Equity Analyst Buyside Interview Help

1) Have a certain sector or industry that you're particularly interested and knowledgeable in. Know the industry multiples, important metrics, and have a company or two that you know particularly well.

2) Be able to pitch a long and a short candidate, and have enough knowledge to be able to talk about both (with a reasonable thesis) for something like 15 minutes. They're going to want to know that you spend some time on your own following the markets and have the ability to develop an investment opinion about something that you've researched.

3) As I just said make sure you can talk about the markets, have some sort of opinion on what you think the market will do in the next few years and why. At the same time though just make sure your opinions aren't retarded, there's no wrong answer unless you sound like an idiot so make sure your opinion isn't too far out there. Don't cry Dow 8,000 and don't guarantee 18,000 either.

4) Be able to demonstrate yourself as well-rounded. I don't know the details of the position obviously but I'm assuming it's for a generalist position, so don't pidgeonhole yourself too hard when you demonstrate knowledge in a certain industry. More than just financially, we like to see buy-side research guys have a working knowledge of a lot of different industries, since certain synergies arise and you can leverage your knowledge of one sector's economics to better understand a seemingly unrelated one.

As long as you can make yourself come across as knowledgeable and interested in the markets, evaluating businesses, and being a fairly normal human being with decent communication skills, you should be fine in an interview. Best of luck.