Buy-side AM Interest - Questions/Guidance Needed

Ignore my title as it's not correct. I'm a newbie here with an interest in making a move to a buy-side AM equity analyst role. My current role (sell-side M&A) does not provide direct exposure to the financial markets so I'm looking for some guidance on what I can do over the next couple weeks/months to provide me with that exposure/knowledge. I assume if/when I land interviews, there will be a lot of market related questions (pls correct me if I am wrong), so I'm trying to get ahead of that now.

I have a finance/economics background but worry that I will be at a severe disadvantage not coming from a pure markets (S&T, research etc.) role. Would any seasoned folks in the industry be willing to share a few high-level potential interview questions or topic areas that would be worth me researching now to form opinions on? FWIW, I spend a lot of time reading about the markets/news and listen to a lot of market related podcasts, so I don't think I'm totally starting from scratch.

Also, I'm not in a finance hotbed, so through some luck I think I have landed two first round interviews with 2 diff shops that will be coming up over the next few weeks. So, I may be in somewhat of a time crunch. 

1 Comments
 

Eum consequatur voluptas sed sed ut enim. Odio numquam et sint repellat sapiente cupiditate. Sunt qui similique pariatur aut hic voluptas.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Hedge Fund

  • Point72 99.0%
  • D.E. Shaw 98.1%
  • Citadel Investment Group 97.1%
  • AQR Capital Management 96.1%
  • Magnetar Capital 95.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Hedge Fund

  • Magnetar Capital 99.0%
  • D.E. Shaw 98.0%
  • Blackstone Group 97.0%
  • Citadel Investment Group 96.0%
  • Millennium Partners 95.0%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Hedge Fund

  • AQR Capital Management 99.0%
  • Point72 98.1%
  • D.E. Shaw 97.1%
  • Citadel Investment Group 96.2%
  • Magnetar Capital 95.2%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Hedge Fund

  • Portfolio Manager (9) $1,648
  • Vice President (27) $464
  • Director/MD (12) $423
  • NA (9) $320
  • Engineer/Quant (86) $288
  • 3rd+ Year Associate (26) $284
  • Manager (4) $282
  • 2nd Year Associate (32) $253
  • 1st Year Associate (76) $192
  • Analysts (242) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (29) $145
  • Junior Trader (5) $102
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (282) $96
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
6
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
Mimbs's picture
Mimbs
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”