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Others may disagree with this, but my 2 cents: if you want to work on the buyside, go there. You're going to learn the building blocks of doing analyst type of work wherever you go, so why not start with the people who are actually pulling the trigger on ideas? I understand the pull of starting on the sell-side for "exit opps" and it being the more traditional path, but my take is that this is a really big industry with a lot of options for people who want to be an investor. Not everyone needs to go BB ER or IB --> MBA --> HF or AM. If buyside is where you want to end up, cut out the middle steps. Perhaps you later need to go back to get an MBA to move up, but starting with a shop that'll teach you the tools to analyze ideas for investment vs. the more sales-like functions of a sell-side shop makes sense to me - that's not to say sell-side work is bad...it's just different approaches/purposes. All that said, both are good options.
Agree 100%. If you want to work on the buyside, you should work on the buyside.
Congrats OP - great offers!
I have CFA and a master degree, but no MBA. Sector specialist is not a track that leads to analysts, comparing to investment associate. They told me during the interview. But there are some sector specialists became analysts after 2-3 years.
I looked at profiles of sector specialists and equity research associates on LinkedIn. It looks like equity research roles are more selective than sector specialist positions.
Thanks for clarification. In that case, it's less clear -- sorry for the confusion. Like I said, both are good options. If a lateral is really hard from that role, maybe it's less of a good idea. Again, sell-side not a bad option, just delays what you ultimately want. Same skill set will develop, however. Best wishes with the decision, neither name will hurt you in my opinion.
ER Associate hands down. I interned at that large mutual fund 2 years back, and it seemed like kind of a dead end job and no room to really move up from being a sector specialist.
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