Investment Sales/Capital Markets Brokers, what do you look for in an Analyst?
I have an upcoming informal phone convo with a Capital Markets team that is undergoing an operational restructuring. I secured this call by conveying interest in analyst opportunities through a cold email to the team leader, and was told to give him a call next week to discuss. To be clear, there is no formal analyst position advertised, this was simply me emailing him and seeing if his team could use someone of my experience level and interest.


I am thinking that he would not tell me to call him unless there was indeed a potential opportunity for an analyst/junior associate. Assuming that is the case, how should I approach this? I began my career as a researcher for this firm’s competitor, and have been working as a development analyst for a multifamily developer since then.


Despite my industry and financial modeling experience, I do NOT have ARGUS experience. I have ready many of this team’s OM’s (as well as their competitors), I know the market trends and players, and I have a strong interest in getting more deal exposure than I am getting on the development side of things. How can I improve my pitch? Input from people who work (or have worked) in brokerage before would be appreciated!

[{"id": "datvsyn", "text": "Scara-tara, \n\nI just began my career as an associate on an investment sales /capital markets team and work in an analyist capacity. I would say that an Argus certification is not necessary to get the position you seek, but if you have the means, it could help quite a bit. I worked a couple summers in college for an investment firm and had the chance to hop on Argus and drum up some experience which helped me land this gig - all I did was say 'yes,' when they asked me point blank if I knew Argus. Perhaps you could reach out to people you know to get some Argus manuals - I just gave mine away to another fella unfortunately. BUT if you've got development / modeling experience in excel, I'm sure Argus would be pretty simple to you. It's effectively a means of baking assumptions into a rent roll and spitting out a series of cash flows. From there you derive all the necessary values to market with. \n\nI would say the primary characteristic firms are looking for is hunger/drive. They just want to make sure you want to make a lot of money. If this is indeed your motivation, I would be hesitant to being pigeonholed in analysis; I would also mention your inclination to business development / existing relationships. \n\nHope this helps, let me know if you'd like any more info / insight. ", "replies": [{"id": "dauqvhw", "text": "Thanks for the input. Just to clarify - you say that these teams are looking for hunger/drive. I definitely do not want to be an analyst forever and see myself as a producer down the road. Should I mention that long term I want to transition into a producer role? Or could this actually hurt my chances?", "replies": [{"id": "dax2cjm", "text": "You should absolutely mention that you want to be a producer down the road. I would approach the interview / interaction as such. . . I'd say that given your previous modeling experience, you're confident in your ability to bring value to the team in an analyst capacity, but truly see the position as a means to grooming your comprehension of the business to eventually bring in and execute business of your own. \n\nIf you don't mind divulging, where / what firm are you looking to work for? ", "replies": [{"id": "daxsbwv", "text": "The team I am targeting is a Capital Markets team for JLL. I know JLL is typically not viewed as a strong capital markets player, but in my market this team is winning large $150mm+ deals over HFF and Eastdil, it's pretty impressive!", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]