RE seems to have such a wide range in # of hours worked. For the people that are concerned about choosing a path with good work/life balance, I thought it'd be interesting to get a thread going with anecdotal cases of how many hours you work and what type of firm/position you are in. I'll start:
*Don't need this to turn into a comp thread (we already have one), but might be helpful to add comp numbers for reference.
Company: Boutique/family office Position: Associate (AM and Transactions) Location: SoCal Hours: 50 hrs/wk about 95% of the time. No weekends. Friday Hours: Same as the rest of the week Comp: Yr 1 - Estimated all-in $110-120k
Past Company: Large institutional owner-operator Postion: Analyst (Mostly AM, a few acquisitions) Location: Tier 1 City Hours: Typical week (50% of weeks) were ~45-55 hours. Light weeks (25%) were 40-45. Busy weeks (25%) were usually 60-70 hrs/wk. Rarely had to come in a few hours on a weekend. Could usually take a long enough lunch to get a quick workout in. Friday Hours: People start leaving around 430, office empty by 530/6. Comp: Yr 1 - 80-85k all-in Yr 2 - 95-100k all-in
Past Company: LifeCo Investor Position: Intern, but this applies to all positions in the company. (100% AM) Location: Tier 1 City Hours: 9-5/530 with long lunches. But these were the most unbearable hours I've ever worked. Extremely slow and boring. Would never do it again. Friday Hours: Leave at 430 instead of 5.
I'll chip in.
Company: Family Office Position: Intern (AM but i wear a lot of different hats so i'll sometimes do acquisitions) Location: southeast Hours: 30 (i work part-time since i still have school) but pro rata would be close to 50.
Past Company: Large brokerage (JLL/HFF/CBRE) position: intern as well location: Southeast Hours: lol.... pro-rata close to 70... i get PTSD
Equity Adviser Acquisitions / Dispositions / Portfolio & Asset Mgmt Southwest 40 when slow & 60+ when we are very active. It's a cyclical type thing....
Company: Public Owner/Operators with $5BB AUM
Position: Senior Analyst (Acquisitions)
Location: SoCal
Hours: Anywhere from 35-45 hours when slow, has really only gotten up to 55 hours at our busiest so far
Friday Hours: Either leaving by 4 or 5 or drinking with the team by 3
Comp: $90k Base + Target of $40k Bonus = $130k all in
Company: PE Fund
Position: Analyst (Acquisitions)
Location: NYC
Hours: 65 on M-F + 5 - 15 hours on 90% of weekends.
Definitely isn't market to work these hours.
It's not.
Hope you’re being paid well my friend
Company: Global RE investment/development firm
Position: Senior Analyst (Development)
Location: DFW
Hours: 60+ every week, have had a few in the 70+ range when working on a pitch/complex deal
Friday Hours: Usually home by 7
Company: Hybrid REPE Fund / Operator Location: LA Hours: 8-6 when in the office but usually 1-2 days a week of travel. Friday Hours: Out by 5
Company: PE Fund Position: Analyst (acquisitions) Location: Northeast Hours: 55-60 hours a week. + 10-15 hours 50% of weekends. Not sure how you would count travel, but travel about twice a month for 2-3 days at a time.
Past Company: Regional Developer Position: Analyst Location: Northeast Hours: 55-60 hours a week. Rarely any weekends.
Company: Family Office/REPE Position: Associate Role: Acquisitions and portfolio management Location: Tier 1 City Hours: 55- 60 90% of the time, closings and year end reporting mean longer hours maybe in the 70 ish range. Friday hours are exactly the same as Monday - Thursday
Prior Company
Company: REPE Opportunity Fund Position: Associate Role: Acquisitions Location: Tier 1 City Hours: 45 max, I don't think I ever worked after 3pm on a Friday
Company: Boutique Development
Position: Management
Role: Development, soup to nuts
Location: DC MSA
Hours: Almost impossible to say. I am only in the office a few days a week, due to meetings, supervising construction projects, pitching deals, checking out new projects in town, networking, research. Probably 50-60 hours per week.
