Can Sector Coverage Pigeonhole You?
How much is sector coverage weighted when it comes to exit ops? What's weighted more your firm's name or the actual industries you covered while there?
For example, does focusing on certain industries like REITs or Financials potentially pigeonhole you to those sectors? Better to go to a smaller LO firm covering tech/healthcare/fintech or a bluechip LO firm covering a less exciting area (REITs, Financials, etc.)?
Direct correlation with how senior / experienced you are. If this is your first job, I definitely wouldn’t fret about it and would take the higher quality firm any day of the week
What would you consider more senior?
This would be my 2nd role on the buy-side, moving up from Research Associate to Senior Research Associate. Did 3 years as a generalist at a small no-name growth-oriented fund (mostly Tech, Healthcare, Payments, Consumer Disc), just entered my mid-late 20's.
You're in the grey area. Idk, just feels like a personal decision to me. Are you super passionate about a certain industry or style of investing? Could you see b-school as a next step? Do you have a geographic preference? Did you get a strong mentorship vibe from the analyst/PM/team you'd be working under? How material is the comp delta? Is your long term goal to become a diversified PM? Those are the sort of questions I would be asking myself
Unless those answers strongly skew you towards the smaller shop, my bias will always be towards the better brand at this stage of your career
I think SCurveCap is probably right here. I'm at a smaller firm with my ideal strategy and the limitations on recruiting are real. The one advantage that a smaller firm provides is that it can be a better place to build your skillset as you will likely have more responsibilities.
I look at it this way coming from a smaller firm but with what I believe to be a good skillset. Get me in a room and I know I can compete with every other candidate but it is really hard to get in the room....
The key is to look at where you can build out the best skillset that will apply to the job you want in the future. If the large firm does that while providing brand and probably more money, go there then lateral. If the small firm let's you work under a rockstar that would be a good teacher, I would maybe lean that way. Just remember, the additinal learning and responsibilities at a small firm have to be enough to offset a brand name on a resume. In the end, the brand only gets you in the door. If you don't build out the skillset, you will never be able to lateral.
One note on pigeonholing that people here overlook -- by NOT choosing the "pigeonholing" opportunity, you are pigeonholing yourself OUT of that opportunity. Pigeonholing really means developing a skillset that is unique. It may indeed be less transferable, but I see this as great news -- none of you generalist people are ever going to be able to take my job..
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