Moody's exploding offer over ER??

Hi everyone,

I'm a non-target that graduated earlier today and I just got an offer from Moody's for an associate analyst role - basically supporting the analysts doing credit ratings. This is my first FT offer and the timing was uncanny since I got the call while sitting in the middle of graduation. I'm overjoyed to finally get an offer, but I've been trying to break into ER for the past year, networking like crazy, interviewing, and I'm currently in the early/middle rounds for a few ER positions at MMs and in touch with a few BBs. I'm passionate about analyzing companies and investing, and I always wanted to work in ER and become an expert in a sector. However, since I haven't broken in by now I'm feeling like I should just take this offer.

Their offer is immediate start and HR said they need to know back by Wednesday. This kind of messes me over me with ER recruiting since most of the processes are still in the early/mid stages, so trying to figure out how well regarded the Moody's position is and how it could position me in the future.

Just curious what people's thoughts are on Moody's? After the phone interviews, I only came in once to meet two people on the team for half an hour each, so their commitment to junior members of the team doesn't impress me too much and frankly, gets me a little worried.

On the other hand, I'm not in a position to be picky and if the position has good exit opps or could lead to a top b-school, I don't care how they view me, especially since the work weeks are ~45 hrs long.

Any advice is much appreciated!

tl;dr How well regarded is Moody's?

 
Best Response

I'm not too sure about its market value for ER, but I work in credit risk at a BB and some ex-Big 3 people joined here with ~3-5 years of experience each. It seems that they have solid industry knowledge and technical skills, so I think that you definitely do get some training and development there.

Also, the work involved in credit analysis is largely similar to ER in terms of researching companies, analyzing the information, writing reports, etc. The main difference is the perspective that you approach these tasks with (you will look at different metrics and things such as shareholder distributions will obviously have different effects on your opinion), and ER gets face-time (or phone-time) with management of a company, whereas in credit this is reserved for the occasional due diligence, and I think this applies to the agencies as well.

Admittedly there is also less modelling than what you would find in ER, and probably the biggest downer in regards to the rating agencies is their focus on standardized methodologies. I would imagine that this puts a cap on your ability to be creative on the job. However, people here often lateral into ER from credit, so if the rating agency is enough to get you here, then I would assume that with a little luck and plenty of networking, you could swing an ER gig coming from Moody's or at least get into a good MBA and make the switch afterwards.

 

I've been researching a lot of MBA stuff recently and a theme that adcoms seem to like (understandably) is career progression - not sure how they weigh ratings vs. ER, but given above comments it's clear it's probably not too difficult to move from Moody's to ER/CR etc after a couple of years, so a possible safe and very beneficial bet would be to take Moody's and aim to move to research in a year or two - getting you where you want to go, showing adcoms career progression and guaranteeing you a job at the same time.

 

I work in ER, not BB.

I think at the moment, you just need some experience. Credit analysis is a pretty good skill to have. Knowing your way around a financial statements,importantly about debt and off-balance sheet issues, is a very underrated skill. Try study CFA at the same time (if you want, no rush though) and also keep up your investing if your allowed to.

I honestly believe there is no conventional way to make it in this world. If you can show people that your smart and motivated with some good solid experience, i reckon most people would give you a shot.

Plus, you may actually enjoy your work. And after 5 years, you will have a pretty good name on your CV to go into an MBA program.

I think its a good opportunity.

 

I am definitely more interested in equities and value investing, but I haven't had much/any exposure to the credit side. I had equity research internships on the buy-side and the sell-side for the past two summers, but both were with groups that were very small and don't hire from undergrad. I don't have many options coming from a non-target with no OCR, so considering taking this offer even though very interested in eventually going into value investing or working on the company's side of the table.

Also, Moody's pays $15k a year for courses/textbooks so I plan on getting the CFA as soon as I can and eventually going to a top business school. What do you think @"thebrofessor"?

 

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