"Pooled" associates

Anyone work in an equity research associate role where he or she has been 'pooled' with other associates in aiding analysts across different-sized companies (within the same sector)? i.e. an associate working with other associates to help build reports for a small-cap equities analyst, a large-cap equities analyst, a trust analyst, etc. I think the more familiar set-up is that an associate is assigned to only one analyst.

If so, what was your opinion of this sort of training ground? Very briefly, I see some pros and cons:

Pros: - Increased exposure to different companies which may lead to discovery of "inefficiencies" in stock pricing more often - Learn different types of valuation for different scenarios - Won't have to suffer working solely for one analyst if you and that person do not get along - Environment is more conducive to team work since there will be seemingly increased interaction between associates and analysts

Cons: - Can be frustrating trying to please analysts who employ conflicting methodology in their evaluations of companies - May be less familiar with a core set of companies - Less recognition by an analyst that works with many associates

Are there any major points that I'm missing? Thanks for your time.