There has been a ton of talk about which MBA is the best, how do I get to a MF right out of school, and other prestige-related discussions at length.. Yet there are many ways to get to the top and I'd love to hear forum responses on this:
1) Your first RE job out of b-school (firm/role)
2) Where you are at now (firm/role)
3) End goal (if you have one)
If you are a frequent poster and didn't get an MBA, please feel free to send student loan donations to [email protected]
| +45 | New Comp Database - Google Form (Now with Data Validation) | 24 | 22h | |
| +35 | Leave brokerage to be GP | 10 | 4s | |
| +24 | Seeking Career Guidance in Real Estate Development Post-Graduation | 3 | 1d | |
| +23 | Going out on your own | 4 | 34m | |
| +22 | REPE/Development GPA | 15 | 2d | |
| +20 | Real Estate = complicated + underpaid | 15 | 21m | |
| +17 | MSRE/MSRED with no RE experience; Naive to think I’ll land a job afterwards? | 4 | 3d | |
| +16 | Fisher Brothers | 6 | 2s | |
| +16 | UC Berkeley MRED vs Columbia MSRED? | 2 | 5d | |
| +13 | Questions regarding modeling development project & construction loan | 5 | 2d |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
I'll start. I graduated from USC Marshall in May 2016 with a finance/real estate-focused MBA. I came into Marshall with zero finance or real estate experience.
1) I work at a small/medium-sized MF REPE shop. I am an acquisitions analyst. 2) See above. 3) I really like multifamily acquisitions and plan to continue working in the space for the foreseeable future. If I changed firms, I would like to work for a shop that does both development and acquisitions. Farther down the road, I want to work my way up to the VP level and then strike off on my own.
Would you recommend USC MRED, MBA or joint MBA/MRED for real estate careers?
USC seems to have strong presence in Southern California RE, so I was interested in applying (non-Cal resident)
Would love to hear more about your experience at USC.
I think it really depends.
Marshall offers some very good real estate classes that are separate from the MRED program, and it's possible to audit MRED classes if you work things out with individual professors (I audited 3 classes). However, you'll have a hard time finding RE-focused support from the Marshall Career Center because it's heavily tilted towards consulting, finance, entertainment, and marketing.
Having said that, I enjoyed being able to take traditional finance classes that I wouldn't have been able to take had I done the MRED (M&A, Private Equity, Entrepreneurial Finance, etc). I signed up for every real estate class Marshall offered, and supplemented that with audited MRED classes, heavy participation in the Graduate Real Estate Association, my own networking, and online financial modeling courses (which are better than any in-person class).
The USC MBA and MRED are both well-respected around CA, so you can really do either/both. I have an MBA and work in REPE acquisitions; a classmate has a dual MRED/MBA and sits across the office from me; another classmate has just the MBA and works at Clarion doing Asset Management.
Feel free to PM me if you have any more specific USC real estate questions.
Delete
I had no RE or finance experience pre-MBA. Not that my story is indicative of anything, but the fact that I now work in REPE and had no RE or finance experience pre-MBA should answer your question.
Was it difficult to break in is probably what you're really asking, and the answer to that question is yes.
In your case, if you're currently a consultant, I would say you would be starting from a much stronger position than I was three years ago if you followed a similar path.
Pretty interested in this as well. Would be nice to see what school each poster attended as well (M7, Top 25, or a top regional such as USC).
also interested
Bump, interested as well.
Graduated from May's Business school in December '15.
Currently work as a Credit Analyst for a non recourse CMBS lender.
End goal is up in the air, but I really like the idea of an SFR REIT.
what's the salary for a first year credit analyst out of school? atleast a range if your not comfortable with an exact number.
60k base, with a 15%+ bonus if you meet certain goals and the company does too. I expect the bonus to go up as I progress.
Whoop '17
bump
.
This is a RE forum homie
Not trying to be an ass here, but is this really what MBA/MSRE in the RE industry are coming out of school with? Credit Analyst jobs? This is what confuses me about this industry. People who get these degrees and come out with jobs they could have gotten with just an undergrad. If I'm going to a top MBA I better be coming out with an Associate level job or at least analyst at one of the mega funds even if I have no prior experience.
I don't know if it's a function of the degree or of the real estate industry, or a combination of the two, but it is "unregulated" in all the ways that banking is regulated. There is no path, no structure, etc. and it all comes down to the person.
People in my program come out with truly fantastic jobs, people in my program come out with middle of the road things that they maybe could have got without the degree, and then every year 1-2 get poor jobs that are a reflection of their aptitude and attitude than anything.
You have to remember too that the class structure is so different than MBA programs. There is no ranking, so programs don't have to stat whore, and people don't have the standard scores, backgrounds, etc. that MBA programs have. Some people in my program are here to get their career to the next level. Some are accomplished in another career and are looking to break in. Some are right out of undergrad and just need some direction in their life. Some are kids and grandkids of super successful people who need to get some credentials so their CEO dad/grandpa can justify hiring them outside of shared genetics. It's wildly varied and leads to wildly varied outcomes.
That's one data point--also, just one school in a greater sample size of 'top MBA programs'. Defining top MBA programs, depending on your quantity of schools (whether M7, top 10, top 15, etc..) will yield very different results than T20, T50 or unranked degrees. Megafund with no prior RE experience is nearly impossible--these shops can poach REIB analysts at a discount to what they would hire a fresh MBA for. They also would know they can get 80-90 hour workweeks for a given salary and a certain level of modeling ability with limited/no errors. Rarely do you get this with an MBA--with that said, the more 'prestigious' a firm you worked for pre-MBA, your odds at REPE post are better. It's still very tough to get into a MF given the increasing number of students attending graduate schools, the current pricing of assets in the United States, and level of uncertainty shops have regarding Trump's economy and the interest rate environment we now live in.
I think people overestimate the real estate job prospects coming out of these programs until it's too late.
You could probably get a credit analyst job out of under grad, but I look at a MSRE (not MBA) as a one (or two) year real estate boot camp and it is best for students or professionals who do not have a real estate or finance background. Not every undergrad that is interested in real estate has a finance or real estate education/background that one can leverage. Purely networking also may not get you a solid job, so I think if MSRE students treat the program like an intensive boot camp, take it seriously, develop solid fundamentals and network and intern during school/summers, you could land a solid gig out of school. And a MSRE is cheaper than a MBA, so cost is not too bad. And many folks in this forum have also mentioned an evolving glass ceiling where an advanced degree is becoming more in demand than ever before. So, that credit analyst job that an MSRE student starts at might not require an advanced degree, but the second or third job after that could very well require that degree.
40k (on the low end) is pretty fucking brutal for a "boot camp"
Velit et et quis ipsum rerum laboriosam odit. Necessitatibus ut molestiae dolor sunt atque a. Qui quasi qui dolor necessitatibus.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Accusantium a qui aut doloribus. Voluptatum dolores consequuntur tempora sapiente ea est ea velit. Et repellat laboriosam magnam aspernatur. Tempora et sint doloribus dicta ea qui accusamus.
Voluptatem et qui totam aut quia et non. Repellendus rem laudantium tenetur. Eligendi optio adipisci non provident praesentium aut est.