Hey all,
I have a bit of a winding career path that started in BB operations which I was looking to get out of before I even started. I ended up working for a developer basically by accident. For some incredible reason, they hadn't ran an operating budget in 5 years, so my job was to get that process up and running. It was a family-run operation and after about 6 months I got the can.
I was pretty desperate for employment obviously, so I took the first thing that was offered, which was a gig in corporate real estate at a professional services firm. It isn't the worst job in the world, but after a couple years here I'm looking to get out and get back into actually being in the business of real estate. I'm fairly open as to what - Asset Management, Acquisitions, Development, Investment, whatever...Just need to get out.
I've been interviewing/applying to jobs for about 4-5 months and haven't had much luck. I'm getting a decent amount of interviews, but no one seems to be biting. I can tell that the biggest obstacle that I have to climb is that my principal-side experience is pretty limited (6 months, 3.5 years ago) and I'm trying to assuage that by talking up my interest in real estate, how much I love the industry, highlighting the experience I got during the time I was working for the developer, and also talking about things I've picked up in some classes I've taken (RE Financial modeling courses at NYU and an online course from MIT). So far, that isn't doing the trick. I'm beginning to think that a Master's is my only way out, which I'd like to avoid tbh.
Can anyone provide any additional advice? I'd obviously especially love to hear from someone who used to be in corporate real estate but isn't anymore.
Thanks!
PM me
Bump
Go to a CRE brokerage. You could easily spin your interest / previous positions in CRE into an analyst role. Stay there for a bit and head off to the principal side.
Any suggestions on what kind of groups/what specifically I should be targeting? I've interviewed at a 1st tier and a couple 2nd tier brokerage firms for underwriting related jobs and they basically all come back saying they're going with someone who has xyz underwriting experience that I don't.
1st preference would be 1st tier capital markets or IS. If that isn't achievable then the goal should be to get somewhere where (a) you're underwriting and (b) you're getting live deal experience.
When you transition to the principal side you are your deal experience.
Only worry about what you can control. You've taken modeling courses and I presume understand basic underwriting concepts. Offer to take a modeling test during the job interview (9/10 brokerages will not take you up on this as they likely don't have one...). You've identified your weakness (lack of UW exp) now how do you mitigate the perceived risk to your potential employer that comes along with that
And of course, network. The guy you know could care less about your formal uw experience. The guy you don't know does care.
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