Currently doing an internship in equity research. Before this, I did 6 months in compliance in an asset management firm. I graduate next year from university and I still don't know whether I want to join the buy side or the sell side. I like IB but I'm also very interested in investing. How should I go about making a decision?
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Doing compliance isn't buy side.
Go with compliance on the buy side. Firms are only going to get more and more compliant from here. Nothing but upside. P72 monitors calls and emails for non REG-FD stuff, and I'd imagine that this becomes more widespread. On the other hand, Asset managers are facing margin compression as passive becomes more popular due to active underperformance and sell side is facing margin compression from a mixture of buy side pressures, MIFID, and weak trading volumes. But.... you get a bit more pay, like 1 or 2 zeros. Honestly, it's a toss-up. The only way you can go wrong is if you are doing buyside/sellside work and hours for a compliance job's salary.
Buy side if actual buy side, not compliance. Otherwise get the best possible sell side role in order to jump to the buy side later. Curious though as to why exactly you said you like IB. Could you elaborate?
Yes, I know. I don't really want to do compliance again to be honest. From IB I like valuation models and analysing companies. And from AM I like the financial markets in general even though I was not exposed to them in my compliance job.
It sounds like you would probably prefer buy side in an overall sense, that is if you want skin in the game and are comfortable with risk. I saw IB as a common necessity to get there, but I lucked out and didn't have to take that route. At this stage your net should be super wide. What are your asset class preferences?
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