where should I focus my energy?

for those who are currently in the industry, what skills do you wish you developed earlier (undergrad, ect.)? and, along those lines, what skills did you think were very valuable that ended up having low impact?

ive been (1) working on getting fluid with excel & shortcuts by getting deeper and more granular with each of my models (2) covering various names in a specific sector (ucaas) and force ranking IRRs within the space and (3) reading books like gorilla game and working through BIWS.I love what I'm doing now and feel like I'm learning a ton, but have also never worked at a mm hf. will be working at one over the summer and im trying to be prepared as possible when I start.would love to hear everyone's thoughts / feedback

6 Comments
 

It's an interdisciplinary profession that you need to be well rounded. 

Technical: know accounting and how to read 10Ks very well. Develop your own research process and refine it over time. Know how to model different kinds of businesses. 

Business: follow one industry and keep track of how businesses evolve over time and what stocks create / lose value in that industry and why. 

My regret: I wish I looked at more businesses versus reading so many investment books. 

 
Most Helpful

If you know your investment style already, reading 10ks of companies that fit your style - for me, it's finding good businesses and why they are great (or why they are going to be great in the future, or why they are going to be greater than they already, the widening moat type). 

If you don't know your style, it's fine too - map out the players in the a value chain. Read 10k of those players. For example, oil and gas, read 10ks of E&P, midstream, refiners, oil equipment, etc. And then you can expand from there, learn about the chemical value chain. 

 

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