Landed an Analyst Role. What are some potential career paths after this?
Got news that I got an offer join a real estate investment firm as an analyst. I'm a bit scared though that I'm trapping myself into a niche spot within finance. I'll be working on financial models, doing market research, and preparing investor reports. What positions come after the beginner analyst role? I'm also just out of college and wondering how big that salary growth would be.
[{"id": "iedemv2", "text": "Try getting good at those job functions for now.  No sense in thinking about beyond when you have zero experience and are fresh out of college.\n\nIt'll likely take you 2-3 years to get good at modeling, really understand market reports, etc.  When I say \"good at modeling\", I mean you don't need a mouse 95% of the time.\n\nI might get skewered for this since Reddit is so anti-work this days, but this company understands that they're going to have to invest in you and that you're likely not going to produce anything of value for at least 6-9 months.  If I found out that a new hire that I was going to have to babysit for a while was already thinking about the next thing, I'd be pretty pissed and regret hiring them..", "replies": [{"id": "iedg0xg", "text": "Fair point. I can see how that might anger a new employer. However, I would add that during my interviews the managers basically said the role was a place to learn for 2-4 years then dip. The team itself is super small so not much room for growth within the company.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iedox3s", "text": "Usually at the bigger shops, brokers are hired from financial analyst roles. If that\u2019s a path you\u2019re willing to take then stick it out a couple years", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iee4xab", "text": "Congrats man. Anything you think you did to separate yourself from other applicants? (Currently trying to land a role myself)", "replies": [{"id": "iee790j", "text": "Bro quite literally I did absolutely nothing. I'm thankful for the offer but I'm also a bit surprised I got it quite easily and think I'm very lucky. The hardest question in my two interviews was about my interest in investments. Here's the catch though- I originally had an offer to work for Microsoft as a Product Marketing Manager but the offer got rescinded due to hiring freezes. I definitely used this as a selling point to start off the conversation in my interviews.\n\nAnother thing that's crucial to take note of is where I went to school. My university is a selective/private liberal arts school with an enormous endowment. During my interviews, they mentioned how the school's endowment actually includes some of their assets in the overall portfolio. The real estate investment company submitted a posting unique to our university's job board. Basically, I had no real competition since most of my peers have jobs before they even graduate and the firm really wanted to honor that relationship with our university by hiring someone who went there.\n\nProfessionally, I've done only marketing internships. I really only added my finance concentration at the beginning of my senior year because I realized I would have way too much free time if I didn't add another one. In summary, my resume consisted of 3 marketing internships and 3 major leadership positions I had in multiple organizations- my fraternity, orientation team, &amp; hispanic students club (lol). Essentially, if you looked at my resume, it really wouldn't make sense that I'm about to work in real estate lol.", "replies": [{"id": "iee7wql", "text": "Ahhhh I see! Appreciate the insight, I need to check which RE firms are heavily tied to my uni now lmao \n\nThe Marketing probably shows them that you\u2019ll be proficient when creating the OM, pitch decks etc. &amp; you\u2019ve got social skills (campus orgs) as far as financial modeling/excel skills go anything on your resume that shows you have that skill? I\u2019d imagine that\u2019s a chunk of the job lol or you plan on learning that on the job?", "replies": [{"id": "ieejnnm", "text": "I took a course called financial modeling and created a 50 page report which included like 15 different excel models that ultimately calculated enterprise value.  Excel is easy to me but of course I'll probably get better at it once on the job.", "replies": [{"id": "ieg8sbf", "text": "Gotta give yourself credit lol you def sound qualified for the role esp if you can competently crank out those models. I think you would\u2019ve landed it without the endowment piece. Best of luck homie", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iee5juk", "text": "In your spare time get a real estate license", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iegi00d", "text": "Join toastmasters and learn to love talking with people\n\nmoonlight as a standup comic \n\nkiss the blarney stone", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ieh4kpk", "text": "https://youtu.be/Q_aRSaNBD-c \n\nCheck out this channel, Justin breaks down your exact situation and he also uncovers some exit strategies from an analyst role into other roles in CRE like sales roles.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iehdujn", "text": "Credit analyst?", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]