Equity Research to Investment Banking

Hey guys, so I developed an interest in Equity Research because I liked learning about companies and the various industries that encompass them. I then found myself leaning more towards Private Equity, Consulting or Corp Dev as a career in the Long run because I found that, while I would do all this research and gain all this knowledge, how would I apply this knowledge? How would I get skin in the game?

At a spring insight event I received two main opinions. One guy (a trader at the bank) said Equity Research is quite dull and that just because I like research and learning about companies does not mean that I should silo myself into just research. Another guy (a fellow intern) who had spoken with an IB associate at another BB told me that the associate worked two years in ER then switched to the Investment bank of the same company to a team that focused on the industry that he was researching. He said that because of the time he spent in ER he was able to provide much more value to the team.

So I would like to both find out if there are any investment bankers or Private Equity Employees who can attest to this being the case and if you think ER to IB would be a shout?