Buy side or sell side?

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Optimist85

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I’ve worked already in buy side for some time now and feel that learning curve is really flat. I want to learn more and be specific in my approach.
What do you think is a better way to start a career? at buy side or sell side? I believe its sell side
 
The sell side is not a bad place to start a career, but unless you are a natural salesperson, most people on the sell side are desperate to make a jump to the buy side. Why would you want to jump to the sell side if you are already there.
The one advantage of the sell side is that if you are a natural salesperson and fan make transactions flow, the compensation can really smooth through the roof rapidly.
 
actually a big added advantage of sell side is that you are not taking risk. on the buyside, 1 slipup, regardless of whether or not it was really your fault, and you can be fired immediately.
 
bchad wrote:
The sell side is not a bad place to start a career, but unless you are a natural salesperson, most people on the sell side are desperate to make a jump to the buy side. Why would you want to jump to the sell side if you are already there.
The one advantage of the sell side is that if you are a natural salesperson and fan make transactions flow, the compensation can really smooth through the roof rapidly.
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I wanted to learn financial modeling which I’m not able to, owing to time limitations and being the only one in research at my firm. I’ve seen sell siders cover a particular sector and do a thorough research/modeling on companies under coverage. I have a whole market to see…so I don’t know where to start really
 
Hmm.. interesting that you don’t have a financial modeling background and you’re the only one in research at your firm. I am basically our research desk here, but I have a background in financial modeling/analysis. I like the buy side because I can do a lot more depth of the models/research vs. when I talk to sell-side, they generally don’t have a clue because they can’t allocate enough time to each of the companies in their universe. I also like that I work in a bunch of different industries vs. sell side where you usually cover only one. You definitely need to be proactive with your career and skillset (I try to travel quite a bit to attend conferences/go to workshops etc). given that you don’t have a team of people above you mentoring you.This is probably the biggest difference to working at a big shop - you have to seek out your own training/ways to improve your skills. The big upside is the hours - sell side sounds horrible, and I’m glad I was able to bypass that.
That being said, I had a good base level before I moved into research and am a CA (Canadian CPA), so picking through the financial statements was pretty easy for me. When I first started, I took a modeling course in NY, but to be honest, it was just a lot of practice and trying to logic my way through waterfall calculations etc.
 
persistentmind wrote:
Hmm.. interesting that you don’t have a financial modeling background and you’re the only one in research at your firm. I am basically our research desk here, but I have a background in financial modeling/analysis. I like the buy side because I can do a lot more depth of the models/research vs. when I talk to sell-side, they generally don’t have a clue because they can’t allocate enough time to each of the companies in their universe. I also like that I work in a bunch of different industries vs. sell side where you usually cover only one. You definitely need to be proactive with your career and skillset (I try to travel quite a bit to attend conferences/go to workshops etc). given that you don’t have a team of people above you mentoring you.This is probably the biggest difference to working at a big shop - you have to seek out your own training/ways to improve your skills. The big upside is the hours - sell side sounds horrible, and I’m glad I was able to bypass that.
That being said, I had a good base level before I moved into research and am a CA (Canadian CPA), so picking through the financial statements was pretty easy for me. When I first started, I took a modeling course in NY, but to be honest, it was just a lot of practice and trying to logic my way through waterfall calculations etc.
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thank you very much for your input..was really valuable for me
I also think that if you dont have a team above you who can mentor, it takes quite a lot of time to learn the skills. I try to attend conferences and analyst briefings but usually don’t comprehend much of the material they say as I feel they are pointing to their past actions and I being new in industry dont know what they did back then…
sell side is definitely horrible when it comes to working hours..and there is only one day off here…NOT FOR ME…
im better on buy side
 
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