Welcome to Macroscope. Your lens into real estate hiring and careers, brought to you by Macdonald & Company.
My name is Joseph Corcoran. I’m an associate here at Macdonald & Company. I’ve been with the business for seven years. I work specifically on our data centre team, so we support developers, operators, and consultancies on specific data centre hires across the UK and Europe.
My name’s Calum Moylan. I work for Macdonald & Company. I’ve been here seven years specialising in commercial real estate recruitment across property facilities and asset management with developers, investors, and property consultancies across London and the Southeast.
I think we could both agree that the topic we get asked the most, and the most of our calls, are about people wanting to make that move from consultancy-side to client-side. So whether in the data centre market that is somebody who is working capital markets as a broker wanting to get into the investment side or site selection, or it’s a project manager working for a general contractor wanting to get developer side, I’d say 90% of our calls would you agree? Absolutely.
The vast majority, as you say, you could be a property manager, you could be a facilities manager. It could be in the investment agency space or leasing, the vast majority of candidates working consultancy-side, whether you are large corporate or SME, are looking to make that move. I see it as the natural next step in my career and we go client-side. So it’s a high proportion of calls, certainly those newly qualified up to a few years’ PQE, but those later in life or later in terms of their experience as well. I think we’ll come onto some of the reasons why and go into that.
Certainly in the data centre sector last year we saw lots of big moves, so people moving from large consultancies and securing quite big client-side moves. Typically, I would say that that is a cycle which happens every four or five years. Again, people with three or four years’ worth of experience have grown their networks. They’ve got a really strong foundation within their respective team and at that point they’ve become very desirable to the clients for a client-side move. Absolutely.
Again, I think a lot of people see it as the natural next step because they are reporting into a big account, like a Legal & General or an Aviva for example. But people can get siloed and pigeonholed into one specific discipline. I think the appeal of going client-side is the autonomy and to have the authority to make decisions on your own portfolios and have a broader scope across your day-to-day working responsibilities. For sure.
Would you say the piece around remuneration as well, would you say people get better remunerated? Certainly we see that on salaries. There is an increase in salary typically when you move consultancy to client-side. Potentially on bonus depending on what team you are in. If you are in something which is more fee-orientated, often that can be more lucrative on the consultancy-side. But generally, would you say that remuneration or salaries improve once you move client-side? Certainly.
And it is probably to be taken with a pinch of salt because there are people that do very well and achieve very well on the consultancy-side as well. But certainly moving client-side, that tends to be the appeal, as salaries and packages and bonuses tend to be that little bit better. I did a piece for a developer towards the end of last year and on average across their asset management, development, and investment teams, they tend to be paying ten or fifteen per cent better than those doing a similar function within a consultancy.
Again, relating back to data centres, I think once people make that move, a lot of the time they stay client-side. I think rarely do you see somebody getting that move from consultancy-side to developer operator, end-user, and then transitioning back across.
I think again it comes down to the autonomy and the authority that you have to make those decisions. You often see candidates involved in a full lifecycle of a project. So from acquisition to leasing to potentially repositioning that asset, the operational side of it, and then disposing of it. So you see it from inception right through to completion and then potentially selling. I think often on the consultancy-side, you don’t always get that. You might see one element of that, but seeing the full remit is for some a lot more interesting. For sure. I’m sure we’ll come onto it, but it’s that experience that clients are looking for, right? Absolutely.
A few years into your career, build that strong foundation, get that exposure. Do you think there is a pressure for people to move from consultancy to client-side in the areas in which you cover? I think there might be a pressure to move earlier on in your career. I think for a lot of client organisations that we work with, whether it’s an investor, a propco, or a developer, they often like to take people on at an earlier stage of their career. So say one to five years’ PQE, those individuals can still be very mouldable. You can shape that individual in their own image of what they want out of them. So maybe a pressure people put on themselves to make that move, but it shouldn’t be ruled out that you can also make that move later in your career. Because we see people with 15, 20, 25+ years’ experience do it regularly.
I think for some people that is certainly what they are looking to achieve. If that is their trajectory and that’s where they want to end up, the exposure to decision making, holding the purse strings, making decisions, and having ownership over specific projects, then people have that pressure to move. But for others who enjoy more of a fee-generating type role, that brokerage capital markets investment piece or site finding on the consultancy-side, I think for those people who enjoy that wider networking piece, they don’t feel that pressure. But for sure the pressure is there for them to achieve their goals on the consultancy-side too.
