The Complete 2025 Real Estate Private Equity Interview Guide

The following is how I landed multiple offers at some of the top global real estate private equity firms. Some are small tips and tricks, and others are important strategies to approach each interview question that will come your way. This is designed to be comprehensive, so skip around as required.

The Key Types of Questions and How to Answer Them

Tell me about yourself or Walk me through your CV

What is this question really asking – What skills have you developed that are applicable to this role, and have you made considered / logical steps with your career.

Almost universally the first question you are going to get is going to be something like, walk me through your CV, tell me a bit about yourself, why are you here today etc. No matter how informally this may be phrased do not underestimate it – this will set the tone for the entire interview.

This question is an open canvas for you to explain how your past experience and education make you the ideal candidate for the role. To the greatest extent possible, this needs to be a simple, logical story about each step you have taken professionally or educationally, and how they lead to you applying for this role.

For any educational CV items you need to know why you studied it and what skills you gained. For each professional experience item, you need to know why you decided to do it, what skills you gained and most importantly why you are looking to leave. In life, everyone knows that you don’t necessarily have a good reason for studying a particular degree or taking a particular job, but part of the challenge here is – are you intelligent enough to craft a plausible and good sounding story.

The skills you need to be hitting (in order of importance) are:

• Numerical skills and proficiency with Excel; 
• Presentation skills and attention to detail and;  
• Actual real estate market knowledge (or some other transaction knowledge).

Some of the skills that I think are overrated to mention are:

• leadership;
• teamwork; and/or
• people skills.

Yes, these things can be important in real estate private equity, but they come across as less tangible, and so you are less likely to be able to convince someone of these things merely by describing what you did in an interview. Describing a model you built in excel, a presentation you prepared, or a transaction you worked on when executed correctly are able to actually be convincing in an interview.

The final destination of the what’s and the why’s of your CV is going to be why you are trying to get into real estate private equity. This needs to be tailored and coherent with the rest of your story so far, but some combination of the below should be some safe starting points:

• An interest in the tangible element of real estate (often people will talk about the ability to “walk through” what they are investing in). This one is particularly useful if you have experience in some other type of transactional or finance role, and want a convey why real estate is for you;
• Interest in both the strategic business plan execution side (a lot of real estate is about leasing, re-development, refurbishment) and the financial / analytical side. This one can be useful if you have studied a STEM or Accounting / Finance, and want to highlight your technical background while leaning into the more commercial side;
• Interest in transactions / deal making / negotiation. This one will work best if you have a background in say architecture or the more physical side of real estate, or something completely different like a new graduate from the social sciences.

Why this Role? Or Why this Firm?

What this question is really asking – Do you understand the first thing about what this job is and have you bothered to do any due diligence at all about the firm you have applied to.

If the question is framed as “Why have you applied to this role”, I recommend starting by reiterating the final part of the previous section. That is, highlight the key skills you have, how they align to real estate private equity, and what it is about real estate private equity you are attracted to.

I would then go on to specifics about why I have applied to this firm in particular. If the question is framed as “Why this firm”, then you will have to start here.

In my opinion, this is the most undervalued section of the interview by candidates, and is probably the best opportunity throughout the entire interview to stand out.

If time is on your side – the gold standard starting point to this question is to talk about someone that you have met / spoken to at the firm. You want to be

What are your Strengths and Weaknesses?

The Technical Questions

The “Do you have any questions for me?” question

The Follow-Up

I advise you to send an email immediately (or at least the same day) following the interview, but not for the reason you might think. 

Yes, it shows courtesy and leaves a good final impression, but the reason I like to do this is to open up an email thread. That way, if you end up having to chase up, you are not coming from a cold start, but rather are coming from an existing thread. 

It needs to be simple though, something like this: 

Dear [Interviewer],

Thank you for your time today. I look forward to the next steps. 

Kind regards,

[You]

Then, unless you have otherwise agreed on a timeline in the interview, I would follow up in around 2 weeks to get an update. Try and send this email on a Monday or Tuesday, to avoid it slipping into the following week, so if you have to go a bit under two full weeks, then so be it. Something simple like this:

Dear [Interviewer],

I hope you are well. 

Just following up to check in if you had any update on [applied position].

Kind regards,

[You]

If you don’t get any response to this at all, I would try again in a week, and then again in another week. After these two additional follow ups, you are now c.1 month from when the interview took place, and so additional follow ups now are probably not going to improve your chances. There could well be a legitimate delay behind the scenes here, but the odds are stacked against you at this point, and so it is time to consider moving on.

Other Considerations

Dealing with Nerves

A bit unconventional, but if you are taking your interview virtually and are feeling a bit nervous beforehand, you may want to try this. Popularized by Andrew Huberman, a calmness promoting technique called cyclic sighing may come in handy.  

Step 1: Double Inhale

• Take a deep inhale through your nose, filling your lungs almost completely.
• Without exhaling, take a second, shorter inhale to fully inflate your lungs.

Step 2: Long Exhale

• Exhale slowly and fully through your mouth.
• Make the exhale longer than your inhale.

Step 3. Repeat

• Continue this cycle for 1–5 minutes. A good rhythm is about 4–6 breaths per minute.

Why It Works:

The double inhale maximizes lung expansion, helping clear carbon dioxide more effectively.

The long exhale activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms the body and mind.

You can check out a video explanation of this here

Another key way to both improve performance in interviews and reduce nerves is being in numerous interview processes at the same time. Perhaps the most important piece of this guide therefore is this – apply for many jobs, even if they are not 100% the perfect role that you are looking for:

1. You never know, the interview may surprise you and you realize that the job you didn’t think was perfect may actually be a good fit;
2. It reduces the pressure on any particular interview (i.e. psychologically, you feel like you have back up options ongoing) and;
3. It gives you the opportunity to practice, to iron out your story and to

Virtual vs In-Person Interviews

For better or for worse, there is a good chance that your interview (particularly if it is an early round), is going to be over Zoom or Teams. The questions you get asked are not going to vary too much whether it is in person or virtual, but there are some key things to think about when preparing for each alternative. Throughout this guide, I make reference to some specific nuances of a virtual interview.

These things go without saying – but I will say them anyway

I assume all my learned readers already know these items 😉 but for completeness, to note:

• There is basically no context in the interview where you should make a negative remark about anything at all. Certainly not about yourself, the college / university you attended, the companies / people you have worked for or people you know at the firm. Everything in this respect should be positively spun.
• With respect to attire, you don’t want to be any less formally dressed than the most formally dressed person interviewing you. This will typically mean a jacket / blazer, a tie and so on. In 2025, there is of course a high likelihood you are going to be interviewed by a VP or MD much much more casually dressed than this – but it is better to be safe in this respect.
• Do not lie on your CV. You will get caught (even if not caught red -handed, unless you are able to perform like an oscar winning actor under pressure, you are not going to be able to convincingly sell a lie). I will even go a step further here – if you are going to spin your experience to sound as positive as it can, your story on this needs to be so well rehearsed that you yourself believe it.