I wanted to see if anyone had any input on this:
I'm interviewing soon for an ER position that is meant to cover European equities from London. I've heard that generally the ER people try to get in a bit before the markets open so as to brief the traders/sales people.
Taking into consideration the time difference with Europe (so 1-2h ahead depending on what country you're looking at) and assuming an 8AM opening bell for the markets, could I potentially be getting in at 5AM or so in the morning?
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Having spoken to a few people in Equity Research in preparation for my internship, 7-7 seem to be common hours even for junior people.
I am interning this summer as well in London ER. Were you guys able to figure out which shops place best in long/short HFs ? And the general trend in regards to exit opps respectively pay after 4-6 years working in ER ?
Cheers guys
Can't say that was one of the questions I asked my interviewers!
Which part of my questions ? And why would not you be able to answer general exit opps / salary ?
What I was saying was that, as someone who hasn't even begun their internship, my discussions so far have mainly been with interviewers where the topic of discussion was mostly what the job in equity research entailed as opposed to what the exit opps are, future salary, and common HF placings. All I gathered was that ER at a BB was not a bad place for start.
Ah sorry I misunderstood, makes sense what you said.
Time difference doesn't matter. Europe opens an hour later (local time), i.e. same as London. Stock exchange announcements come out at 7am, so most analysts I know get in between 6:30-7:00am. What time you leave depends on what sector you cover and what your team is like. At the junior level, before 7-8pm is good, but I know analysts who are regularly in until 10, 11pm. Either way, you can expect to be in till those hours during earnings, which is around 3 months a year. Europe ER hours are (very generally) a bit better than US, mainly because fewer European companies are in the habit of reporting earnings after the close.
Don't think there is any trend in terms of particular shops placing into HF. Almost every bank has various teams that are highly ranked. GS ER is awful though. BAML are fairly consistently highly ranked across the board and have been for a while. Sector makes a difference as well, tend to see more analysts in niche sectors cross over to buyside. Ultimately, top ER analysts are good at either corporate access / research / stock picking. If you are rubbish at stock picking, you probably won't make it very far in HF.
In terms of exit ops, IR is a huge one. Probably half of the IR people I have met are ex-sellside analysts. Otherwise AM / HF. Some go to spec sales which is a relatively chill job and can be quite fun.
Thanks for all the replies guys. After a quick Wiki search it seems that European markets generally start later than London anyway (local time) meaning that you won't actually need to get in earlier.
Getting in at 6.30-7.00 will be quite the lifestyle change as currently that's the time period when I'm just climbing out of bed and I'm still one of the first ones in the office.
Another question about working in ER: do you usually have Bloomberg or some other news channel constantly running in the background somewhere in the office?
Didn't you just move to Transaction services? Thought you would have stayed to get more experience before leaving?!
Moving very soon yes. This equity research thing kind of dropped into my lap (recruiter contacted me, sent my CV off and got me the interview) so I wasn't really expecting it. I thought I'd just go for it and whatever happens happens.
Man, in the office for 6.30 is rough.
Do you tend to get used to getting up at 5.30 every morning or is it always hell?
I imagine it would take it's toll after a while (especially as you don't finish til 7pm at best). Guy's who have to stay until 9 - 11pm sound like they have it worse than bankers!
How about weekends?
You get used to it quite quick. It's the occasional days when you have to sit in the office until 10 PM that kill you the next day.
A bit of an update:
So I recently had an interview for an entry level sell side equity research position, coming out of a Big Four audit/chartered accountancy background. I didn't get through to the second round (as I somewhat expected, I didn't go in hoping to nail it the very first time around with such a background) but did get some useful feedback:
The Bad: - I didn't seem to have (or be able to demonstrate) a high passion for the markets - They didn't think I really was able to say why I wanted to do this kind of job
The Good: - I seemed to be a good cultural fit for the team - I seemed competent/intelligent and possessing the necessary skills to do the job
Now frankly I think this feedback is not that bad in my opinion as I'd rather be that than an incompetent and impersonal financial markets fanboy. However the point remains that I was unable to demonstrate enough passion to progress to the second round and I wanted to understand what it is that I might have done poorly and what can I do to improve.
For the markets passion part, I was asked things like: - What is my view on the Greek crisis (which I think I gave a half decent answer to) - What do I read to keep on top of market/business news (a financial newspaper published where I live, plus a bit of Financial Times for top up) - My personal portfolio. Here I talked through what stocks I held (went through 4 companies) and why I had chosen them. I'm thinking here perhaps my failing was that I wasn't quite as detailed in my answers as I could have been (with answers focusing more on the companies strategic direction than too much on things like growth rates or valuation multiples). Also my portfolio is quite fresh as I started it just a few months ago vs my competition having had portfolios for years and hence having more to talk about (luckily by definition this should fix itself with time).
For the why I wanted to do the job part, I said that I like analytical work, pulling together numbers and then forming an opinion on then but I admit this was rather brief and I didn't expand to much on it.
Any thoughts on what I might have done wrong and what I can do to improve next time?
It's hard to get the passion aspect right. You can kind of fake it, but I think you can sense when someone is passionate. It's more gut feel than anything else. If anything, at least you have feedback so you can work on your answers.
Here's what I would have done if I were you: (1) Greek crisis is more topical in Europe so chances are that you're ahead of that, (2) newspapers are not enough - they're mainstream; consider finance-centric blogs, a mix of popular (for example, Zero Hedge) and obscure (take your pick), and (3) your portfolio is a tough one if it's barely started; laying out your theses is fine - they're basically elevator pitches - but it's also important to talk about big losers and what you've learned from those...it also shows (some) humility.
If you can fix your answers up, you're probably good to go.
Good luck!
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