How hard is it to get a equity research unpaid internship after graduating and doing 1 year of back office work?

I want to start over my career and do research. I don't want to spend anymore time to pigeon hole myself in a accounting back office role. I'm 1 year in my back office role out of college. The money and steady paycheck isn't worth a miserable life. Is it easy to get an internship with relevant research experience out of school. Is working for cheap/free enough to get my foot in the door? I don't want to drop 100k on grad school just to reinvent myself. Are there internships that don't require you to be enrolled in school?

409 WSO Academy Equity Research Session Reviews: 4.83/5

Class of '25 Nov 2026 Cohort

5.00/5

Equity Research Career Roadmap (optional)

“Chris was very easy to talk to and made the session feel relaxed and genuinely useful. He gave me clear, actionable tasks that I can go away and work on straight away to expand my network. I hope to reconvene with him at a later date to discuss the progress I have made and get his feedback on the work I have been doing.”

Springfield College

Class of '29 Sep 2026 Cohort

4.85/5

Equity Research Mock Coffee Chat

“Craig gave me a really clear picture of how sell-side equity research actually works. The biggest takeaway was that research is a service business built on trust, not on picking stocks, and that analysts are paid on rankings rather than on whether a call is right. He was honest that even a 60% hit rate is excellent, and that it matters more to understand where you went wrong than where you were right. I also liked his point about not being “unintelligently wrong”: own the mistake and explain it well. On the practical side, he told me to start now by running a blog, posting on Seeking Alpha, using Koyfin as a cheap Bloomberg alternative, and using AI to draft commentary so I have more time to think deeply and explore other sectors. He also explained that research recruiting is much more targeted than IB, since sector teams are fairly autonomous, so I should reach out to senior analysts in specific sectors and recommend based on fit. His own path from no finance background, through China, to Wharton was encouraging. My one suggestion would be a quick walkthrough of what a strong first report looks like beyond the core pieces (recommendation, risks, summary, price target).”

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Hi Yodawashere, check out these resources:

From a Paper Mill to Call Centre to Back Office IT to Equity Research can help. Sorry for the long post but it's all relevant to how I made it to front office ... about my back office experience. Do not bring it up first because most front office people will ... ultimate passion was ER. The salary was good relative
Back Office to IB/PE? Offers to choose from Fund internship, IB Business Management, Corporate Finance, etc. * Worked as a back office analyst in a top BB for nearly 3 years, during which I:-passed my CFA lv 2-became ... time if doing good after 2 months, or--apply for a 1yr MBA next year-offered for a Business Manager ... Hey Guys, Sorry had a same post in job advice forum but the format seems messed up and it ...
Escaping the Back Office- Seeking guidance months of working 100hr weeks on my feet smelling like rotten food I decided to go back to school and ... working such a middle-of-the-road type job. My work-life balance is tremendous, its not unusual to work 35 ... finance-- I was reading every Econ book I could get
From BO to FO and back again, or, how I learned to stop worrying and love technology stimulating than the work of a banker; it's not even close. During recruiting, bankers will try to get ... there is a lot of pressure to do it. However, if money is your main driver, you're setting yourself ... . VP of Technology (back office) at a B
Back Office to IB/PE? Offers to choose engineering degree * Worked as a back office analyst in a top BB for nearly 3 years, during which I:-passed my ... either:--become full time if doing good after 2 months, or--apply for a 1yr MBA next year-offered for a Business ... into a PE within max. 4 years. Here is my timeline: * Graduated from a top 10
Should I quit my back office paid summer internship to study for the CFA/GMAT/something else that if I finished a set of back office work, I could do more "interesting" front office ... no opportunity to do anything remotely front office related, but will spend most hours of my summer ... days as a back office intern. Sadly, I go to a non-target school, and
Should I Take a Back Office Position? worth taking up this back office position or could it be wiser to wait a while and hope for something ... of it-Gives me a F100 name on the resume, even if it isn't doing high-level/valuable work-Gets ... GMAT performance (this is huge because then I'd only have the hours after
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Authored by: Certified Equity Research Professional - 2nd Year AssociateCertified Equity Research Pro

+13	Is Equity Research Dying - Where Are the Future Opportunites?	4	2d
+10	Associates who stuck around for > 5 years working for the same analyst. Why?	4	1w
+9	Detailed Revenue and Cost Builds	3	1w
+7	Analyst with no coverage or ranking	5	1w
+6	Preparation for grad scheme - buyside ER	1	9h
+1	IB SA -> ER FT	4	2w
0	Equity Research Rankings	1	1w

1	redever	99.2
2	BankonBanking	99.0
3	kanon	99.0
4	Secyh62	99.0
5	GameTheory	98.9
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How hard is it to get a equity research unpaid internship after graduating and doing 1 year of back office work?

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How hard is it to get a equity research unpaid internship after graduating and doing 1 year of back office work?

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