Looking for some advice. After 4 years in research, i am thinking of pivoting into banking.
Reason for my pivot is simple - i see more value being generated on the private side and less so on the public side. I feel like i have gotten to know the public markets well, and have done quite a few IPOs /initiations, building out models from scratch.
I wanted to know what skills i should work on when i am trying to transition (i know m&a bankers are likely to have better modeling skills than i do) but what stuff can i realistically work on? What things have you noticed lacking among people who typically move from research to banking?
In terms of hard skills, I don't think that you'll have any issues. I assume that you'll transfer at the associate level, given that you have four years of experience in research. If so, I think you just have to focus more on softer skills like managing projects and teams because that aspect will be quite different than your current role.
I would think M&A / LBO model might be more difficult for someone coming out of research. Not sure if financial sponsors will be interested in taking you but perhaps coverage bankers might?
have you considered making the move to hedge funds? That may be a good opportunity to most immediately leverage your skills, and get to a more enjoyable buy-side role.
It's just that i don't particularly like the short termism of hedge funds. I talk to them all the time and it surprises me that they want to make quarterly calls all the time without any real change in business dynamics. I am more long term oriented.
There are deep value fundamental hedge funds that hold for many years
Bump. Interested in this as well. Would it be easier to transfer to IB with 1 year of ER experience as opposed to staying longer?
I'm not in either industry, but my thought process is that it would be easier to explain why banking if you've only been in equity research for a year because you can still say "well it was all a part of my plan to break into banking, I used research as a stepping stone, etc."
Rather than say it's a stepping stone I think it would be better to just be straightforward and say "After doing equity research for a while, I've found that banking is more appealing because of XYZ. Skills ABC will translate into banking well."
Thanks for the advice! Also would appreciate any advice on how I could spin my story to convince them I'd be better placed to what I want to do (M&A) rather than what they think I'd be more suited for (coverage, given my ER background)
Why are you specifically looking for M&A? Wouldn't it be obvious to bankers that you are only looking to move to banking so that you can just go do something else after a year?
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