Curious to know how some of you landed your first job and any subsequent jobs in commercial real estate.
And by "how" I mean what METHOD did you utilize to get you the interview and ultimately the job?
1) Did you see the job posted online, send in an application and get contacted by the firm without knowing anyone from within?
2) Did you utilize your network to learn of any potential leads for jobs and get in that way without ever actually seeing the job posted online? i.e. an "off market" hire that evolved solely from a relationship
3) Did you see the job posted online, and then see if someone in your network could put you in contact?
4) Did you utilize a recruiter or staffing agency to help you find a job?
5) On-campus recruiting?
Thanks for any input.
Job 1 out of UG - AM - recruiter Job 2 - AM - online app no connections Job 3 - Acq - online app no connections Job 4 - Acq - Selectleaders/direct reach out to current VP
How hard was it to go from Asset Management to Acquisitions?
I got a MRE to aid in the process so I felt that helped, I also was able to get involved in UW quite a bit during my AM years. I had 3.5 years of AM experience before the switch happened.
Linkedin inmail. Asked for coffee and advice out of UG, he had a job for me.
Job 1: Networking Job 2: Online Posting Job 3 (internship): Networking Job 4 (internship): Pre-OCI Networking and then OCI Job 5: Networking
There's a theme here
Job 1: networking Job 2: because exp (didn't know anyone) - online posting Job 3: because exp (didn't know anyone) - online posting Job 4: I was a broker and a principal wanted me to join as an AM/Acquisitions generalist
Job 1: Acq. Craigslist and crushed the interview Job 2: AM. Recruiter and crushed the interview Job 3: Dev. Linkedin and crushed the interview Job 4: Acq. SelectLeaders and...well you know
How did your interview go?
Yea, I got extremely lucky finding that role on craigslist. I still look occasionally to see if there are similar roles that get posted, but haven't found anything since then.
Crushed it![]()
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Job 1 - (Career Switch) - Brokerage - found posting on SL, then found a connection to the job and was referred for interview Job 2 - REPE Acq - recruiter, though most other interviews I got through the same method - find posting or hear of job and find a thread to pull to get me in the door
Looks like no one on here actually read OP's question. FIRST job, not EVERY job...
Anyways, for what it's worth, I applied through my UG's career center and got an offer two weeks after applying. Keep truckin, you'll get to where you want to be soon enough.
Subsequent jobs are also good to know. I should maybe change the title accordingly haha
Not specifically CRE per se:
Networking. I went to a way non target no name state school, did a ton of stuff to beef up my resume, cold called a guy for two months, got rejected after an interview, sent a follow up thank you letter, got a call back with a job offer, met with someone higher up at a ULI/NAIOP/Bisnow event, got a better offer at same company, got hired.
I just applied online on the companies website. I was lucky because the director was personally looking through to look for people with really good vba/coding skills.
The next time we hired he let hr filter and phone screen, and the candidates were all ivy background, which I definitely was not.
Currently work in AM for a PERE50 firm, applied cold online and was fortunate enough to get a callback
Direct emails to people at firms (cold)—> short phone calls with 25% —> subsequent calls/meetings with 10% of the 25%, —> interviews—> job offer/new job
Networking my way into a RE focused family office.
How did you find the companies? Most of the family offices are not listed in a simple google search.
Realistically... nepotism.
Got out of college and met with anyone who would talk to me in the market I wanted to be in; mostly people family and friends put me in touch with then asked for a couple of people I should reach out to at the end of each interview . I had one real estate related internship in college (investment sales at a large brokerage) and a business-ish degree from a good state school. Saw a job posting online at a large brokerage shop for an analyst role on a very strong investment sales team, applied online, then asked folks I'd been talking to if they knew anyone at the company and on that team, several of them emailed my resume and their reference to the brokers and my grandfather called the head of that office. Had interviews the next week, got asked if I knew what a cap rate was, played the name game, and talked college football for a bit. Got hired like two weeks later.
There's a lot of luck involved, but we all have to make our own luck and then get some help. Moral of the story is that if it is easy for you to help someone, just do it. Takes like 20 minutes, if that, and can make a huge difference in someone's career. That's why I try and meet with any young kid that reaches out... I won the genetic lottery and had a lot of folks in my corner early on and then I fucking hustled and tried to earn the trust other folks put in me and prove it well founded... still trying to prove worthy of it too.
Just landed my first job out of undergrad in REPE.
Networked my ass off. Landed a few interviews at major REPE shops but nothing materialized. Was on the phones every week with anyone I could get a hold of, but was losing some hope. Randomly applied to a reputable MM REPE analyst posting on SelectLeaders and got a phone interview. After many rounds of interviews there I got the job.
Point being, from my short experience, you can be doing all the right things, but sometimes it really is just luck that gets you in the door.
First post!
I originally started in FP&A. Boss (Manager of FP&A) went back to school and I convinced VP and CFO that I could handle the workload. I learned a ton about finance, modeling, and even more importantly, the asset class I was dealing with.
Fast forward two-years, a position opened up on an acquisition team 10 minutes from me. Just so happened that the team deals strictly in the asset class I was working in. I was lacking the extensive RE experience but they decided to give me the gig because I knew the asset class better than all other applicants (90% had RE experience). So far, I am extremely happy with the move.
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