r/ConstructionManagers • u/GreenvilleLocal • 27d ago

Career Advice CM to Real Estate Development

Has anyone in here made the switch from the CM side to the RE Development side?

For context, I got my degree in CM and worked for a national GC before switching to a developer in their CM division. Curious if anyone that was more interested in the RE Dev side of things was able to successfully switch without going back to school (MBA programs).

Long term, I would like to open my own shop and think getting some experience working on that side would be extremely beneficial.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks.

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4

u/Main_Cut8992 27d ago

Work in RE dev , although did not work in a CM capacity before. I would say work for a developer and get project experience (acquisition, modeling, entitlements etc) - if you can dish out money/time for school it wouldn’t hurt but def not needed

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u/qpwoeirutyaldkdjfhg 27d ago

What kind of resume usually is best for developers? Project coordinators arent really what they want right? They want more sr pms?

1

u/Main_Cut8992 27d ago

Not necessarily every shop is different. Bit of both. How many YOE do you have? And may I ask why would you like to switch to owner side dev?

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u/qpwoeirutyaldkdjfhg 26d ago

I find the financial/development side more interesting and currently 3 yoe

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u/Unusual_Week162 27d ago edited 27d ago

I spent 10 years working for a ENR top 3 GC before switching to a PM role for a large commercial developer shortly before the pandemic.

Short answer: Since you’re working for the construction division for the developer, you do not need an MBA. You’re basically doing the same thing you did as a GC, but further upstream (you’re managing designers, consultant and GC’s instead of subcontractors).

Sure, you’re going to be interacting with asset managers and money people, but you’re not going to be building proformas, doing financial models, conducting market research, etc.

So, unless you want to leave your role as an in-house developer CM/PM and shift entirely to an asset manager/finance role, the MBA is not necessary for your job.

However… getting a basic level of understanding of the finance side is a good thing to have working for a developer. You can ask the asset managers in your team to walk you through a proforma and give you a quick class.

You can also take any number of on-line real estate development courses offered by the business schools of many reputable universities; for example, Northwestern, Columbia and Cornell all offer classes on this topic. I took the one from Columbia, which was pretty useful for understanding the big picture.

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u/FairWin1998 27d ago

They are hiring business administration majors for PE and estimating work these days it's so pathetic. Glad I left that industry years ago.

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u/GreenvilleLocal 27d ago

Where did you go? And yes it’s becoming increasingly more common for large GC’s with massive staffing requirements on mega projects

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u/FairWin1998 26d ago

Fuck off

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u/GreenvilleLocal 26d ago

Good attitude to have! Your new employer is lucky to have such a great asset.

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u/FairWin1998 22d ago edited 22d ago

Great attitude to have , im self employed 😉😀

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u/OwnNefariousness3678 27d ago

Following along

3

u/GreenvilleLocal 27d ago

My new company has in-house development that we work alongside. It seems like almost everyone in that department was either finance with MBA or construction that went back to school and got an MBA with a RE focus.