Company: PE Owner/Operator few billion AUM Position: Development Manager/ Construction Manager Location: CA Hours: No set range but I like to start early, 6-7am and out of office by 4. Have flexibility to work from home and I travel 2-3 days of the week to all my jobs. Typically boot up laptop at night before bed to address any last minute things I didn't get to. At this point in my career I could care less about how many hours I spend in the office. Its all about working smarter and adding overall value, building a couple hundred million dollars of product a year and generating fee.
Company: Boutique Brokerage Position: Associate Location: Major Market Hours: typically 50-60 hours; occasionally put in some late nights (12-2am) if we have a tight timeline on a deal; rarely work weekends. Friday Hours: Office starts clearing out by 6. Summer Fridays can be dead.
Company: Large InstitutionalOwner/Operator Position: Analyst Location: Major Market Hours: Usually get into office between 8:30/9..most days out by 5:30/5:45. Have had the occassional fire drills and busy weeks where I am in office until 730/8 with some work as well from home. Never any weekends. Friday Hours: Out by 4:45/5pm usually. Office has Summer Fridays and everyone is out between 1-2.
Company: Developer/Value-add Sponsor Role: Analyst (acquisitons & dev) Market: DC Hours: 40-45, very rarely up to 50-55 during crunch time. Never any weekends. Sometimes people will slip out early on Fridays if all the principals have gone.
Please include comp haha. Seriously though.
Don't want this to turn into a comp thread because we already have one of those, but I added comp to mine for reference.
Company: REPE, AUM 5B+ Position: Associate (Acquisitions with minor AM) Location: SoCal Hours: 40 hrs/wk about 90% of the time. No weekends. Friday Hours: Leave around 4/4:30
Past Company: Large brokerage Postion: Analyst/Associate Location: SoCal Hours: Most weeks were ~45-55 hours. Light weeks 40-45. Busy weeks usually 60-70 hrs/wk. Usually a few weekend hours but from home. Once promoted, all the above went down by about 5-6 hours. Friday Hours: Top brokers by 4, rest of team by 5:30/6.
How big of a brokerage?
One of ES/JLL/CBRE/HFF/C&W.
Wow. The amount of people moving from brokerage to REPE is actually impressive. How hard is it to get into those big brokerages?
This would be an entirely different thread, and I was actually thinking of doing an AMA/background post on this once it slows down at year end. That being said, I would say it's a little more varied than IB. The problem is that analyst positions at brokerages/investment sales teams/capital markets groups are a mixed bag. It's not that hard to get into some brokerage firms, but it's much more difficult to land on a well established team where you are being exposed to high deal volume and quality institutional networking opportunities (which lead to good exit opps). The exit strategy is even more of a mixed bag. This is anecdotal but I can tell you I landed on a great brokerage team basically through blind luck, and of the 20+ people I became close with at the firm that were doing roughly the same thing as me in the 2-3 year period, probably 5 went to REITs, 5 continued on to brokerage (or are still trying to), another 2-3 went to developers, 2-3 to REPE, with the rest going to work for either small private shops or going to get their MBA/MRED.
EDIT: I would say that the team itself that you work on is even more critical than IB when it comes to setting yourself up down the road, unless you have an existing network already in the market you want to land.
Company: Family Office - LIHTC Developer Position: Analyst Location: Eastern WA/ Northern ID - Country Hours: 40 hrs/week 98% of the time. Smaller market, most employees here won't even consider working more than 40 hrs/week. I'm the only financial/development analyst, everyone else is in property management or construction, so I think their schedules dictate the office schedule as I would have expected to work longer hours. Friday Hours: Same as rest of the week
Prior Company: Marcus & Millichap Position: Associate (Brokerage) Location: Salt Lake City, UT Hours: Depended on if how bad you wanted to succeed. Commission only job, some new guys worked 40 hours a week, but if you wanted to be around for more than 6 months you needed to put in 50-60 hours a week. More experienced agents making more than $150K would work whatever hours they wanted. Friday Hours: During summer everyone is gone at 2:00 pm, rest of the year 3:30-4:30 pm
New Job as of last month:
Company: Large Real Estate Services Firm Position: Multi-Family Investment Sales Analyst Location: New England Hours: 65+
In by 7:45 AM and usually out by 8:00 PM. This is the norm with my team. Friday's have been the same as any other day, maybe a little earlier of an exit.
