Talking to a recruiter soon about a commercial real estate development analyst position. Seems like your standard job description of analyzing acquisitions & reporting on them. The firm is very small, would literally be less than 5 people in an office. It seems like the chief development officer wants to take the analyst under his wing, and put them on the track to be a development manager. I've been in lackluster financial analyst position for a few years now so I think I have the transferrable skills but no real estate experience. I have been wanting for years to get into CRE but it's difficult to even get in without real estate experience so I am semi-surprised I even got a call back. I'm excited but super nervous that i'll mess it up. So, to anyone who has done development or knows about it.. questions:
What kind of salary can I expect in DC area? I'm pretty overpaid right now so I'm not sure if I can even expect to be matched esp. going into this at an entry level.. I dont want to tell them a salary but I'm sure she will ask.
- What is the typical work day like? Is it enjoyable for you - why or why not?
- Being in an office with such few people?
-Is this something that you'd be able to move cities doing? Or are you pretty rooted in the city once you start.
- better or worse to be in a specific type of firm? This one is multi-family/mixed-use for the most part. about 40 or so in their portfolio across the US. All properties look high end & modern
- Career growth or exit opps?
- Does this even sound worth it? Or keep my eyes open for something else in CRE.
Any feedback on development in general is very helpful. I've seen mixed reviews so far, appreciate any and all honesty.
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I used to be a dev analyst for a 7-person firm.
Thanks for the info. Thats a steep pay cut I'd have to deal with. Do you know what a development manager salary would be in DC? Presuming I took this job and worked my way up?
What type of company/role did you move onto afterward?
If it results in a job offer I would be most conflicted with having such a small office but if it is something I could move away from eventually I could manage.
Dev manager base could be anywhere from $100-200k. It's all dependent upon experience and how many projects you can manage.
I left for a REPE firm.
I spent some time in a smaller office once and while I got great experience and loved the people I worked with I vastly underestimated how boring it can get.
Boring because of the work? Or boring because you have to talk to yourself for fun? What did you move onto after the small firm? Still in development?
Boring because of few people to talk to but mostly because I really enjoy the energy of a larger office.
The work was still great and I learned a lot. Also some people really enjoy working in a smaller office, just not for me
In a similar boat. Would agree with great exp (if given a decent amount of autonomy in the role) but can become boring and a bit tedious after a few years.
Hard to say OP, smaller shops require a bit more DD when assessing the fit for you. The role sounds good but because it's a small office I'd be more focused on the what they say in an interview and how the hiring manager comes across because you'll be drinking out of the same mug most days.
I'm a development manager at an 11-person shop.
There are no typical work days, which is exciting. Generally though, there is a lot of coordination and following up, whether you're in the office or on site.
It's interesting to me to see so many in this thread against small offices. I far prefer a tight knit group of people to a faceless bureaucracy with more HR policies than people.
You can move cities. I've lived and worked professionally in 4. It isn't easy, and the higher up you get in the industry the harder it would be, but at the analyst level it's not something to worry about.
Just make sure you do what you're interested in. There needs to be a passion to be effective.
Development is the exit opp. Your career growth would be from an analyst role to an associate role to a manage role and then either continue upward or go out on your own. Development is entrepreneurial.
...yes? Hard to tell you what to value or not.
Not sure who is giving mixed reviews on development. If you don't want to do it, don't. If you do, this is a great starting point.
Being a development analyst on the commercial side is arguably the best entry-level position in terms of a well rounded CRE eduation, especially if you get to work on mixed-use deals. However, with 5 people in the office it sounds like culture will be critical. I would try to make sure you vibe with the culture and have an informal one-on-one coffee/lunch with the Chief Development Officer to feel out who he is as a person.
Great feedback. I’m supposed to speak with the CDO soon and am nervous excited. The recruiter said the only potential issue that would hurt me is not having any working real estate experience..so now there’s pressure on how to convince him I don’t need babysitting to get up to speed on real estate jargon. Any book or podcast recs? Any tips in general at this stage? And don’t even reply if you’re gonna say “If you had a real interest in it you wouldn’t be asking these questions” I’m obviously new to RE and don’t know what to expect
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