YoMama14 Wrote:
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> Hi, I was a sell side equity research associate
> for 1.5 years before getting the ax as part of
> wall street’s downsizing( think Wachovia, HSBC,
> Bofa). It seems to me that research is a dying
> breed and difficult to break out of. It seems
> extremely difficult to break into the buy side
> hedge funds or asset management as I am competing
> with bankers with the same industry focus.
The sell-side research skill is one that’s still valued; however you are trying to get another job at a time that’s very, very tough. There are still hedge funds recruiting now, but you should see things pick up quite a bit more around January. However there will be a lot of competition for these jobs and my suggestion is that you interview for both sell-side and buy-side opportunities – at 1.5 years of sell-side experience, it should be respectable but there are also a lot of people like you, and you’re best off taking a sell-side job first (assuming you get one) while continuing your search for buy-side roles if that’s what you want to do. Start floating your resume out to headhunters ASAP if you haven’t done it already, and most importantly, make sure you have a good “story” to tell - there are quite a few people like you looking for jobs so you really have to come across knowing what you want and leaving an impression.
> And for Private equity, it is very rare for an ER
> associate to break in.
Yes it is, but it’s tough for bankers to break into too. Private equity hiring has diminished considerably since the summer time and there are even plenty of bankers (including some from your bank) that are trying to find PE work but can’t land a gig. You can definitely make the transition from research, but it’s a move that’s generally tough unless you’re really good at your job…and again, at this point in the year, it’s even tougher. The hiring environment could improve beginning the end of January, though.
> That leaves banking. How
> difficult is it to break into banking from ER? Do
> investment banks count ER experience or would i
> come in as a first year analyst? If i stay in ER,
> how possible is it to move to become an associate
> in IB after another year without an mba? Alot of
> recuriters say they are looking for transactional
> experience but what does a banker do that an ER
> analyst doesnt do skill wise?
Mainly it’s the modeling and the deal experience. That’s not necessarily to say that banking analysts all have some amazing insight into deals; in fact, that’s pretty hard to get just over a few months, but what they do have is an understanding of how the deal process works, and that’s important because banking is very process-oriented.
Best way to get into banking (which is something I recommend you explore right now, because ANY front-office sell-side role beats being unemployed and your exit opportunities are considerably better in banking anyway) is to tap all the friends in your network and try to get in any way that you can. You can also make a better case for yourself by teaching yourself how to build LBO/M&A models and spread comps; at this point, they want someone to hit the ground running because they do all their training in the summer, so any initiative you can show in this area is a clear positive. You’d probably begin as a first-year analyst if you’re actually able to get in off-cycle, which again is a tough thing to do. But hey, at this point, you gotta take what you can get and you could do much worse than banking (in fact I might even say that you probably couldn’t do better).
> Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance
Hope this helps. It’s not fun being unemployed but I know some other people in your situation and I would give them the same advice.