What is the comp like for an associate in-house research role and what are the chances of a lateral transfer into an investment role?
*Edit: I should have provided more details and context. I'm currently in a development consulting role, but I'm keen to make a move to a buy-side analyst role. Recently a headhunter reached out to see if I'd be interested in taking up a research role with a REPE. This isn't an angle of attack I've thought of before and it isn't ideal, but it IS an in after all. That being said, what is the difference in comp between a consultancy and a REPE firm? And once I'm in, how easy is it to do the lateral transfer?
When i started out of school, i was a research analyst at JLL making $40k. Was literally just sifting through lists of data, and writing a quarterly market report. It was the easiest, least stimulating job I ever had. I did that for a year and a half, and through aggressive networking through the brokers there, was able to land an entry-level analyst role with a developer.
In short, the comp sucks but it's not impossible to transition to the principal side if you network hard enough. Looking back, it might have been easier to transfer onto a brokerage team as an analyst, but I was fixated on development at the time.
Research and Strategy can be a very important department within an REPE/investment mngt shop. It is generally a requirement of all the consultants/allocators/placement agents to raise money from large institutional investors. I think most would view it as much as front of house as anything else, after all it is core to doing deals and raising money. That said, 'research' can mean a lot of different things at different shops, some places are better than others.
I am honestly confused a bit by the lateral transfer question, exactly what do you want to be doing that you are afraid you are not? You are IN, you would be buy-side, maybe I am confused or you are overthinking it. The head of research and strategy is very client facing and many become the CEO or heads of business units (or CIO, etc.). Again, this is really firm specific, but these tend to be hard jobs to get, as typically fewer slots than traditional acq/am roles.
The pay question is difficult, from the REPE side, your pay should likely be equal others at same rank (analyst/assoc/director/VP or whatever). Bonus may be more based on firm wide performance vs. specific funds or deals (but that really depends on the firm) as can happen in acq/am (assuming one is focused to a fund or strategy). Plus, I have no idea what you are making in 'development consulting role' (do you mean a firm like RCLCO/John Burns/etc? or something else).
People are going to post about roles as “research analyst” supporting brokers, that’s not what this post is talking about.
I work on a dedicated research team in a repe firm. We forecast rents and prices, write white papers, give presentations to investors, etc. I basically only ever work 40 hours a week.
I started as an analyst right out of college here is how my salary progression went:
Year 1: Analyst 65k + 20% bonus Year 2 : Associate 90k + 20% Bonus Year 3: Associate 110k + 30% Bonus Year 4: Director 140k + 30% Bonus Year 5: Director 145k + 30% Bonus
I have noticed that the RE forum on WSO tends to only think of acquisitions and asset management within principal shops, very little understanding of research/strategy, capital markets, investor relations, or other functions which tend to as much core to operations as anything else.
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