Interview prep for public pension fund (northern europe)
Im a grad student in contact with the real estate department of the national public pension fund in my country for an internship role. Cant be more specific than that its north europe.

1. What are important aspect to sharpen for the interviews? 

2. From your experience, what could the interview questions/cases be compared to? REPE? RE IB? Brokerage? 

3. What are common exit ops after working at a pension fund?

If this isnt the appropriate sub for this question please redirect me to a suitable one and ofcourse a huge thank you for any and all answers in advance!
[{"id": "i5m62yl", "text": "Do they do direct investing, or are they just allocating to Fund managers? That'll help shape my response.", "replies": [{"id": "i5m86ko", "text": "Both", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i5mqftb", "text": "It really depends on the internship position and the skill set required. Usually, pension funds act as LPs in direct deals or allocate to funds and don't do the actual GP job of directly managing the asset. I haven't worked at one but have worked with some in Europe. That said, I think for an internship position, depending on what it actually is, you can't go wrong with knowing what a tenancy schedule is, in broader terms what a DCF is (how the property is valued), what a cap rate is (or called \"exit yield\" at selling and gross/net initial yield at acquisition in some European countries). Get acquainted with what an NOI is. Excel knowledge, especially in Europe, is always a plus if you have some, and always a minus if you don't. Almost nobody in Europe uses ARGUS, so don't bother. Check the meaning of rent, rent per square meter, service charges, operating expenses, capex (in RE context). Google and read a couple of market reports on investment and rental markets by Colliers, BNP or JLL and get acquainted with the terminology used, just to have a general feel of what's going on. In terms of Excel, for starters check out some basic functions like IF, SUMIF, SUMIFS, VLOOKUP (for starters), basic multiplication/division and percentages. But I don't think you'll get a modeling test for an internship in a pension fund. \n\nEven that I think is already too much for an internship at a pension fund in Europe.\n\n3 . Not sure what the exit opportunity is. Probably not great. Use the time to learn about what it's about, gain some experience. If on the investor side, do some RE modeling courses and try to switch to REPE or a fund. If you like brokerage, do some networking and brush up on the essentials. CRE is big and multidimensional to it so it's difficult to give a too specific advice given the limited amount of info you've provided \n\nAnd let us know how it went afterwards.", "replies": [{"id": "i5mt8we", "text": "Wow, thanks for the elaborate reply. I am familiar with all the points you listed so thats a little bit of a relief atleast. Since they do a fair share of buyouts I will have to get more acquainted with that stuff, maybe some portfolio theory as well but I guess I will focus mostly on understanding the market then. Take care!", "replies": [{"id": "i5pnh6q", "text": "It's an internship, so as mentioned probably not a lot to worry about. If they also do reoc and reit investments/buyouts, and you're involved in that, then learning to read a reit income statement can be useful, e.g. to also familiarize yourself with FFO, NAV, etc. Since you know the previously mentioned topics, also look up LTV, LTC, unlevered IRR, levered IRR, equity multiple, multiplier (inverse of yield). You'll hear these words a lot in acquisitions.\n\nRight now there's a big demand for CRE employees in Europe in property management, asset management, on the acquisition and development side. Asset prices are ridiculously high and transaction volumes are at pre-covid level. People are hiring like crazy right now, so it's a good time to break in the industry, unless rising interest rates push us into a recession. Do the internship, brush up your LinkedIn and headhunters will find you, and you could throw the word \"analyst\" somewhere.", "replies": [{"id": "i5pq26q", "text": "Now reits is something I hadnt thought of, will take a look at that for sure. The other terms I feel rather comfortable using so thats another relief, Im starting to think Im not a complete impostor after all\ud83d\ude04\n\nThe job market does seem nice here, atleast where Im at I havent looked abroad tbf but first things first right ;)", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]