Hi everyone,
I got offers for 2021SA from these three firms. I was just hoping for any info on reputation/culture/compensation FT and which one would you recommend me to take and why? Also, how hard is it to exit to HF/AM from a top ER firm? What's the pay progression in associates? All positions in NY. Thank you for all the help!
Sincerely,
A confused and lucky monkey
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These are effectively the top 3 shops in ER. You'll have little difficulty getting any buyside exit assuming those exits have any appetite whatsoever for sell side research people (so harder to get some single manager roles).
I'd try to get a sense of which one will let you pick you sector (or at least have some control) upon graduation. Would argue that it's much more important to have a good sector (*cough*tech/HC/consumer*cough*) than picking the "best" of the top 3 because the differences are small.
That said, I'd probably go with JPM or BAML given how much more structured everything is over there. Good training, lot of autonomy once you ramp full-time, etc.
Comp will be similar across all 3 for the first couple years, at which point you are likely 0-2 years from exiting anyway. Expect a banking base but a much smaller bonus.
Consumer is a good sector? Why?
It's splitting hairs really. This isn't a dig at ISI, but from a SA standpoint where you have no idea what you'll place into I'd say JPM/BAML are safer options. Unless I'm mistaken, those two have the most ranked analysts on any given year (with JPM probably having slightly more). And at the end of the day, all that matters in ER is your analyst not your platform. Unless of course you're not just trying to hop to the buyside immediately. If you want to have a broader array of exit opps JPM/BAML do carry more of a brand name than ISI.
Not sure why my general comment was posted in a response to yours, but curious why do you think consumer is not a good sector?
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Would also add that comp at bulge will be regimented and likely in lockstep with peers whereas if you look at glassdoor / wso database, evercore’s known to pay higher.
for culture, dependent on how your analyst would run their team. Also, Bulge will have more of an associate class which can be a positive vs boutique where you may be one of a few associates direct from undergrad given more selective hiring processes for lateral associates.
This is super useful. Thank you.
Do you know possible is it to exit to long-only or L/S SM shops like Fidelity/Dodge and Cox or large hedge funds like Greenlight/Baupost? I know that it is probably very hard to get into these funds, but am curious about the process and the difficulty. I would ideally like to work at a place with decent job security and low turnover, and I've heard the AM shops - Fidelity/TRowe/Capital Group/Cuane Runiff are super amazing for that.
I was in the same boat a while back, and I picked BAML. For me, it boiled down to a few things:
1) I already had some good mentors there. To have someone looking out for you from Day 1 is huge in this industry.
2) I felt the culture at both ISI & BAML was more friendly than JPM.
3) I feel like research is not treated as a cost center at BAML. Everyone from CEO on down finds what we do intrinsically valuable, and the research division is held in a very high regard here. I heard this used to be true at ISI too, but less so since the merger.
4) I thought it’d be better to be part of a large research division early in my career. Less churn, more structured training, and a wider network.
Retrospectively, I still think all me views were accurate, and I made a great decision.
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