Breaking into public equity from MM IB

Hi All,

I graduated from a non-target school on the west coast but I networked my ass off and was able to get an offer from MM IB in NYC (I would say mid-tier, well known bank). I'm in a P&U coverage group and I really enjoy the sector (reading about it, learning about the industry drivers etc). The deals that we do are extremely asset heavy and very repetitive (in the end it's just about generating power and basically revenue and expense lines are always the same). Due to the repetitive nature of the deals I know that at some point the work will become boring even if I switch to the buy side because the process will be similar.

That's why I would like to get into public equity, which I think is far more interesting than private equity, especially in asset heavy sectors.

What would be the best way to break into buy-side public equity with my back ground (asset heavy IB + non-target school + IB is my 2nd gig out of college)? I should also highlight that I am the most interested in P&U/energy, metals and mining, and real estate.

Would hedge funds even look at my resume? What about public equity position at AM or MF?

Any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

Coming from an MM bank will probably make it harder than if you were at a BB, by does not by any means put you out of the running. I wouldn't worry too much about your second concern--we don't expect people out of college/banking to have a working knowledge of investing so it doesn't really matter what industry you covered. Also the industry you worked on in banking will probably not be the industry you cover in public markets anyways.

 
Most Helpful

I don't think it would be a red flag. RE sector coverage: the way it usually works is there is an analyst covering a specific sector/subsector. So fund X might have an analyst that covers large cap tech, one that covers SMID industrials, etc. At entry level (e.g. associate), you will usually get assigned to whatever analyst happens to want an associate for that year. Let's just assume the large cap tech analyst was the one that raised his/her hand. That means the associate opening will be for large cap tech associate, regardless of your background. At the entry level (coming out of undergrad, banking, non buy side experience MBA), you are treated as more or less a blank slate so there isn't too much thought put into what you did before. So if I were the tech analyst looking for an associate, I wouldn't care that you worked in a different sector.

At more senior levels (i.e. analyst), the hiring is very specific. So if a large cap tech analyst seat opens up, the fund will be looking for someone with a proven track record investing in large cap tech stocks. Hope that helps.

 

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