What would a development associates job entail?
Hey everyone, 

So I currently work in brokerage focusing on office and industrial assets but there could be a development associate job in my future for an apartment group. 

What would this entail? I guess I’m wondering what skills would I need to sharpen. I got my bachelors degree in finance. I feel like this would honestly be much more challenging than my current job.
[{"id": "fk7o647", "text": "Everything from pricing doorknobs to negotiating mezz equity structures.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fk7or9s", "text": "I\u2019ve worked in a multi family development associate role before and the previous poster is correct, it was everything from deal sourcing and financing to construction project management things like subcontractor bid analysis/negotiating and having an input on design elements. It\u2019s a very dynamic role  and I loved my time in it.", "replies": [{"id": "fk82p6p", "text": "Why did you change roles and what is your role now?", "replies": [{"id": "fk86z0u", "text": "Went from that role to being promoted to another role for a very brief time and am now out on my own.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fk7r3wb", "text": "So a lot of what people are sharing here is helpful and it could certainly be in your job description, but if the company is relatively small, you may be asked to do so much more.  I work for a small development firm.  We're both the developer/owner of the projects AND we are the general contractor too (meaning we do all the project management). So, depending on what capacity is may need you will really entail the job description you need. My undergrad was in finance and I use very little from that or my MBA. What I use is what I learned at a private equity group where I had an opportunity to put two development deals together (both in hospitality and I raised the equity for those hotels and fell in love with development then).  \n\nI only share all this because as a \"development associate\" I would expect that you would be maybe doing less of the construction side of things and more about the big deal structure. You would be doing pro forma development budgets, predicting future value, raising equity, securing construction financing, the management group operators for the multifamily projects, working with the GC, the city/county, etc, overseeing the draws for development, etc. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to PM me.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fk85szv", "text": "Can confirm what others have said. This is my current title at a medium sized developer in a large market and my job consists of literally everything under the sun. A lot less finance / modeling heavy and a lot more project management, design oversight and working with city planning. It\u2019s been a fun ride, every day is a new challenge!", "replies": [{"id": "fk8fnjf", "text": "This would excite me because I\u2019m mainly a problem solver and a people person. My weakness is on the financial modeling side.", "replies": [{"id": "fk8npmj", "text": "Everything said above is spot on. Depending on what your firm does will change this. We are small, non profit, developer/owner with third party management. I could be on equity/debt call in the morning, architect meeting around lunch, processing payables before I go home. Depending on how much responsibility you are given will determine your scope of work. Models matter but ultimately underwriting is driven by your bank/investors requirements and it doesn't really mean all that much until you close. Which is not too say it isn't important but working on a model during concept/pre-development is like trying to pin the tail on a donkey that keeps running away: it'll never be 100% so enjoy the ride/learning.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fkhjcso", "text": "It can be a bunch of things depending on the shop.\n\nI know a few shops that bring in dev analysts as purely financial analysts, and at associate level they mostly do that but begin to get exposure to the rest of the development process. There are other shops who pretty well only bring in people with engineering or architecture backgrounds to handle everything but the numbers (deal sourcing, planning, entitlement, research, project management, etc.) and have separate departments that run the numbers.\n\nIt's a title that can mean a lot of different things so it's a good idea to get clarification from the hiring company. Ultimately though, typically it will eventually lead into a promotion to a deal sourcing role regardless of the initial responsibilities.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]