Equity Research - prestige vs sector?
Currently interning at a french bank in equity research in a sector I enjoy. A position has come up to become permanent there but in the past few weeks I have been interviewing elsewhere as I was looking for security. I've wound up in a position with 2 FT offers, one from the French bank I've spent a couple months at as an intern and an EB.
French Bank
Pros:
- Interesting sector
- The team are cool
- Good work life balance
Cons:
- The bank isn't ranked well in ER
- I'm not french and don't speak the language (hasn't been a problem so far but we do have many french clients where it would be nicer if I spoke their preferred language)
- Long term comp is likely to be worse than the EB
- Exit opps potentially worse given the reputation in ER isn't strong
EB
Pros:
- Stronger reputation in ER, generally more prestigious bank
- LT comp is likely better
- Exit opps likely better due to reputation
Cons:
- Sector isn't as interesting as the one at French bank
- From the reputation I presume my work life balance would be worse
- Risking leaving a chill team for another which may not be (they seem fine but you never know)
To me the biggest swing factors are reputation/prestige and sector as I'm not that motivated by money, and exit opps I'm not sure about (I don't know if I want to end up on the buyside etc). If AM's are being squeezed they will cut research budget and at that point it doesn't matter how good you are... reputation gets prioritised and maybe the French bank gets cut - could eventually put my job in jeopardy. On the other hand, if you're covering a sector in depth, it helps to be covering a sector you find interesting..
What would you choose and why? Are there other factors I should be considering? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
bump
I prefer better comp, exits, and prestige, but that's why I did IB and not ER.
lol so pretentious
Rarely do I ever hear that bank xyz is good at ER, it's usually this guy from bank xyz usually gets the numbers right so look at his report. So in my opinion the bank not being well ranked in ER shouldn't be a factor.
This is true if the asset manager subscribes to all banks research. More money moving to passive/indexing means active management is under more pressure. This leads to reduced budgets for research. Its become so anal that now all asset managers now have monthly data which tells them which provider of research their whole team uses the most i.e. what bank's research do we use the most. The ones that get used to least get chopped. This puts pressure on that bank and I imagine leads to cuts... hence why prestige/quality in banks is important. Plenty of surveys matter too e.g. Institutional Investor and Extel. Either way, the team I've got an offer at in the EB is well regarded, more so than the one at the French bank I would say.
I agree to an extent if your AM subscribes to all the BBs for example, one might say analyst xyz is the best in consumer staples etc.
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