| Topic Name: |
Equity Research Careers |
| Message Name: |
Typical Career Paths |
| Date Posted: |
05/20/2000 |
| Message: |
I don't think equity research is characterised by a typical career path as much as other careers in finance.
Often time, the firm you end up at greatly influences what type of research career you may have.
Sell-side research can be characterised by a focus on maybe one or two industries throughout your career. In the case of buy side research, a firm may do industry rotation to broaden analysis skills in the hope of grooming analysts to become portfolio managers or it may have a dividing line between the portfolio managers and the research analysts that results in analysts not being developed to become portfolio managers. Different shops have different styles, they explain their styles in their marketing material to brokers or in their presentations to pension committees.
Finding out what type of career in research that you want to follow is therefore very important because it helps you target the firms that you think will best fit your personality and the career development path that you want to embark on.
I know of people who have gotten into research by following somewhat unlikely paths. They've said that if they had to do it again they might not take the original path that they followed.
I do think that good industry experience in an industry that you like along with a top flight MBA and or CFA give a candidate good credibility. After that, determination and a willingness to suck it up should produce the desired results.
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