.
My recommendation is network as early and often as you can, do as many real estate extra-curriculars (like case competitions) as you can, take 3rd party modeling classes (REFM was a godsend for me, a bunch of students got together and brought them to campus for a weekend bootcamp), try to get internships during the school year and just push push push. It'll happen, I trust. I graduated in June 2020, and our real estate group ended up alright.
I had 4 years of construction under my belt before I went back, got an MSRE, and came out as an Associate. I don't know who's paying for school for you but taking an analyst job after working as a CM would have been a pay cut and not personally acceptable considering the cost. Even in harder environments, you can still outdo the competition and land where you want to go.
I get the whole experience argument and everything but when I'm 100k in the hole I'm not giving someone a discount on my skillset. Don't discount the basic ability to perform work on time, work on a team, and how much more quickly you're able to learn. I work with new grads and interns and there are just basics about not being able to show up and turn things in on time, which is half the battle of being an associate vs. analyst.
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