Career Decision: From Acquisitions to Portfolio Management?
Hi everyone,
I'm posting today as I have plenty of options and I must admit that I am pretty lost. I am currently working as an Acquisition Analyst for a residential developer (i.e AvalonBay, Related, Trammell Crow, Mill Creek Residential...). I benefit from a financial background and must admit that getting involved a lot on plans, discussing with architects and urban planners, and being very close to the asset annoy me a lot more than I would have thought. Ideally, I would like to do an MBA and switch to Real Estate Investment Banking at a BB in 2 years.
For now, I have been offered the opportunity to switch either in REPE acquisitions for a value add/opportunistic fund in London (multi asset-classes), or a logistic investor/operator (i.e GLP, LogiCore...) on their portfolio management team (in their European HQ too).
What would you do given my background and my mid-term goal? I would greatly appreciate any bits of advice.
I can give you my opinion, and I know you asked. But frankly none of us are in your shoes. So please keep that in mind.
If you don’t like getting in the nitty gritty, I would recommend another acquisitions role. It’s going to be similar in the sense. What I will say, if you do want to go that route, is go to an LP or go to a core shop. The LP will check the docs from the GP but not go as deep. Also staying at an institution with tons of resources - you’ll be silo’d and have other departments to dive into certain things. The core shop - bc there is just less there you’ll need to track.
Portfolio management, may seem ‘high level’ and it can be, but, you’ll still need to be involved in the details. Whether that be leasing exposure or debt exposure, or any other exposure, you’re going to be pretty close to that. Just keep in mind. If that’s okay with you, than sure, try portfolio management.
I pudding, thank you for replying.
Understood. Unfortunately, I didn't manage yet to have opportunities at the LP level. When it comes to portfolio management, do you think it can strengthen my application for business school? I'm looking further to transition into Investment Banking, so working on NAV, financial statements of funds, and making the liaison with capital partners can be pretty useful in my opinion. However, as you mentioned, I'm afraid to find the job really boring due to various reporting I would need to do implying to be involved in details.
Can’t really comment about b school. I don’t know anything about it.
Understood, thank you for taking the time to reply!
I don't know much about European MBAs since they're structured a bit differently, but US MBA admissions are more interested in your professional growth and evidence of serious responsibility and value-add. Just adding more companies to your resume won't help much if it doesn't show any upward growth.
Hi Jarstar1,
Thanks for your answer. FYI, I would like to apply only to US MBAs. My intention was to prove that I can be able to evolve in an international environment/living abroad. Regarding both jobs I mentioned, I would have increased responsibilities as I would need to manage interns/analysts, which is not the case at my current job. However, my boss told me that I should be promoted associate this year so it's a tough decision to take.
What would be your opinion on this?
I think you'll find portfolio management painfully boring if you're interested in investments - it's really an FP&A role at most shops.
That being said - value-add/opportunistic acquisitions is going to be more of the same of what you're doing now. Your best bet is going to be riding it out until you can get an offer at an LP who is more hands off and focused on allocating capital.
Hi CREnadian, thank you for replying! I will try to manage a position at an LP. Do you have a list of major LPs located in the US/London by any luck?
Many thanks
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