Starting a career in ER

Most student funds have some degree of "blind leading the blind" unless you go to a school that has consistently funnel talents into the investing industry. So you must participate to "check the box", but I wouldn't call that standing out. 

Few ways off top of my mind: 

• Publish actionable stock ideas online (choice of platform is not important, most use Substack)
• Build thought leadership on Twitter
• Start "covering" an industry on your own. 1. You develop a subsector expertise and actionable ideas over time as you observe how your companies evolve 2. You gut check whether you actually enjoy what you claim to enjoy (most just think "research stocks" is cool and ER is still high finance with less pay and less hour)
• Apply to Value Investor Club and SumZero - there is no better way to have pros validate your quality of research
• Network relentless with your stock write-up and an Excel file with three statements, business drivers, and valuation. And the idea needs to be actionable (many candidates think ER just expects people know "how to model," but they just grow the overall revenue and do a % of revenue as opex, that's not it. You can stand out by showing you understand what makes up the revenue (is it P*Q? Is it GMV*take rate? Is it sub * ARPU? or etc. and costs. And the stock needs to be cheap. Even for sell-side ER, pitching a neutral can't be a good conversation starter.

• I’ll add that doing the CFA Research Challenge is usually a good experience in university. It checks a few boxes for you: polished stock pitch with a written report to share, networking, modeling practice, and further shows your interest.