Mobility between equities and debt?

I think Credit to Equity is easier than vice versa. While narrow-minded credit focus can certainly create some issues as you become too downside focused and unable to evaluate upside, a good credit analyst is a good business analyst and can value a business which is what equity analysts do. You may have to learn a bit of positioning and technicals that are specific to equities, but it is not that complicated. I do think it is a greater challenge to become a Growth Equity analyst (unless you have uncommon sector expertise in a growth sector), but Value Equity / Special Situation styles should have a lot of skill overlaps. 

An Equity analyst coming to Credit will be immediately challenged with material gaps in skill set. They will not have read credit agreements or indentures in any meaningful detail. They will not have been in the habit of thinking about capital structures in terms of nuances in seniorities and guarantees. They will not be familiar with bond math and what drives risk and returns in a bond (hint: it’s not yield). They will not have an instinctive grasp on whether a bond is rich or cheap on a relative value basis (e.g. if I told you here is a 7x levered Packaging LBO 2nd lien bond maturing in 5 years with CCC ratings that is trading at ~8%, do you have an immediate feel for if that is a long or short without further information? What is the next question you would ask?). The reverse is not true as Credit analysts think about Enterprise Value multiples and FCF yields all the time for different sectors and different business qualities.

Source: Obviously unbiased credit analyst