People often talk about the upsides to moving client-side. We’ve discussed a few of those already, but what are the pros and cons to both working consultancy and client-side in your opinion? I think there are a few different elements. I think the pros can be around general progression, a broader remit, and improving or building on the skillset that you’ve already got. As we touched on earlier, you have property managers within a consultancy that perhaps just can perform that property management function. So it could be just in service charge budgets, rent collection, inspections, and dealing with tenant inquiries, which is absolutely part of moving client-side. But if they’re moving into a client-side asset management role as an example, they will also have the exposure to lease event work. So lease renewals and rent reviews, leasing and letting strategies around commercial office space, retail units, or industrial. You might also get exposure to development schemes and refurb programmes. There’s so much more perhaps than that full lifecycle of an asset that you can get involved with, such as autonomy and having the flexibility and the ownership of being the end decision maker. Whereas on the consultancy-side, you are perhaps recommending to a client what they could do with that portfolio. On the client-side, you are making that decision and you are hopefully making the best decision for the asset. Having that ownership is a lot of what people are after. Sure.
In terms of progression, comparing a move in terms of promotions within the client-side and comparing that to consultancy, how would you compare those two pieces? I would say if you’re working at a big corporate or an SME, typically you are on a run between surveyor and director. So surveyor, associate, and associate director. That tends to be the general trajectory to partner, salary partner, whatever it might be. On the client-side, and perhaps this is a con depending on how you look at it, there tends to be less structure across the job titles. So if we take data asset management as an example, you may start as an asset manager, get promoted to a senior asset manager and then hopefully end up as a head of asset management. So maybe three potential promotion criteria or levels that you can get to. Whereas on the consultancy-side, there might be more like six or seven. Again, it’s not black and white. There are pros and cons to both. Whilst you might be an asset manager or senior asset manager somewhere, the salary bandings are often quite broad. We get some senior asset managers that are on £80k. We also speak to some that are on £100k or £120k. So that remit is broader than perhaps a surveyor or senior surveyor might get exposure to on the consultancy-side. It really depends on the individual and what they want out of their next role, what their aspirations are, and what’s important to them at that particular moment, whether it’s job title or salary or just general progression.
There are obviously some trade-offs moving from consultancy to client-side. What would you say they are? I guess a couple of things are network and perceived risk. Network first, often when you are working consultancy-side, you are working with a multitude of different clients. The nature of this work and the nature of winning new accounts, if that is within your remit, means that you have fairly extensive networks. You are often going to lots of events and conferences to meet other people within the sector. I guess you could suggest that once you move client-side, there is less emphasis on cultivating and maintaining such a large network. You could argue that networks get slightly smaller, but then again, I guess you could argue that the networks are just in other spaces, right? You become a decision maker and you then start working with general contractors and construction firms if you are moving developer-side. So your network shifts in terms of who you are dealing with specifically.
The second point there is just around risk. Do we think that staying working client-side and working on one specific portfolio, do we feel that there is more risk there in comparison to working consultancy-side where you are working on a multitude of different portfolios? I guess there are pros and cons to both. It’s perhaps not so black and white because within the bigger corporates, you might just get attached to one big account. Similarly on the client-side, yes, you are managing your own portfolio and some of that portfolio may underperform at times. So there is probably a risk sometimes to both. I don’t think it can be that black and white, but I suppose working on the client-side, you have the autonomy and flexibility to make those decisions. Potentially if there is one particular asset class that is outperforming others, at the moment it might be data centres, for example, or the living sector. In the last few years it perhaps was life sciences all performing very well at their own individual times. So you have that ability sometimes to adjust or invest into other things. Whereas on the consultancy-side, the perception might be that you are attached to one particular client and if that portfolio is underperforming, you might not get the flexibility to be able to change things. Because at the end of the day, it’s the client’s decision.
So I guess it’s about attaching yourself to a business that has a good reputation in the market, has a good brand on the consultancy-side, and is able to win those big accounts and work with those big developers or hyperscalers. Similarly, if you are working client-side, it’s about attaching yourself to a strong brand with a strong pipeline, with good cash reserves and a good investment plan. Doing your research, looking into that company and making sure you are doing your background and your due diligence into what their stock is, what that looks like for the foreseeable future, and what their investment plans might be. You need to see who they’re backed by and what that tracking looks like. So there are lots of positives to moving client-side, but you’ve got to do your research around exactly who you’re going to as well.
The next topic is around timing. So when is the best time for someone to make that move from consultancy to client-side? When is the best time to time the jump? I would say most of the calls that we receive are from candidates that are newly qualified up to five years’ PQE. Once they’ve got their letters and their RICS status, they might be working for X consultancy in X discipline and want to progress their career within a client-side organisation. You are perhaps a younger individual or earlier in your career. A lot of our clients will see that as an opportunity to shape or mould you in their image of what they want for that particular role or portfolio. So that’s when we tend to see the move happen. But it’s not to rule out at all that people do it later in life or later in terms of their experience. We often speak to those that are ten to thirty years in that want to make that move.
