chrisberman
New member
- Jun 18, 2026
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I'm a new poster, but have been frequenting the site for the past few months and have found the advice posters give to be very helpful. I'm making this post in hopes of getting some career advice from some you all. My background: lvl 3 candidate, economics degree from an Ivy League university.
Currently I work for a boutique fund of hedge funds researching managers and strategies (have come to realize this is not what I want to with my career). Previously spent a year at a well-regarded asset management company. There spent most of my time in portfolio admin and trading asst. roles. I also did some trading when traders were on vacation. Left after a little over one year b/c I wasn't moved over into a research role (as I was promised when I was recruited for the job and again a number of times during my employment).
After actually working in these jobs, I realize I made mistakes in looking for initial post-college jobs and was naive in focusing on smaller firms. I blame no one but myself for this - I should have consulted more people about this but I was a hard-headed. Now I'm hoping to correct these mistakes while I'm still young and would like to get experience at a large bank, preferably in equity research (I would also be open to an IB position). My goal after a few years would be to work for a value-oriented or event-driven hedge fund (I would love one of these roles now, but do not realistically think I could get one w/o a few years in IB or ER). While I don't have actual experience in the ER field, I follow the markets closely and read a decent amount of sell-side research.
My question is - what do you think is the best way to go about trying to get the equity research job? On one hand, I'm under the impression that the banks won't consider me for their "entry-level" ER programs as I already would have a couple years under my belt. Other than these ER jobs, most of the postings I see online require experience in ER already, or at least in IB. So, would it be worth it to submit an application for the "entry-level" programs and/or the "experienced hires" roles? Or should I just forget these avenues altogether and focus on using my network and contacts? Any positive experience with recruiters in similar circumstances? Or is all hope lost, and I should just try get into a top b-school in a couple of years and enter that way?
I'd really appreciate any advice that any of you might have and would love to hear of experiences similar to mine and what career moves you made.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Currently I work for a boutique fund of hedge funds researching managers and strategies (have come to realize this is not what I want to with my career). Previously spent a year at a well-regarded asset management company. There spent most of my time in portfolio admin and trading asst. roles. I also did some trading when traders were on vacation. Left after a little over one year b/c I wasn't moved over into a research role (as I was promised when I was recruited for the job and again a number of times during my employment).
After actually working in these jobs, I realize I made mistakes in looking for initial post-college jobs and was naive in focusing on smaller firms. I blame no one but myself for this - I should have consulted more people about this but I was a hard-headed. Now I'm hoping to correct these mistakes while I'm still young and would like to get experience at a large bank, preferably in equity research (I would also be open to an IB position). My goal after a few years would be to work for a value-oriented or event-driven hedge fund (I would love one of these roles now, but do not realistically think I could get one w/o a few years in IB or ER). While I don't have actual experience in the ER field, I follow the markets closely and read a decent amount of sell-side research.
My question is - what do you think is the best way to go about trying to get the equity research job? On one hand, I'm under the impression that the banks won't consider me for their "entry-level" ER programs as I already would have a couple years under my belt. Other than these ER jobs, most of the postings I see online require experience in ER already, or at least in IB. So, would it be worth it to submit an application for the "entry-level" programs and/or the "experienced hires" roles? Or should I just forget these avenues altogether and focus on using my network and contacts? Any positive experience with recruiters in similar circumstances? Or is all hope lost, and I should just try get into a top b-school in a couple of years and enter that way?
I'd really appreciate any advice that any of you might have and would love to hear of experiences similar to mine and what career moves you made.
Thanks in advance for any advice!