Commercial mortgage broker vs start up

Currently working in the risk advisory side of the big 4. Looking to find a more entrepreneurial route. I have an interest in venture capital as a long term end goal but currently work in a middle market city and I am still pre MBA. Cost of living is low but not much going on in the VC or PE space.

Offers have been given from a tech start up in business development and a commercial mortgage brokerage firm focusing on small business/Start up lending. Both have slightly lower or similar base salary as the big 4 but the brokerage firm seems to have more upside opportunity.

Questions:

Is there any money in mortgage brokerage?

Would the tech start up be any advantage for MBA or vc?

 
Best Response

There is a ton of money in commercial brokerage, but it's like any other production job--90% of people fail and will largely leave the industry, and the 10% who succeed make really good money, by and large; this causes a survivorship bias when looking at their income (and your expected income) in the sense that a large chunk of people who originate commercial loans that you know who are 30+ probably make good money because they were the ones who survived. However, it would be an abysmal pre-MBA route if your goal is admissions to a top MBA program. It's definitely considered a "lower tiered" career path with regard to prestige. And, frankly, you will definitely fail at the job if you have one foot in and one foot out--if you want to originate loans then you have to be all-in mentally--there's no partial pregnancies and there's no partial loan originator. If you want to succeed at loan origination then you've got to mentally say to yourself that this is the career path I've chosen and I'm going to make it work come Hell or high water.

If you're looking at a top tier MBA then the start-up is absolutely the better route.

 

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