Senior Investment Associate, Diamond Realty Investments, Inc.
Tellez underwrites potential commercial real estate development projects across the country that his company may consider for investment. Tellez earned an MS/Finance at Jindal School. “The master’s degree I earned at UT Dallas 100 percent catapulted my career,” said Tellez, who completed his undergrad degree in economics at Texas Tech. “I was extremely hungry but I was struggling to get the attention of ‘big time’ finance players in Dallas due to lack of experience,” he says. “Competing in a very sophisticated labor force for private equity, investment banking and real estate investment jobs was very difficult for me. I noticed that once I updated my resume with my master’s degree in finance, I started to get interviews that I had been dreaming of since my undergrad studies.”
How did your master’s degree help you attain your current job?
The finance program at Jindal School provided me the skillset necessary to be attractive among a fierce and competitive labor market. Fast forward three years, and I have my dream job at a global real estate investor. I am no longer getting beat out by Harvard, Wharton and MIT grads, I am working alongside them.
What do you enjoy about your current position/profession?
I enjoy the financial modeling and forecasting aspect to my job. It is always fun to see how close or far you were from your underwriting projections once the project comes to fruition.
How do you see your profession changing in the next five or 10 years?
Well, investing in developments is amazing when the economy is hitting on all cylinders but, obviously, the cycle must come to an end at some point. I think we will see the economic cycle come to an end within the next five to 10 years at which point I will not be underwriting as many developments but rather managing existing projects through some sort of downturn.
What characteristics do you look for when hiring people into your workplace?
I am not involved in the hiring process but I have come to realize that a lot of creative problem-solvers work at Diamond. I believe management looks for people who bring a good amount of outside experience so that they can opine and bring in new ideas to the ever-evolving world of real estate.
Why did you come to UT Dallas?
UT Dallas is ranked very highly on the business school list in this country and has a very diverse student profile. I still keep in touch with friends that I made in the program who have since moved back to Asia. Apart from the qualified staff with tremendous amounts of real-world experience, JSOM has got to be one of the most cost-effective business schools in the country. This may be a bit biased but I believe that Jindal School has the absolute best value in the country when you compare the cost of other business schools.
What advice do you have for college students hoping to succeed professionally?
In my opinion, career research is the most important part to being successful and happy. You can be very smart and get straight A’s but if you have not researched what you want to do and who you want to work for, then you could get stuck doing something you do not want to do or working for someone you do not want to work for, especially in such a diverse industry such as finance. Become obsessive with your research and see what kind of people work in the industry and how you stack up. LinkedIn is a very powerful tool that should be used in this process. That site has great job postings that are constantly updated. One last piece of advice I would give is to never, ever burn a bridge. The world may look big at times but in the finance industry, or any industry really, everyone is connected in some way. I am a strong proponent in: “Your network is your net worth.” So build it, don’t destroy it.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I like to read Michael Lewis and other finance books. It is great getting to hear other people’s stories in the industry. I also really enjoy playing golf, cycling and traveling as much as I can. I’d love to be a mentor one day so I encourage any UT Dallas student to reach out to me if you have any questions. UTD was so good to me that I would like to pay it forward any way that I can.
