Sébastien Bronner - Acquisition Manager Offices

I decided to join ING Real Estate because of the people I met during the interviews: I felt they were not just looking for someone to add to their pool of juniors; they wanted a new member to join a successful team.

Why I joined ING Real Estate

I have an engineering background, followed by a corporate finance degree. I was working for a competitor, where I heard a lot of ING as a world leader in the real estate business. I also knew that in a large, international organization like this, I could take advantage of the numerous career opportunities and I was not wrong. 

Opportunity to take advantage of your full potential

I started out as an analyst in the acquisition department, working closely on the acquisition of office buildings in France. A year later, I became an acquisition manager myself and am now directly responsible for managing office buildings acquisitions. You really get the opportunity to achieve your potential here. 

What I love most about my job is being exposed to deals. Nowadays, most of the transactions on the market are publicly disclosed and there are really few transactions in which we are not consulted or that we haven’t heard of.

My current responsibilities are in real estate and financial analysis: pitching to investment committees, managing due diligence and the contractual part of closing deals. However, life is not just about work. For instance, my manager supported me when I was facing personal problems.

The culture within ING Real Estate is so different from that in Wall Street banks! ING will not treat you as a disposable work force. If you’re worth it, they will invest in you on a long-term basis.

Most important skills

The core skills you need are an in-depth understanding of real estate markets, backed up by financial, technical and legal knowledge. I don’t have a legal background, so learning about the legal and tax aspects of the business was quite new for me. In addition, you need commercial skills. After all, buying and selling is at the heart of the business. This takes time to develop and I still have a long way to go.

My job satisfaction

My main job satisfaction comes from knowing that I can be at the forefront of the industry while working in a really pleasant atmosphere.