Michael McCormick
Current job title: Senior Operations Analyst – Portfolio Management
Company: Home Partners of America
Location: Chicago
What are your current interests/hobbies?
I love to cook (my dad was actually a cook at Porta Bella during his time at UW, which helped forge my passion), and I am constantly looking to sharpen my skills in the kitchen. I grew up skiing and can get very competitive on the slopes. I raced up until college, and now I try to take a couple of trips a year. During the summer, you can find me on Thursdays after work at North Ave Beach serving up a mean bump, set, spike. Tying it back to my career, I am always looking to learn from others who have or are planning on personally investing in real estate, as I hope to do so in the near future.
As an alum, what do you miss most about Madison/UW-Madison?
The Union/Union Terrace. I thought about this question from a few different angles, but I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about the mornings, afternoons, and evenings spent there. Whether it’s a cold winter morning grabbing Pete’s coffee and studying for exams while overlooking a frozen Lake Mendota or a summer evening enjoying a live band. The cross-generational collaboration and scenic location is always something I remember fondly and look forward to when visiting.
What do you enjoy most about your current role? Can you share a few of your main responsibilities?
My brain thrives on real-world problem solving. My current role provides ample opportunity to do just that—deep dive into our operational data, identify an issue, work with the data and find a solution. One of my responsibilities is to monitor a portion of our internal data reporting within Zoho Cloud and look for discrepancies or breakdowns where operating data is not being translated or provided to the team(s) that require that information to make sound decisions. When discovered, I am responsible for creating new reporting tools or altering the ones already in place. Another responsibility of mine is to search for properties that are harmful to the overall performance of the portfolio, investigate whether the issue can be fixed in a reasonable amount of time, and if not, make the decision to dispose of the property.
What was your favorite econ class? What did you like about it?
My favorite Econ class by far was Econ 420 – Urban & Regional Economics. Not only did it provide a great opportunity to learn and deep dive into real estate development modeling, but we also explored many fascinating market trends on a macro level. The course finished with a group case study from the perspective of a Madison-based developer involving a real location within the city, building a mixed-use multifamily building. I had a blast throughout the entire semester and found the case to be extremely helpful. It certainly helped solidify that I was heading for the right career.
What is the main piece of advice you’d like to share with current econ majors?
One common phrase that I’ve heard regarding economics is that we’re the “Swiss army knife” or “jack of all trades” major. To a certain extent, I believe this to be true. Based on that, my advice is this: find what type of work or industry excites your mind the most, refine your skills as much as possible within that sector—everything else will fall into place. If the work that you do excites your mind, you will always be willing to push yourself further. Keep in mind that the first type of work you find yourself doing or industry you set your eyes on may not be the one I just described, so keep an open mind and try to find something that excites you.