Mediocre sell side RA, good buy side RA?
I’ve been on the sell side for not quite 2 years and have realized that the associate job doesn’t really suit my strengths. So much of my time is spent preparing presentations and doing monotonous tasks to free up my senior analyst’s day. The senior analysts on my team say that writing is my strength but I could improve on the aforementioned boring tasks. I know attention to detail is important for both buy side and sell side when understanding a company/industry, but is it a bad sign I’m not as attentive with some of these other tasks? How much of this type of work is also given to associates on the buy side?
An associate I work with handles the miscellaneous tasks better than I do but doesn’t really understand our companies or investing in general that well, yet he is viewed more favorably and will eventually get more exciting work like initiation reports. Is this the harsh reality for most sell sell RAs before getting their own coverage? Would I likely be mediocre if I moved to the buy side? My boss told me his former associate was pretty average and that he was surprised to hear from the former associates’ colleagues that he was doing really well, which gives me hope.
I enjoy investing but all the tedious, time saving tasks combined with a boring coverage industry have probably made my weaknesses more apparent as I begin to care less each day. My boss is willing to teach me, but that is clearly not the priority—he just wants me to save him time.
Those of you who have made the transition from SS research to BS, do I need to refocus on perfecting the mundane tasks before interviewing for BS? Should I spend all my free time working on pitches and practicing technicals/modeling tests instead? How can I make the most of my current position? Lastly, how much easier would recruiting be if I have an initiation on my resume? Is that ultimately not that important?
You are hitting the harsh reality of entry level work - it's mundane, it's boring and most of your job is performing whatever is asked of you at a high level when asked. The biggest mistake you can make is thinking that those tasks don't matter, or that some limited investment knowledge that you possess matters at all right now. It doesn't.
That's why you won't 'get' the initiation report - if you can't format a deck, put together a coherent presentation or whatever... why should you initiate coverage on a name? Moreover, and no offense, half of what you do is valued by how you wrap it all together. I'll stress this again - if you can't check the presentation deck, do I trust you to double check the price target model so that we don't get something wonky?
Also - you exist to save your boss time. That's the entire point. You build up skills doing XYZ, then you move onto other things once you master them. Everyone reading this forum needs to get over it - you will not jump from college student, to Bill Ackman, overnight. I don't care where you are, what you do - people value performance, reliability and execution in whatever you do. Period.
Here's what I recommend - stop HOPING your boss or superiors see value in you and go earn it. Don't be sad you have a boring area, mope that someone gets opportunities you won't - go kill it. Do you realize how few people get feedback that says 'writing is your strength' - half the people, including myself, that I work with can barely put three sentences on paper that sound coherent. Stop moping and get to it.
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