Sometimes it’s just about timing. That particular client is looking for this particular role and you tick all of those boxes. Sometimes it does just come down to timing. I think we’re all aware we’re in a relatively challenging market, and so there might be a few more limited value-add investment asset management roles out there. But if you have the right skillset and you’re willing to learn regardless of age and experience, there’s absolutely an opportunity and a role out there for you. It’s just about communicating and expressing that experience you’ve got in the best way possible.
I would say very similar in the data centre space. I mentioned earlier that four-year cycle of big moves away from consultancy and into client-side, specifically speaking there around the large real estate consultancies. But I would say that the same is true in terms of years of experience when you are speaking about project managers, design managers, and construction development managers working within the data centre space. Often clients will want someone to have that end-to-end exposure from project conception and planning all the way through to handover. If you are working with a general contractor, working consultancy-side, around that three to five year mark is where you will hopefully have worked on a few projects with a number of different clients, been exposed to different problems, and have that problem-solving mentality and expertise. Crucially, the lifespan of most of these projects is around two years. So within a three to five year period, hopefully you’ll have seen through a few projects from start to finish and that’s when you are particularly desirable to a developer or a hyperscaler going end-user side.
Something I failed to mention earlier is that, while the RICS status is important, it’s not always essential. From a consultancy perspective, if you are chartered, you can say to your clients, “Look, we have five to ten surveyors who are chartered here; we will look after your body of work and portfolio.” But on the client-side, you are working on your own portfolio and assets. It’s not always an essential prerequisite for you to have that chartered status. If you’ve got the experience and you are capable, the letters aren’t always the be-all and end-all. So never be perturbed by looking at those types of opportunities. Even if they say it’s essential, if you’ve got the skillset, they might well look at you.
I agree; it’s timing and what clients want at the end of the day. If someone is looking for a specific element of experience within a cycle and you have that, then the move is open.
Let’s look at the nuance around certain disciplines and how they transfer from consultancy-side to client-side. I suppose if we take property management as an example; a lot of property managers will want to go into asset management or estate management. Again, the roles are broader on the client-side. If you are a property manager, you’ll be used to doing service charge budgets, rent collection, property inspections, liaising with tenants and dealing with tenant enquiries. That is a part of a lot of the asset management roles we see, but asset management can be quite a broad title. You get asset management roles that are more investment-led, roles that are almost quite old-school general practice where you’re doing a little bit of everything, and roles that are perhaps more development-led. They are a really broad range and mixed bag sometimes.
You have to be tailored about what you’re looking at and make sure you’re reading the job description. It sounds obvious, but look at the detail of what that client actually wants. The vast majority of the roles that we see on our commercial general practice teams are those GP focused roles. If you’re a property manager wanting to get into client-side asset management, everything that you have is a great base already. But being able to get some exposure to broader value-add work, whether it’s lease advisory, rent reviews, lease renewals, or the letting and leasing of a building, is all another string to the bow. It’s a good addition to your skillset that can be applied to investment-type asset management roles or development-type asset management roles.
If you are a commercial agent, for example, a Central and West End office agent, and you’re wanting to go client-side, perhaps that is a bit more prescriptive. You’re doing similar work, but your job title as a leasing manager might not be quite as broad as a generalist asset management role. It depends on the developer or the investor that you’re applying to, but any exposure you can get to a broader remit of work is only going to help you long term.
I think the most common moves we have seen in the last twelve to eighteen months in the data centre space are people working as a broker in capital markets or investment moving client-side into a developer in a site selection or investment role. We’ve also seen valuers or surveyors moving client-side into a more asset management type position with the caveats mentioned. On the construction side, it’s project managers, design managers, and construction managers who are moving across to the end-user, such as a developer or a hyperscaler.
I wouldn’t say that one is harder than the other per se, taking into consideration the nuances of each of those positions. But what can be difficult is the wants and needs of the client when recruiting. Does someone need specific data centre experience? Do they need to have worked end-to-end and seen a project from cradle to grave? Do they have to have worked on a certain hyperscale project or a certain megawatt capacity or value? That is where the difficulty is, in the ability to tick all of those boxes to make somebody a viable candidate for a client’s need.
The data centre space is still quite a new area of the market for a lot of people. Is there a lot of interest from those outside of the data centre space wanting to get into it? And if so, what are the barriers they face? A lot of the time we are asked by clients to find people with specific data centre experience. That is possible, of course, but it’s a newer market for some. Certainly, people who’ve been working in it for fifteen or twenty years would argue the opposite, but in terms of it being front-page news and one of the hotter sectors in real estate currently, sometimes that isn’t possible. It certainly reduces the pool size of candidates.
Typically, we would look for people who have worked with mission-critical type assets, other high-energy usage assets, be that from a construction side specifically, or those working brokerage and investment who have a good network. These might be logistics players looking to pivot or those who have brushed shoulders with the data centre sector.
