Best Desks for SA

What desks/strategies are the best to learn at places like Citadel, DE Shaw, and others? They all seem to offer placements like equities (in various sectors), macro, energy, but which are the best to start off on learning for something with no previous finance background? I've heard different things from different people (macro is less profitable, equities is dying off, energy isn't where the money's at, etc.) and was wondering what differentiates these desks.

Clearly, someone in equities isn't going to be blind to macro factors, and it wouldn't make sense to have them trade pure stocks all day long. What's the difference in thinking, and what's a good place to start learning?

Within a specific group like Equities, what's a good sector to be on? How does one decide these things?

7 Comments
 

I've heard this a lot, but I'm not too sure how to figure out if a PM is good or not beforehand, and I'm not too sure how much interaction I'd have with a PM during a summer stint. That's why I was asking about ideal desks to learn on (I assume something broader like equities would be better than a more specific desk like renewables).

 

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