Medical Student Who Landed an ER Job as Gateway to IBD

Hello all,

So I’m taking a leave of absence from medical school (post second year) and can come back within two years (but don’t ever see myself working in medicine). I just landed a job in ER covering healthcare stocks as an associate. I hate to say it but the ultimate goal is to use this as an exit into either IBD or a HF. How difficult would this be for me after a years worth of experience in ER at a MM for either a HF or IBD. Also would I be limited to MM investment banks?

Thanks

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What type of firm are you headed to? If BB/EB you will very easily be able to move to healthcare IBD. HF (or long-only AM) is also within reach. MM ER is a little less helpful, but you can easily lateral up to BB ER as there is a lot of turnover at the junior levels

If you like finance this is basically one of the better entry seats you can get

 

It’s a MM investment bank for their healthcare or biotech ER. They are debating which analyst to place me with. I start in January, but I will continue to network with people in ER at a BB.

Also what do you think about directly trying to land a job in IB as an off cycle analyst? Waste of time or worth a shot?

 

I don't think you'd land at a BB/EB/MM as an off cycle first year - different if you had experience. They only do first year hires for summer starts, early starts are kind of a one-off situation mostly for returning interns who have extenuating circumstances. So you'd be looking for FT 2023 which is long closed.

Even if you do 6-8 months at the MM the BB ER teams, or even BB IBD, should be pretty open to interviewing you. I would start where you're planning on 

 
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in my opinion, i doubt you'd be able to get the type of HF role you're looking for after one year as an ER associate. i'm sure you're a very sharp individual and your two years of med school (and whatever undergrad) is what got your foot in the door to cover healthcare without a finance background. have seen this a few times, and there is a considerable amount of value that someone with a medical background can add to healthcare/biotech/pharma research teams (much harder to learn the science behind a company than their financials/revenue story). don't know the extent of said finance background for you, but if it's just the prep work you did to interview and land this offer out of med school, you'd probably want more than a year in a finance role (particularly research/market oriented ones) to be able to place well + succeed at a HF

and for what it's worth ER is part of IBD, it's just on the other side of the Chinese Wall. M&A, ECM/DCM, underwriting, industry groups, etc. on one side; ER, Sales & Trading, Asset Management, etc. on the other. My point is that you probably shouldn't have much trouble exiting to the M&A/underwriting type of roles (especially with healthcare teams) after getting some experience and building your finance skill set in your ER role. 

 

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