Interview help! ER buyside to sell side

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Qpricky

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Hi:

Have been offered a chance to interview for a sellside ER associate position in Tech. in Canada. Have a buyside ER background, in Hedge funds for the past 3 years. This came thro' a friend who works there, but looks like the analyst is looking for MAINLY sell side ER folks only.

So I was surprised when I got an email from the analyst for an interview offer. My questions are

1. Why do you think the analyst insists on sell side experience and how can I overcome his inhibitions?
2. Given my background in hedgefunds/buy sde, how do I go about this interview - i.e how can I convince him that I am akin to any sellside ER associate?
3 Is there a gender/otherwise bias with tech. associate selectio? I am a female and have been unemployed for the past 4 months.
4.Honestly what are my chances? Do you think this is just a courtesy call because it was an internal referral?

Any advise to excel at this interview is greatly appreciated.
thanks
 
Just tell them you rather work than be unemployed that is why you're going for sellside as oppose to buyside.
 
Just tell the guy that you think that buy side and sell side have transferable skills, so you'll be comfortable with the job.
 
You shouldn't have a problem switching to sell-side IMO. A few people have done it at my shop and I've seen it at others. But just curious why you want to make the switch as it is usually the other way around.

The people that I know who made the switch came from really small HFs with little chance for further career progression.
 
CFABLACKBELT: I am seeking industry specialization, which is difficult unless you are with a big buyside shop. Been a generalist so far. Also I am assuming they would have greater industry knowledge and depth, which should help get a well rounded understanding (my expereince is that buy side is better at stock selection than it is at industry knowledge). Hopefully meeting more people/networking would help.



Are there any more advantages to joining the sell side?
 
Qpricky Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi:
>
> Have been offered a chance to interview for a
> sellside ER associate position in Tech. in Canada.
> Have a buyside ER background, in Hedge funds for
> the past 3 years. This came thro' a friend who
> works there, but looks like the analyst is looking
> for MAINLY sell side ER folks only.
>
> So I was surprised when I got an email from the
> analyst for an interview offer. My questions are
>
> 1. Why do you think the analyst insists on sell
> side experience and how can I overcome his
> inhibitions?

Is this analyst *insistent* on sell-side experience, or is he just looking for people with prior sell-side experience because that's the likely feeder? As someone that has had both sell-side and buy-side experience with bulge-bracket banks and a major asset management firm, I suspect he might just be looking for people with prior sell-side experience because you see sell-side to sell-side transitions more so than buy-side to sell-side. However, he might also be looking for someone that understands client service, writing research notes, and just has the right expectations about the job - that could be it too.

> 2. Given my background in hedgefunds/buy sde, how
> do I go about this interview - i.e how can I
> convince him that I am akin to any sellside ER
> associate?

One thing you could definitely talk about is how you'd prefer to engage in greater depth (rather than breadth) within a certain pool of companies. That's typically one of the major differences between sell-side and buy-side research roles. If this is a larger sell-side shop, you can also talk to him about how you appreciate the institutionalized training on modeling, analysis and so forth afforded by sell-side shops. Lastly you could also talk about how you appreciate the opportunity to potentially interact with many buy-siders and also have direct access to company management teams. Those are some of the big perks of working on the sell-side, and are ultimately what many buy-siders pay sell-siders to do (rather than "actual" research/analysis if that makes sense).

> 3 Is there a gender/otherwise bias with tech.
> associate selectio? I am a female and have been
> unemployed for the past 4 months.

No, but you'll have to explain why you were unemployed and what you've been doing wiht that time.

> 4.Honestly what are my chances? Do you think this
> is just a courtesy call because it was an internal
> referral?

Hard to answer what your chances are - how would you propose someone estimate that? And in fact, internal referrals are the *best* ways to get jobs so I'm sure it was just more than courtesy. If it were me, I wouldn't take time to speak with someone unless I were serious about hiring them...but maybe I'm just especially protective of my time. I doubt that's the case though.

> Any advise to excel at this interview is greatly
> appreciated.
> thanks

No problem.

-----
Contact me for resume/cover letter review, interview prep, or career advisory services
[email protected]
 
Numi:

Thanks. Coincidently I was reading your other posts on WSO and some related links. This name did ring a bell and now I know for sure. I sincerely appreciate you helping us all out with you practical guidance.

Cheers
 
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