Basically this. Although deal experience and exit opportunities are far more important than money for your first job. I have noticed that the companies that tend to offer the best deal experience and exit opps also tend to pay the most. Somewhat of a winner take all scenario.

Once you get to senior associate / vp, things are a bit different. You have to consider where you fit within the company 5-10 years down the road, have to consider if the platform is growing and there is room for you in the carry pool, etc. But at the analyst level, high pay implies good deal experience which implies good exit opps.

 
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I may just be bitter but my read is that are so elitist via their network of clients and their progeny. They almost only hire their clients kids and largely from USC or the occasional Ivy. Everyone I’ve known who has worked there has a last name most members of this forum would recognize because of our industry.

The others they hire are extremely academically accomplished in all fairness. I tip my hat to them - my friend in particular was working class and broke in on merit.

On the other hand, I have had 15+ informational interviews with their teams across the US and Europe before graduating – in addition to REAL institutional deal and firm experience (on 2 continents and 4 countries) – this includes assignments my team has won from pitching their clients and winning the business due to our capabilities and intellectual horsepower.

In a recent phone interview with them for a lateral hire, I just got told by a senior MD that: “going to that school was a mistake” and they need to see a “name brand” on my resume if they were to consider me for a hire lol. After the last 4+ years of communicating with him, he told me I should consider USC for MBA (for the internal network) and try again but “no promises”.

Guess I couldn’t hack it (*shrug*)- good luck if you’re actually interested. I can connect you with 15 people across the world. Maybe you’ll break in.

 

Unfortunately this is the case at many brokerages and not just in investment sales. I was a broker in a previous life and saw tons of nepotism. Its unfortunate, but when you think about it, it makes sense why this happens. Brokers build their career on relationships. When a team goes to hire a junior, they turn to their relationships which are generally their clients. On top of that, they know if they hire the clients child, they will win their clients business the next time around. It becomes a win-win-win for the players but the people on the outside lose. You can break in without these connections, but this is pretty common in brokerage. 

 

They get hired for some of the biggest, most cool assignments and being "boutique" in nature they do more of those on relative basis than large firms like CBRE, JLL, Newmark who also get such assignments. 

So, if you say you work for Eastdil, you are more likely to get automatically tagged as some "player" or at least working for one. If you just say you work for CBRE, you may be doing skycraper deals or you may be leasing a strip center in Lincoln, NE, I think that is a big part of it tbh.

Other factor, like for the UG crowd of WSO, they are accessible, they actually hire/recruit undergrads constantly (presumable due to constant turnover), so its's a fought over position that people are actually getting a shot at. Hence, lots of interest in discussing it. 

 

we just dinged them on an assignment. they're not that cool....

 

great guys and team in that market. we just needed another group with a retail leasing person on their bench due to the complexity of the deal...ES is too investment-salesy and didn't have a retail leasing expert. 

 

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