Fellas - is a lateral career change from Acquisitions to Development possible?
I am currenty an Associate at a firm that invests in Core Plus and Value Add Multifamily nationwide. I have 5 years of experience and my job is 100% acquisitions - deal sourcing, undewriting, lining up debt and equity, take to Investment Committee, rinse and repeat.
I have plateaued with my learning curve, and I don't see any meaningful career advancement at my shop. I am in the Northeast and want to move to the Southeast and work in ground-up multifamily development. Development has always interested me and I think the fundamentals make sense.
As a 27 year old who only knows acquisitions, is a lateral transition to the development side even possible? I know how to source and underwrite, but curating designers, GC's, engineers, community stakeholders, etc. seems foreign and overwhelming to me. Is my only option to take a massive pay cut and come in as a development analyst, or am I selling myself short? Curious to hear if anyone has made a similar transition.
It is definitely possible and all of the things you need to learn can be learned on the job.
I would caution with the following though:
We are in a pandemic/recession. Hiring is very limited. I've started to see development analyst roles pop up, but a lot of companies are on a full-on pause. I was in the rounds for a couple shops and all have since told me to not even check back in until 2021. This also means that the typical ways of getting yourself ahead of the pack, like taking people out to coffee or lunch, are also limited. It's hard to differentiate yourself at the moment.
You are trying to make multiple moves all at once - Acquisitions to Development, Value Add to New Construction, Northeast to Southeast, while juggling with the "over-qualified and under-qualified at the same time" dynamic that being an associate in the industry but in a different role presents. Each one of these will bring up road blocks that you will have to overcome. Each can be overcome, of course, but it may be easier to first try and find an acquisitions role in the Southeast, or a development role in the Northeast, as opposed to tackling all of these at once.
None of this is meant to discourage you. I moved roles and regions myself and you can 100% make this move. It just isn't easy in the best of times, let alone right now.
Thanks - this is good insight. I agree the timing is not ideal but that gives me to more time to network and lay some groundwork. I was hoping hiring would pick up post Labor Day, but who knows.
For what it's worth i focus on southeast markets right now in my acquisitions role (I am just based in the northeast), so I already know the markets pretty well and have a good rapport with the brokerage communities there. I also feel the challenge of Value Add -> New Construction is achievable in terms of assessing the risk in a new venture or project (it seems like there is a lot more overlap than differences). The biggest challenge - as you made clear - is acquisitions -> development (I have very little AM / PJM experience in value add, let alone new construction).
Do "Associate" roles exist in development? And when I say "Associate" I mean quasi-support / production roles, not glorified analyst/support functions.
Yes - my first role in development could be described as that. What you're going to run into though is a comical level of inconsistency from company to company, both in what these roles are called and what the personnel in them actually do.
An "associate" can be a development manager with a grad degree and 5 years of experience, or a 22 year old kid fresh out of undergrad. You can handle the entire development spectrum, focus more on the front and back ends, focus almost entirely on construction, focus on everything but construction, focus on the front end and construction but not lease up and disposition, etc. It's the wild west when it comes to titles and job descriptions.
CRE That doesn't suprise me, but good to know. I think my best bet is probably smaller family type offices. Sounds like you have also been in the hunt lately; do you think reaching out now to inquire about opportunities is a little tone deaf (" we are struggling to make ends meet and you are asking for a job?? " ? The two developers I have already spoken to seem to be full sail ahead with projects and new deal sourcing.
Great advice CRE I would echo that this is totally doable, development firms do acquisitions and dispositions, thus you have a 'plug n play' role. If you can show direct ability/skill to a related part of a developer's business, I don't see why you should necessarily have to take a demotion or pay cut (to be fair, if you are compensated much more than development in general, then it is possible, but I don't know your details to say so or not).
To be honest, you should be looking for associate/sr. associate and maybe even director roles. It is far easier to lateral or upward move. If you apply for analyst, you may not get taken seriously (pandemic may adjust that, under the 'I NEED a job' hypothesis which you are not actually in). Moving up is always a goal, but a lateral would make sense in your case.
I've noted a few friends of mine get new jobs in development recently, including an associate IS/land broker who moved to acquisitions role (with promotion) at a developer firm. I think a few firms (mine included) will be back to hiring sooner than later. Lack of experience in direct development may be some disadvantage, so play up the areas you can focus upon really well (i.e. underwriting multifamily). If a firm needs to deepen its multifamily skills, you should be a fit in theory.
Good luck!
Fellas? Bold of you to assume no females have made the transition
Ladies is fellas too, gon' brush your shoulders off
Wow, didn't expect MS. It was a joke. Tough crowd.
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