Equity Research

[GreenFrog]



Not much to add, good stuff being said. As far as corporate politics, IMO it really depends on the employer / boss and your colleagues. I work in a small 7 person firm and being an introvert myself, I can really careless about the gossiping, joking around that happens daily. It puts a bad mark on myself though as management thinks I am too quiet and they're always wondering what the hell am I thinking. I only communicate during projects, internal meetings and ask questions for clarification purposes. I am not a fan of divulging my personal life details and become a buddy buddies with my coworkers. It is like any relationships and I think sometimes there needs to be a line drawn.
In other words, I like to keep things professional at work whereas the atmosphere is more relaxed.
Can anyone confirm the CFA as mentioned earlier? Or can GreenFrog jump into PE, ER after consulting.

Yeah.. I hear you about keeping your professional life strictly separate from your personal life.. but the business world thrives on extroversion. You gotta at least act the part to get ahead.

I put on a face of being more outgoing with my colleagues than I truly am and it drains me so much.

The worst is my current project model where I'm at the client site in a cramped conference room with my manager, the VP, and EVP. I'm the ONLY junior guy and these guys are way older than me. I can't relate to **** in terms of what they talk about because of the vast generational difference. The toughest part, though, is being in the conference room with them all the time. I'm essentially 'on' all the time, as opposed to when I was still in Boston, working in a cube. I'd be able to surf the web sometimes or walk to other cubes and shoot the **** with other analysts. But here, I refrain from using my cell phone, I don't browse the web, etc. All for 'optics,' as my manager likes to call it. It's extremely stressful because you have to be wary of what's on your screen when your EVP walks into the conference room. Naturally, as the junior guy, I get the shittiest spot at the table where everyone can see what I'm doing. LOL.

But I still have a pretty good relationship with all of them. I'm a great listener and can ask intelligent questions to keep conversations going and that really helps them to trust me. My manager said I'm an extremely trustworthy person and that it's a valuable skill to have in the business world

He and I have a pretty good working relationship because we talk more than just business. I ask him about his wife, talk about politics, and yes, even religion. We debate and argue sometimes but in a friendly way. It's interesting because we're always on opposing spectrums so it's cool to hear his perspectives.

Blah blah blah, I digress.

Gettoasty, I guess what I'm trying to say is that you should try harder to relate to your colleagues. I find it extremely ironic that I, of all people, am telling you this, because it's something I struggle with as well, but I'm getting better.

 

[gettoasty]

I understand what you're saying and I do at the same level as you in building the relationship with all my colleagues. As you said though it can be draining on oneself, and my personal belief is I rather be totally straight forward and blunt, than put on a good face for you. This is something my coworkers know very well it seems as they know I do no bullshit.

Call it personal belief or personal values and virtues, but I hate being "fake"
I already know and have been told already by colleagues, friends and family that it maybe my biggest obstacle when in the business world for me. Essentially just speak up more, not even about business related things but be more extrovert

I just want to do what makes me happy in the end, and hopefully others can see the value in that as it will definitely put me in a better position mentally. I don't want to be disgruntled down the line in my positions at work.

And yeah, so CFA is definitely something you will need. Why GMAT? Considering MBA in conjunction with a CFA? I hear that maybe redundant.

 

[GreenFrog]

Yeah, I hear you. I respect that. I guess it is being fake, but in my mind.. it's just something you gotta do to succeed. In the end, I know the corporate world is not for me, unless I undergo some fundamental personality changes lol. It's mentally taxing and doesn't necessarily lead to happiness.

For me, it's just a means to an end. I'm not sure what that end is quite yet, but it's a start. I definitely want to own some income generating properties, whatever those may be.

I'm definitely going to get an MBA in about 3-4 years. It's definitely one of those things where I can easily see it being a huge disadvantage in the future by not having one. I have one older colleague at my firm who won't get promoted past VP because he never got his MBA. Granted, he's like 55, but still. He's been stuck in a VP position for YEARS. It's a good spot, but that's about as high as it gets for him.

 

[RashidD]

Good to hear.
Consulting is a tough gig with the travel. I don't know how old you are or if you're married, but if you really want to do consulting, I suggest you do it sooner than later when you're younger and can take a 'hit' to your social life.
For your models, do you guys use templates? What kind of models do you use? DCF?
Frankly, I suck ass at excel and I need to learn modeling skills. Sadly, we don't model much at all and my current project requires zero modeling work. I might have to take some wall street prep classes or something.
Also not looking forward to having to take the CFA.. that in conjunction with the [new] GMAT..:shudders:

We use some standardised in-house templates as well as templates which are made by clients. Many of them do have DCF and Peer Comps tables. I've never done scatter charts and any form of technical analysis looking at price fluctuations though.

I can tell you life as an outsourced analyst is not great either, but I guess it depends on the clients you get. I've worked a three month project which was for one of the largest data providers who was serving an investment bank shifting to their platform. Basically we did the model conversions for them... It was hell. Some days 18 hours, with 15-16 hours being average. Start around 9 and end around 11/ midnight. Everyday almost... Lol, not my idea of a good life.

For excel, it's basically practice... Have a look at some functions like IF, IF(ISERROR, Nested IFs (So like an IF function inside an IF function), ISBLANK and AND functions are useful and can be used inside IF functions too. Also ROUND, VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP.
The stuff isn't hard and there are some youtube videos which you can watch to help you learn. Feel free to PM if you need any help. I'm no expert, but I can try to help

CFA is tough, especially with a tough day job I'm trying to sit Level I in December hopefully.

 

[otc]

CFA's a *****. My friend is taking level 2 next week and has been studying his ass off for a LONG time.

MBAs are certainly easier, although there is a huge opportunity (and pure cash) cost.

Although usually when I read analyst reports, the more senior people all have CFA after their name.

 

[gettoasty]

It seemed very easy for some reason to pass the CFA according to my coworker

She took it concurrently while finishing her masters program. She said there are those shorthand notes to read instead of the entirety of the books they give you. Essentially her point was it is easier if you take it during or immediately after school. This being that everything you learned is still fresh in your head.

She passed everything in one go. TBH it seems the CFA is not that great of a designation until you rack up the mandatory 4 extra years after passing exams. I am speaking in terms of value one can gain from it. Perhaps you can move up quicker with an MBA

 

[Nereis]

To be honest, if you have enough knowledge to be doing equity research you could probably write a proper academic paper. In that case, the CFA would be a cakewalk compared to the level of math you need to have to write about financial derivatives.

 

[Beckwith]

You better sharpen you execel skills or they wouldn't even consider you. Buy side you are tweaking the sell side models to use to your advantage. The models are pretty standard and most come off a template, we built and maintained our own. Like any other job it is a grind. The quarters come and the routine is the same and as a junior you are doing the grunt work. If you are looking for an MBA in 3-4 years I might just stick out the consulting gig. Buy side hours are less then sell side but you should be expected to work more than 60+. If this is something you want, then start persuing it now, it will be a long lead time for a job, plenty of talent out there and you need to differentiate yourself somehow.