Real estate investment analyst to IB/PE/VC?

I currently work at a boutique I-Bank and I am not really learning that much/getting involved. I may have an opportunity with a large multi-billion dollar real estate investment firm in an investment analyst role. My question is: is it hard to move back into IB or PE after a few years as a real estate investment analyst, or are you pigeon holed into real estate once you get into it? I have had a few IB/PE interviews with not much luck and many other candidates have much more deal/modeling experience then me. Thanks!

 
Best Response

I'd be interested in hearing thoughts on this too.

I'm also in commercial RE, and while I actually plan on staying there, I'm still curious.

I imagine that biz school will equalize things a bit for someone wanting to do this, but it might be tough before that.

It depends on what you did in RE. If you're doing asset management with lots of modeling, doing IRR bridges and stretch cases and whatnot, you could probably transition your skillset to IBD pretty easily. Whether or not you could convince an interviewer of that is anyone's guess though....

 
paulson_01:
Why switch? RE AM guys have sweet deals. Cool people, decent hours, great pay.

This is, for what it's worth, what people keep telling me.

Another added benefit of RE is that for whatever reason, the "credentials bar" one has to leap over isn't anywhere NEAR as high as in IBD, PE Buyout, etc... Even for super duper top-tier organizations.

Pay is about as good (little lower), 2/3 the hours, and you don't need to go to HBS to do it for a living.

I suppose my interest in transitioning to IBD is more of a hypothetical "could I?" rather than any practical intention.

For what it's worth, I do think the process of valuing intact companies is slightly more interesting than the process of valuing CRE, but if I was going to choose my career based on the subject matter I would've been a classic car restorer.

 

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