Once a candidate has decided they want to make that move, how do they position themselves in the best possible way to be attractive to a client? In terms of a CV, how do they best sell themselves? There are a few different ways to look at it depending on your current discipline and the type of role that you’re applying for.
If you’re a leasing agent, putting on your CV specifics of the types of buildings that you’ve worked on, naming them if you can, is all very relevant. If you’re applying to a Grade A office developer, what Grade A office have you previously worked on? List the size of the space that you’ve let and the types of tenants you’ve worked with. If you are a property manager, list the size of service charge budgets you’ve worked on, the rent roll, and how many assets you have managed as part of that portolfio. All of that is going to stand out.
In its most basic form, stats, facts, and figures will make you stand out when you are applying for that kind of role. If you’re working lease advisory side, what types of lease renewals and rent reviews have you done? Be specific on the asset classes you worked on. You’d be surprised how many people don’t put that granular detail, which is sometimes more of interest to a client than high-level responsibilities.
Aside from the CV, LinkedIn is such a good tool. Having it or creating a personal brand is not for everyone, but just putting a little bit of detail on each role allows a client to look at your page and see you’ve worked across different disciplines for a number of years. It only needs to be a bullet point or two to cover off what you’ve done.
I agree. Often we find when you’re having that registration call with candidates that they’ve worked on a lot of projects, but they talk about things too generally on their CV. My advice is always to go into the specifics. In terms of projects you’ve worked on, what’s the megawatt capacity? What are some of the values? What were the difficulties that specifically you overcame and what was your specific role within those large projects?
On the brokerage or fee-earning side, specifically what were your numbers? What was the size of deals that you were involved in? Sometimes a deal sheet can help with that too. It’s a one-stop shop for clients to review previous financial years and see somebody overperforming their targets.
I agree with your point around LinkedIn; that has become increasingly important in today’s age of content and personal brand. Quite regularly, you’ll be on a call with a client discussing a candidate’s experience. Their first instance will be to look on LinkedIn as you are on the call to get a snapshot. Keeping that up to date and having regular interactions with others helps with the networking piece. Posting relevant articles helps to give the advantage in any selection process. It’s making yourself stand out against the competition.
The vast majority of our calls are from people wanting to make this move regardless of discipline. So how do you make yourself stand out against the crowd, whether it’s particular projects, longevity in a role, or specific responsibilities you’ve had to broaden your skillset to appeal to the next employer?
To summarise, if we had a candidate approach us today, what are the key takeaways from this discussion? Making the decision and making the move at the right time, whether that is earlier on in your career once you’re qualified with a couple of years’ PQE, or later in life. Being confident about it and have the conviction to do it. Then putting your CV in place to make sure it stands out against the competition on particular projects, roles, and disciplines where you can broaden that skillset. If you are being pigeonholed into one particular role within a consultancy, what else can you do? Is it an investment course, something on the finance side, or asset management? Just something that makes you stand out. LinkedIn and personal brand are all very important.
I agree. It’s about having that plan. If client-side is where you are intending to end up, identify that early on and then get the right exposure in those initial three to five years. Whether that is someone focused on acquisitions, investment, or capital markets, it’s about growing that network and speaking to the right people. If we are talking more on the construction development side, it’s about really getting exposure to that cradle-to-grave element of projects. Get involved in as many projects with as many clients as possible and throw yourself in the deep end so that you become a more valuable asset and a more sought-after skillset after that initial period of three to five years.
I think when you get to the interview stage, be specific about why you want to join them. Show you’ve done your research and your due diligence. It’s not just, “I’m sick of this role with this company.” or “I’ll make that move that everyone else is doing.” It’s, “I’ve worked on these projects, I’ve seen that you are doing similar, and I can see you’re investing in this space.” Show you’ve done your background and have the conviction to make the move.
And a summary point around risk: client-side isn’t always safer. It’s not black and white; it’s not that consultancy is better than client-side or vice versa. It’s whatever is right for you at the time and the progression that you want in your career. We see a lot of people who stay consultancy-side for 25 to 30+ years and are uber-successful. Likewise, it’s the same on the client-side. People have some really successful careers, but it’s about having that conviction and understanding of what it is to move client-side, own your own projects, and work on your own portfolios. That’s very exciting but there’s a lot of that in the consultancy-side too. I guess you could compare one’s career to owning a portfolio, right? It’s about gaining value, understanding your potential, and making the right steps towards achieving that.
If today’s discussion on moving from consultancy to client-side roles in real estate was useful, head to the show description for more information and resources. If you are considering your next move from consultancy to client-side, visit macdonaldandcompany.com/contact. Subscribe to Macdonald & Co on YouTube for more episodes of Macroscope. You can also listen to the Macroscope series on Spotify.
