College Econ Student Trying to land first job in CRE
A little background on me: I'm a college senior at a top public university with a good gpa (3.6) but less than impressive internships. I never really took internships that seriously, which I am regretting now. I had one internship at my family company (real estate developers in midwest) and one at a smallish brokerage in Chicago (80 agents). During these internships, I did a lot of work on the marketing and administrative side so I am behind my peers in my understanding of real estate finance concepts and underwriting. I started applying for full time analyst jobs in July, and I've gotten several first round interviews, but I keep getting grilled in the technical questions which is hurting me a lot. If I were even to get a second round interview, I don't think I'd perform well on the modeling test. I'm graduating in December, which means I am in a time crunch to learn everything if I want to secure a job before graduation.
My question is: Should I keep spinning my wheels applying to these types of jobs if I am unprepared for interviews? I have a full class load this semester so I've put myself in a bad position and I'm feeling overwhelmed. Are there any good resources where I can quickly learn what I need to succeed in these interviews? Should I go back to Chicago after graduation and work as an agent in the meantime while learning the skills necessary?
My main goal is to learn as much about real estate in a big market before taking over the family company in my 30's. I don't want to work there in my 20's because the town doesn't have a large number of young professionals.
Any advice is welcome. Thanks!
>My question is: Should I keep spinning my wheels applying to these types of jobs if I am unprepared for interviews?
Definitely not, if you don't understand the basic concepts of real estate finance everyone will see through anything you try to bs your way through. What types of roles are you looking to get into?
I do have a grasp of the very basics and an argus cert, but the harder questions are giving me difficulty. For example: someone asked me relationship between interest rates and cap rates and I panicked and couldn't think through the solution properly. Ideally I'd like to be an analyst for a large brokerage or do acquisitions for small PE firm. Do you think I should take a break from applying and focus on learning all this stuff first? Any good places to start?
At the analyst level straight out of undergrad you shouldn't need to understand a huge amount unless you are applying for roles at big PE/Dev firms, or roles that require experience. Best bet for you would be to take some time to prep. Interview prep is important at all levels to make sure you have a story for why you want to work where you are applying, why that role, location etc., and why you would be a good fit. Analyst level technical questions tend to be fairly easy, so you would most likely only need to study for a couple weeks to get the basic vocab/concepts down, though I'm a little surprised you said you're behind on the underwriting portion as having an argus cert would put you at least on average with most applicants with no FT experience.
PE firms will of course be more competitive, so if that's your target you should really do some refining of your knowledge and WSO is a good start, but there are many websites that offer insight into what you can focus on. Brokerages also feed into PE firms after ~2 years as an analyst, and they tend to be much easier to get, but you aren't guaranteed to find a role in PE. and you will most likely work on somethings that you wouldn't in PE. The benefit to working at a broker is that you are working directly with PE groups, and those connections can be very handy in getting into your next role.
I feel like I can relate to you as when I was in my undergrad I didn't know what I wanted to do and put all my efforts into basketball, ended up coaching D1 for 1 year, but the pay was awful and turnover was constant so I dipped. I had very little finance experience outside of a wealth management internship so I did some research and found how others were able to land positions. Started doing networking calls weekly to learn from people in the industry, ask how I can prepare myself, and it helped a lot. It does take a lot of effort with most likely little return, but so does being successful in life for the most part. Work hard to learn about the industry in order to crack a door open for yourself and one will eventually come, but it most likely won't fall into your lap without any preperation.
Thanks so much, I'll take a break from job apps/ interviews and spend the next couple of weeks getting the fundamentals down 100%. I can model in argus but have virtually no experience modeling in excel, which I understand is the platform for almost all modeling exams. Do brokerages usually conduct a modeling exam in their recruiting process? Might have to take an excel modeling class before moving forward.
When I made my move from my MBA I interviewed with PE groups and with CBRE/JLL/Newmark as I wasn't sure which direction I wanted to go. In all of the PE interviews, which some were Sr. Analyst some Associate level, they were all Excel modeling tests and most were pretty easy, but they obviously don't expect you to have access to Argus so they want you to create a model in Excel. From my experience entry level acquisitions roles (0 YOE can be somewhat rare) don't require you to create super comprehensive or dynamic model, but want to see you know how to navigate one as you will be entering in the data as part of your role most likely.
Most interviews I had with brokers did have modeling cases, but it did depend on the brokerage. Be aware brokerages take a LOOONG time to hire and you will have calls/meet with every single person on a team before they hire you. Pay is great, and if you work for a high producing broker you will get really good experience, but I interviewed for 3 different roles and got offers for each and I'd guess I had ~12 calls for each of the roles before I got an offer. Brokerages are a relationship business so you could probably get away with lower modeling skills if you can communicate well and explain why you want to work there. Again, this is an entry level job so don't stress too hard, most firms just want someone that'll fit with their team and won't need their hand held 100% of the time.
Brokerages can definitely take a long time to hire, but as a data point for OP if you're able to cold call and make an impression, there's a potential for them to refer you to other people in the office. They'll appreciate the initiative and your persistence as this is very much a relationship based business, and you'll probably skip a good chunk of the meet and greet interview process. The market is also super hot right now for analysts so I think the hiring process may be expedited for the foreseeable future.
Complete a financial modeling course. I did a course on break into cre - enabled me to think through technical questions. You have to hustle.
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