First Job as REPE Analyst

It was a struggle for me to find a job anywhere after I graduated since my transcript sucked. Then covid hit and it was a nightmare. But I was somehow able to land a REPE Analyst job recently and I feel so relieved.

So far I love it and I’ve been getting great feedback. Maybe it stems from insecurities, but I just want to make sure I’m doing everything I can to show them they made the right choice hiring me. I come to the office early and I stay later, try to learn things myself before asking others for help, etc.

I guess what I want to know is, for people who were analysts in REPE or who were in charge of hiring/managing, what were some things that really stood out to you that separated the great analysts from the good ones? Or what are good habits of recent hires that have translated to their future success? Any advice would be great!

 

It was a lot of luck but also a lot of persistence. I did have one connection but he didn’t really do all that much that made a difference. I made sure to study the market well and understand stuff enough to do well during all rounds of interviews. I don’t really have a solid answer as to how I managed which is probably why I’m racking my brain trying to figure out if there’s anything I can do to stand out lol

 

Following this. In a similar situation to OP. To add to the thread, is there anything that former analysts/hiring managers would suggest in the context of Covid? Obviously it is very challenging to pick things up and to develop relationships with your team etc while WFH.

 

I'm currently trying to secure a REPE role, and I've asked those questions during informational interviews. I usually get the same responses: 1) being intellectually curious about real estate (demonstrate this through the questions you ask); 2) as you said you do, show up to work early and stay late, when it makes sense to; 3) go above and beyond in terms of the projects you take on - senior people also love when you take on extra projects that go beyond your job description, even if they may seem menial, such as offering to conduct an interview for a perspective intern. You're showing you're a team player.

When you were going through the interview process, what was it like timing wise, and including when you were waiting for an offer?

 

One thing I will say that is impressive and very useful is having a good grasp of legal concepts as it relates to leases/credit agreements/etc. The amount of time I spend reading these and trying to understand risks is ridiculous.

Quant (ˈkwänt) n: An expert, someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.
 
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Analyst 1 in RE - Comm

I guess what I want to know is, for people who were analysts in REPE or who were in charge of hiring/managing, what were some things that really stood out to you that separated the great analysts from the good ones? Or what are good habits of recent hires that have translated to their future success? Any advice would be great!

It's been a bit since I was an analyst, but I've managed analysts and you can almost immediately tell which ones you're going to like and which you're not. I'm in development, mind you, but the same ideas apply. 

  1. Don't be a weirdo. You don't have to be a clone of everyone else in the office, or so afraid to say anything that you never talk, but you can't be obnoxious or annoying. Eventually, you'll rise to the level where you have to be in front of clients. Your superiors need to know that you won't be embarrassing when you're in that situation. 
  2. Take notes. There is no possible way you will remember everything you need to do, when it needs to be done by, and how your superiors want you to do it - especially at first - without writing it down. Carry a little notebook around, or use post-it notes or something, or the notes app in your phone, and keep track. This leads into the next one: 
  3. Do your job. If your primary responsibilities are X, Y, and Z, do X, Y, and Z well. It doesn't matter if X, Y, and Z suck, or are seemingly meaningless in the grand scheme of things, or are not what you want to be doing at all. Knock them out. THEN you can ask more more responsibilities and to do more interesting things. 
  4. Get to know your team. Take 5-10 minutes at the beginning or end of a day or week to talk to your teammates and/or boss and/or boss's boss about life. Learn what they care about, what drives them, what they are good at, what they hate to do, etc. Grab coffee with them. Go to lunch. Go to happy hour. People are social creatures and it is incredibly helpful to make work friends. You may never hang out outside of work - that's fine - but your in-office network matters almost as much as your out-of-office network.   
  5. Similarly, ask questions. I can't tell you how many times I tell an analyst something and you can just tell by looking at them that they don't know why or don't fully understand why they're doing something. Often I find that the best time to ask is after you knock out a task. I love when an analyst shoots me over their work via email, walks over to my office, and asks intelligent questions as to why they did what they did or the greater implications of their work - not only because it shows genuine curiosity, but because a lot of times it helps me to have to explain something or rationalize instructions I've given. 
Commercial Real Estate Developer
 

A small thing I've noticed that separates a good player from a great one is providing options. If someone asks you to underwrite something, don't just do it by the book, throw in some sensitivity analyses and provide three situations: baseline, optimistic, pessimistic. Don't make a big deal of it, but a few lines where you're summing up can go a long way in showing you're thinking about things beyond just what they are telling you to do. It's very easy to just have someone plug rent growth and exit cap assumptions into a model, it's harder to find someone who is looking forward and realizes those assumptions are just that and can change. 

 

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