Big4 to RE. Need your advice!

Hello all,

I am new to the forum and am looking for your advice. Some background information on myself...I come from an accounting background at a top tier university here in Canada. After I graduated I went on to pursue my CA designation (chartered accountant equivalent to the American CPA which is more prestigious and tough to do up here in Canada). I have always had an interest in real estate development and acquisitions since my undergrad days but thought the CA would be a good tool as well as give me exposure to a variety of industries/clients before really deciding out what industry/role I wanted to get in. I spent about 2 years in audit and 1 year in a big4 advisory practice (working mainly on financial due diligence for traditional PE firms and corporate buyers and some valuation work). After graduating and now working for ~3.5 years, seeing tons of industries and different roles, I am still very keen on RE. Our practice here in Canada is quite strong with many people securing banking, corp dev, PE and other coveted jobs. The work we perform lends itself well to banking, PE and corp dev (especially since it gives us close networking opportunities with our clients from these firms and them actually knowing what we do/the value we provide).

It has been very tough to break into RE, I have interviewed for a number of roles but always seem to get beat out by someone who has legit RE experience (i.e., people working in an acquisitions role, development, brokerage etc.) Truth is, we do not assist on many RE deals, and the odd one time deals we do, they are for stabilized assets and our scope revolves around reviewing/checking Argus CF models to rent rolls, leases, ensuring CAMS are modelled appropriately etc. I have done a bit of RE modelling on my own, taken the Argus course, read RE literature, frequent threads here etc., to learn as much as I can without actually being in the space. Anyway, an opportunity has come up on the development side to work for the municipality; currently they are working on a large mandate to sell/develop/re-develop excess land they hold all across the region. Developments range from residential to retail, office, industrial etc. Most developments are done either with a partner or sold to a private developer. When they are sold to a private developer, the municipality goes through the hurdles of feasibility analysis/modelling to decide best use, permits, zoning, reviewing proposals from developers and finally choosing a developer to carry through their mandate. I think the opportunity is a great one and allows me to break in to the real estate industry and learn a lot from a development stand point with a lot of development work in the pipeline. The management team at the organization seems quite strong but one thing I am hesitant about is it being a quasi-government organization. From where I come from, government roles are not seen to be prestigious but rather "cushy" and "easy" jobs. I don't think that really holds for this organization as a lot of the team comes from top RE firms/shops in Canada but wanted to get your advice on whether such a position will "pigeon hole" me per say or make me look unfavourably when I pursue an opportunity with a private developer 1-2 years from now or my MBA/M.S in real estate development.

From a comp stand point, I will pretty much be making a lateral move. I will be going in as an analyst/intermediate analyst. Sure if I chose to stay at the big4 I would technically earn higher this coming fall, but I am pursuing something I'm passionate about and a long term career move rather than an extra $10 -$20k now. My other option is to keep applying and seek other opportunities however, from my experience it has proven to be tough to break into the space and I don't want to stick around for another 6 months to a year when I could be in the field getting hands on experience..and who knows when another opportunity will open up.

Apologies for the long write up! I appreciate any insights/advice/feedback!