ER Associate Due Diligence Process/Checklist for Lead Analyst/Shop?

Hey guys,

Wondering if more experienced ER folks can share how they conducted their due diligence on their boss (the hiring or lead analyst) and their firm when assessing offers.

I'm in Australia and trying to break in to the industry as an Associate. There is a particular dearth of information w.r.t the ER scene over here. I'm mainly trying to diligence regional boutiques / mid-markets (at least here in Aus) firms and analysts as that's the segment that I'm getting more serious looks from (firms like Ord Minnett, Shaw and Partners, Canaccord Genuity, Bell Potter, Evans and Partners, etc.).

My end goal is buy-side investing so I would like to work for an analyst who isn't just a pure marketing machine and does proper fundamental research on stocks who I can learn from. What are some things candidates should be looking out for as green / red flags when assessing offers / firms?

Few things at the top of my mind (please correct me if my logic is wrong):

• Team size as a proxy for resources/support systems - bigger is better for an incoming associate?
• Number of stocks under coverage per analyst as proxy for how many hours you're likely to have to put in at that firm - less is better for more reasonable WLB?
• Sector specialist vs more generalist (especially at small-cap focussed brokers where sometimes an analyst may cover a few different sectors) - sector specialist is better for my end goal?
• Average age of analysts in the firm - older (45+) is worse as they may not be keen on training a fresh guy and just want to do their own thing/make money the way they know how?

Anything I'm missing / wrong about? Cheers and have a great weekend all.