How to Choose Your Senior Analyst

This is probably the best, most thought-out question I've seen on the Equity Research topic.

You say your goal is to work under the analyst where you'll learn the most, especially on modeling, analysis, and pitching.

I got lucky and work under a top analyst in our sector, someone with a lot of experience in the industry, often quoted in the WSJ whenever our sector is brought up, and someone who has built a large client platform. However, he is not one who has "been in the weeds" on the modeling in a long time, leaving his juniors to be the ones creating and updating the models.

Either way, you will learn modeling partially on your own through trial-and-error, partially from the other juniors on your team, and partially from the high-level thoughts your senior has. Additionally, the level of modeling will change by sector. Some sectors don't require much in-depth or thought-provoking modeling, while others will use terms and modeling that are almost like a different language/world due to their uniqueness and structuring (i.e. oil and gas).

As someone getting into the game, I would want to work under a top analyst from a client perspective. Someone with experience in the business and a solid client platform will be able to teach you more than someone building their business in ER. Being able to listen into his phone calls with portfolio managers and hedge fund analysts will teach you more about this business than modeling minutia. It will teach you how to pitch an investment, how to answer tough questions from clients (AKA bullshit an answer), how to phrase questions to management to squeeze incremental information out of them, how to utilize the buy-side to get an understanding for market sentiment, how to think about all the factors driving your market, etc. Really valuable stuff.

Realistically, you should have a few honest conversations with the senior analysts you think you might want to work for. Get a serious understanding of how and what work is distributed throughout his team (are you going to be modeling or be a marketing book bitch?). Ask him how he spends his time during the week. Is your senior going to be running the modeling or will he be forming high-level theses on companies and your coverage list and talking to clients while you do ground-level work (modeling, starting notes) on your companies? Also I would take a look at his analyst/associate history and see if his team has developed a lot of successful analysts that have 1.) been promoted faster than other teams or 2.) switched companies and picked up their own coverage list after his fostering. Lastly, get a feel for whether or not you like their work style and personality. You will be spending 60+ hours a week with this person and you don't want to be stuck with a miserable, slave-driving prick.