Why do most people say that a boutique ER shop is better than BB now, is it harder to land a position at a BB?

It seems like the general consensus is that BB ER desks are not as good of a place for a research role compared to some boutique and smaller ER firms. What are the pros and cons of both? What are some of the benefits you get besides brand name being at a BB, and is it harder to get into the BB ER desks? I've talked to a few analysts and they have really seen mifid ii result in much changes in the US, but that overall BB ER has been declining even before mifid ii.

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It's hard to generalize between BB and Boutique. However, the key point is that ER is sort of a level playing field. You can be at a tiny boutique and still put out better research than the guy at GS - it all depends how much effort you want to make.

Hence, for this reason, brand name does not necessarily correlate with quality research, sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.  Also, it varies within firms depending on the persons in the seats. You might have an awesome Tech analyst at GS but you might have a terrible Consumer Retail analyst.

The key is not choosing boutique or BB but rather good recognized analyst versus mediocre analyst in your industry.

 

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