Jones Lang LaSalle
Career Switchers Add New Depth to Talent Pool in Real Estate
By SANA SIWOLOP
When John McCarthy, a treasury manager at Toys "R" Us, started looking for a new job in July 2005, he was not looking at commercial real estate per se, merely for a position in which he might be able to improve a company's business more directly — and be rewarded for the effort.
At Toys "R" Us, Mr. McCarthy spent considerable time evaluating the real estate potential of the individual stores as the company was in the process of being acquired. But he felt that his credentials — which included an M.B.A. in finance and corporate accounting — were most suited to a job in investment banking.
He did get an offer in that field, but in the end opted for a job at Cushman & Wakefield of New Jersey, a commercial real estate firm, where he is now working on leasing both office and industrial properties.
Commercial brokerage teams used to consist mainly of people who had spend their entire careers in real estate, but lately they have grown to be surprisingly diverse, according to many industry executives.
At Cushman & Wakefield, for example, Mr. McCarthy joined several other recently hired brokers who started in other fields; they included two former lawyers, two certified public accountants and a former saleswoman for Microsoft, said Gualberto Medina, the executive managing director.
Mr. Medina himself started out as a lawyer and as a certified public accountant. Before joining Cushman & Wakefield in 2002, he also served as secretary of commerce for the State of New Jersey, handled business development for an Internet telecommunications company and was president of a biotech start-up.
In August, Mr. Medina took the helm of Cushman & Wakefield's New Jersey operations, and since then he has looked for both seasoned professionals and industry newcomers as a way of providing specialized experience or expertise to his company's clients. Lately, Mr. Medina has also been receiving more unsolicited résumés from other types of professionals who think commercial real estate offers both more interesting challenges and better compensation.
Executives at other companies confirm the interest. Some of it, they say, can be pegged to the greater number of universities that now offer course work in real estate, as well as the career restlessness that seemed to course through many industries after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
But executives say that many job switchers also seem convinced that commercial real estate offers less drudgery and deskwork than other careers, like law, as well as the potential to earn large commissions, rather than simply bringing home a salary.
Michael Bush, the executive director of the Real Estate Associate Program, an industry-backed program that recruits and trains minority candidates for careers in commercial real estate, said that about a third of the 33 students who started the inaugural program in New York in January had come from either law firms or Wall Street firms.
The program, which already exists in Washington and Atlanta, meets for three hours a week in the evening and lasts for 24 weeks. Mr. Bush said the typical participant was 25 to 35 years old with several years of business experience.
Marisa Manley, the founder and principal of Commercial Tenant Real Estate Representation in Manhattan, said that when her company recently had an opening for a transaction manager, she interviewed four lawyers for the job, as well as an accountant who held both a law and a business school degree.
"The talent pool is stronger, and I'm seeing stronger professional backgrounds than I would have seen 10 years ago," said Ms. Manley, who was first trained as both an architect and as a lawyer.
Robert A. Knakal, co-founder of Massey Knakal Realty Services in Manhattan, agreed that the pool of applicants today had a wider range of talents. "The people coming into the field now have tremendous credentials," he said. "For about a year after Sept. 11, we found, to our great surprise, that the quality of people looking to get into the business had changed dramatically. In the 80's and 90's, it's very unlikely that people would have left other careers to go into commercial real estate."
Still, making the jump is not always easy, some real estate executives caution. Mr. Knakal said that while his company's efforts to bring in other professionals had allowed it to grow substantially over the last five years, his firm has also had to make a "substantial commitment" to training programs, which are taught by the company's current employees and generally run two or three months each.
Even with training, newcomers usually take a while to establish themselves in the field. "Commercial real estate is not a quick and easy game, and we are always stressing the long-term nature of this business," Ms. Manley said. "This is a business where lease negotiations can take 12 weeks or more and where 18 months is usually the minimum amount of time" to close projects of 20,000 square feet and more.
Still, some recent career switchers say they relish the change.
Earl L. Segal spent more than 30 years practicing real estate law before he joined the Washington office of Newmark Knight Frank in January as a business adviser. Last week, Mr. Segal said that while he was not necessarily reading fewer stacks of legal documents these days, he had "moved up the line" to working on a broader range of issues.
At Massey Knakal, John Barrett, one of the company's newest brokers, said he hoped eventually to use his love of problem-solving to generate high prices for properties that he is asked to represent. Before joining the company, Mr. Barrett, 42, spent more than 20 years running his own corporate and group travel services firm and then spent six months getting his real estate license.
He recently completed a two-month training program and planned to spend the next two months learning everything he could about the area that he would eventually cover — a sizable segment of Westchester County.
"I had done one thing since graduating from college, and I thought it was time for a new challenge," Mr. Barrett said last week.
So did Marjorie L. Torres, the founder and chief executive of Concrete Stories, a Manhattan company that offers real estate advice as well as brokerage and development services. Ms. Torres, 38, worked as an industrial engineer and then as a Wall Street investment banker before she was sent to Latin America in 1995 to turn around distressed properties.
There, she discovered that she preferred some of the more tangible rewards of commercial real estate. "In investment banking you do a lot of deals, but very rarely can you build something that you can actually touch," she said.
