Hey guys,
I'll be making a move in a few months to a large market across the country. I'll be a recent grad with ~16 months of internship experience in my local market.
As I've begun networking, I've been getting a lot of questions on "why the move all the way out here". During interviews I assume there will be some resistance to hiring me compared to hiring someone local with local knowledge.
What are some good ways to spin being from a different market as an advantage, not a disadvantage? I've thought of a few already, but would love to hear your guys thoughts:
- I can provide a different perspective (example: In my old city, this type of property did well because of X and Y, here I'm only seeing X, is Y important here or not?)
- Lived in a western market - I can be kind of useful in answering random questions about it if they had a deal out there
- Basically, marginal value is higher with hiring your first non-local person then it is hiring your 10th local person
How else would you spin being from a different city as an advantage, not a disadvantage?
I think the bigger concern when people are asking this question is whether or not you will stay in this market, or if you are just trying to land somewhere to break into the market then take a better opp when it is presented. Especially early in your career, they shouldn't be expecting you to come in with deep market knowledge or relationships, but are going to be concerned that you might jump ship quickly. Would just focus on why you want to be there (family, relationship, love for the location, etc.) and why you specifically want to be at that firm. That would allay my concerns more than knowing you have some transferable knowledge from SF to NYC...
Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. Is saying more opportunities in Toronto is whats leading me out there a bad thing to say? Or to frame it as "want to be where the industry is more concentrated"
I wouldn't interpret it that way - just make sure you make it about something that company does not like "well I wanted to be near brookfield because I hope to work their someday." If its a local shop building apartments in the city, make them believe that's your passion.
In his autobiography, Sam Zell talks about why he moved from Ann Arbor to Chicago and basically says that he wanted to see how he stacked up playing against the best in the industry. I don't think that this is an uncommon sentiment. I'd be more concerned if you were coming from Toronto to Edmonton (or another smaller market).
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