Getting Frustrated
Hope all is well! I recently graduated from the University of Florida with a major in Finance. I am looking to break into a sell-side equity research role. I have done two equity research internships and have received top marks at my school. However, upon my graduation, I have found landing a position to be much more difficult than anticipated. I get that I didn’t go to a target school (I received a full ride and wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I was in high school), but I thought two summers of experience covering different sectors would open some doors. Additionally, I am a CFA candidate and plan on taking level 1 this fall. I have had many interviews, but the roles have either gone to someone more senior, as mentioned to me by HR, or there has been a pause on hiring for certain firms. I network like crazy and have gone to different conferences as per the suggestion of some of my mentors. However, I am finding myself to become increasingly frustrated over the process and was wondering if I could get some advice from all of you!
Sorry to hear. It's hard to get a research job because there are so few roles and every MD wants someone already with 2-3 years of ER experience, but how can you get 2-3 years of ER experience when you try to get ER experience for the first time?! So I get it.
I don't know you, but first question would be: why didn't those two ER internships convert to full-time?
Hey!
Thank you for reaching out!
I was a sophomore when I did the first one and had to have surgery mid summer. Unfortunately, they had a policy of not extending full-time offers for people who missed out on the full ten weeks.
For the second one, my MD had too many associates so he wrote me a letter of recommendation to had around. No one got offers from that summer and many of my fellow interns (most of them target school) went on to do other things.
Unrelated, I appreciate your posts on Instagram highlighting all-star investors. I have even started reading Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor.
Got it. Thanks, Intelligent Investor is not a great investment book to read anymore because it's outdated, some core concepts remain valid (ie. margin of safety and Mr. market) but the market regime has permanently changed that net-nets don't exist too often anymore.
Yeah, not much to say, other than keep networking like crazy and working on yourself. This is post-bonus-peak-turnover season, so a lot of current associates are moving between firms, you have tough competitions (well, it's competitive all year around).
Most senior analysts don't want to train you - they rather focus on producing reports, getting deals and schmoozing with clients, so any current associate is better than you because they a plug-and-play. Your task is to be better than the current associates on the core equity research tasks to convince the senior analysts you should be chosen over the folks who are laterals.
All my advice loops back to coming up with the best work product and attach to your reach-outs.
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