Copyright 2006The New York Times
Career Switchers Add New Depth to Talent Pool in Real Estate
By SANA SIWOLOP
When John McCarthy, a treasury manager at Toys "R" Us, started looking for a new job in July 2005, he was not looking at commercial real estate per se, merely for a position in which he might be able to improve a company's business more directly — and be rewarded for the effort.
At Toys "R" Us, Mr. McCarthy spent considerable time evaluating the real estate potential of the individual stores as the company was in the process of being acquired. But he felt that his credentials — which included an M.B.A. in finance and corporate accounting — were most suited to a job in investment banking.
He did get an offer in that field, but in the end opted for a job at Cushman & Wakefield of New Jersey, a commercial real estate firm, where he is now working on leasing both office and industrial properties.
Commercial brokerage teams used to consist mainly of people who had spend their entire careers in real estate, but lately they have grown to be surprisingly diverse, according to many industry executives.
At Cushman & Wakefield, for example, Mr. McCarthy joined several other recently hired brokers who started in other fields; they included two former lawyers, two certified public accountants and a former saleswoman for Microsoft, said Gualberto Medina, the executive managing director.
Mr. Medina himself started out as a lawyer and as a certified public accountant. Before joining Cushman & Wakefield in 2002, he also served as secretary of commerce for the State of New Jersey, handled business development for an Internet telecommunications company and was president of a biotech start-up.
In August, Mr. Medina took the helm of Cushman & Wakefield's New Jersey operations, and since then he has looked for both seasoned professionals and industry newcomers as a way of providing specialized experience or expertise to his company's clients. Lately, Mr. Medina has also been receiving more unsolicited résumés from other types of professionals who think commercial real estate offers both more interesting challenges and better compensation.
Executives at other companies confirm the interest. Some of it, they say, can be pegged to the greater number of universities that now offer course work in real estate, as well as the career restlessness that seemed to course through many industries after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
But executives say that many job switchers also seem convinced that commercial real estate offers less drudgery and deskwork than other careers, like law, as well as the potential to earn large commissions, rather than simply bringing home a salary.
Michael Bush, the executive director of the Real Estate Associate Program, an industry-backed program that recruits and trains minority candidates for careers in commercial real estate, said that about a third of the 33 students who started the inaugural program in New York in January had come from either law firms or Wall Street firms.
The program, which already exists in Washington and Atlanta, meets for three hours a week in the evening and lasts for 24 weeks. Mr. Bush said the typical participant was 25 to 35 years old with several years of business experience.
Marisa Manley, the founder and principal of Commercial Tenant Real Estate Representation in Manhattan, said that when her company recently had an opening for a transaction manager, she interviewed four lawyers for the job, as well as an accountant who held both a law and a business school degree.
"The talent pool is stronger, and I'm seeing stronger professional backgrounds than I would have seen 10 years ago," said Ms. Manley, who was first trained as both an architect and as a lawyer.
Robert A. Knakal, co-founder of Massey Knakal Realty Services in Manhattan, agreed that the pool of applicants today had a wider range of talents. "The people coming into the field now have tremendous credentials," he said. "For about a year after Sept. 11, we found, to our great surprise, that the quality of people looking to get into the business had changed dramatically. In the 80's and 90's, it's very unlikely that people would have left other careers to go into commercial real estate."
Still, making the jump is not always easy, some real estate executives caution. Mr. Knakal said that while his company's efforts to bring in other professionals had allowed it to grow substantially over the last five years, his firm has also had to make a "substantial commitment" to training programs, which are taught by the company's current employees and generally run two or three months each.
Even with training, newcomers usually take a while to establish themselves in the field. "Commercial real estate is not a quick and easy game, and we are always stressing the long-term nature of this business," Ms. Manley said. "This is a business where lease negotiations can take 12 weeks or more and where 18 months is usually the minimum amount of time" to close projects of 20,000 square feet and more.
Still, some recent career switchers say they relish the change.
Earl L. Segal spent more than 30 years practicing real estate law before he joined the Washington office of Newmark Knight Frank in January as a business adviser. Last week, Mr. Segal said that while he was not necessarily reading fewer stacks of legal documents these days, he had "moved up the line" to working on a broader range of issues.
At Massey Knakal, John Barrett, one of the company's newest brokers, said he hoped eventually to use his love of problem-solving to generate high prices for properties that he is asked to represent. Before joining the company, Mr. Barrett, 42, spent more than 20 years running his own corporate and group travel services firm and then spent six months getting his real estate license.
He recently completed a two-month training program and planned to spend the next two months learning everything he could about the area that he would eventually cover — a sizable segment of Westchester County.
"I had done one thing since graduating from college, and I thought it was time for a new challenge," Mr. Barrett said last week.
So did Marjorie L. Torres, the founder and chief executive of Concrete Stories, a Manhattan company that offers real estate advice as well as brokerage and development services. Ms. Torres, 38, worked as an industrial engineer and then as a Wall Street investment banker before she was sent to Latin America in 1995 to turn around distressed properties.
There, she discovered that she preferred some of the more tangible rewards of commercial real estate. "In investment banking you do a lot of deals, but very rarely can you build something that you can actually touch," she said.
Copyright 2006The New York Times
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 11:06 AM
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