Company: Large investor w/ 10b+ RE AUM Position: Senior VP Location: HK/Tokyo/Singapore Hours: 80 (includes travel and work outside office) Comp: 500+ all in
Are the above cities your markets/coverage area, or your office locations?
Office locaion plus I also cover Asia. Dont manage a team of associates but I generally have 1-2 working with me on every deal. None of comps is commission or carry. All base + cash bonus.
Are you managing a team of associates? How much of your comp is tied to promote/commission-ish? Thanks for the data point!
Company: Top 3 Mortgage Lender (Mainly DUS)
Position: RE Financial Analyst
Location: DFW
Hours: 40-50, really its in by 7:30-8, out by 5-6. Sometimes more, sometimes less.
Comp: 70 + bonus.
Company: Large international bank, CRE lending Position: senior analyst Location: Toronto Hours: 40-45hrs
Past Company: Insurance company Postion: Intern (AM) Location: Italy - large city Hours: 35-40. Applies to nearly everyone in the office (except for the CFO, used to get in office 2 hours later than everyone else, no one knows at what time he leaves) - definitely an overstaffed company Friday Hours: 9:00-13:00 - yes, Friday afternoon free (collective labour agreement for insurance provides for this in Italy)
Company: Small RED (PE owned @ 56%) Position: Operations Development (one step from CEO) Location: Sweden Hours: 40 - 60 hrs/wk. No weekends. Friday Hours: Same as the rest of the week Comp: Estimated all-in ~$100k
Company: REIT Developer Position: Development Manager Location: West Coast Hours: Typically 50/week. Infrequently more during due diligence/acquisitions. Rarely weekends. Get-it-done atmosphere where hours and PTO are not rigidly enforced. Fri hours: Very laid back. Rarely in office past 4 PM.
Prior Company: REIT Developer Position: Analyst, Associate Hours: Typically 60/week, sometimes 70. 25% weekends.
Company: Family Office Position: Acquisitions Associate Location: Northeast Hours: 50-60, 3-5pm on Friday
REPE Analyst
Midwest
Hours: 50-65 on average
Company: REPE (LP Equity) Position: Acquisitions Analyst Location: Northeast Hours: 55-60 during week. 5-10 on some weekends when deals are closing. Excludes DD trips once a month which can be very long days of meetings, tours, and drinks.
Company: Non Captive Asset Manager Position: Associate Director -> Managing two PE funds / 47 Assets in total Location: Germany Market: Europe Hours: 75+ Friday Hours: Same like MO-Thursday Comp: 100K base + 20% Bonus
Company: Big 4 CRE Position: Senior Associate (VAS) Location: Dallas Hours: Seasonal with Jan-Mar (40), May-Sep (50) and Oct-Dec (60 + Weekends) Friday Hours: Same as the rest of the week Comp: Yr 1 - $120 + %Bonus
Past Company: U.S. Navy Position: Officer Location: Little Creek, VA + 2 Deployments Hours: Never worked a day, I was paid to have fun! Comp: Yr 1 - Standard DoD pay
Real Estate Banking Hours? (Originally Posted: 11/02/2007)
Anyone know how they compare to other typical i-banking hours? I suppose there is a lot of traveling involved... at the analyst level too?
What level of Real Estate banking?
What level of Real Estate banking? Are we talking a BB or possibly a smaller bank?
For a BB firm. I know for example that at Morgan Stanley the acquisitions/investment arm and the real estate banking arm are connected and anlaysts/associates genearlize until they become a VP. I'm not sure if this is true at other banks... maybe you could clarify that for me and general hours if you have an idea.
Morgan's RE analyst cover both buy-side and sell-side related activities?? You know that first hand?
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