First time posting here - many of the related threads to this have been very helpful. Ready to finally (start) making the jump myself, and am looking for some advice. Much of this is in similar threads on WSO, but hasn’t gotten much traction, so trying to throw the net a bit wider.
I’ll try to keep this short - experienced audit associate (big4) wanting to make jump to ER. Work in large east coast city, went to large midwest state school, but alumni base is small here for this industry, so far from the midwest… I know I’ve got an uphill battle, but determined to do what I can to get in. Taking CFA L1 in Dec., licensed CPA.
Question 1 - This is a revised resume, but still looking for advice. Currently have “relevant” experience higher, but I’m used to chronological, so any layout/wording/experience suggestions is much appreciated:
Question 2 - There’s basically a dream opening (no experience required) in my city at a well respected investment management firm. Part of the application is a research report. My experience writing on Seeking Alpha for the past couple years is almost exclusively biotech, and I could comfortably write and talk about at least 2 companies. These are very early stage companies though, and the paper would be quite focused on science/research vs. any significant amount of modeling (risk based NPV w/ DCF at the most). Would this be too obscure? Should I focus on diving into another industry that is more easily understood by more folks? I have a month to write this report (<5 pages) so doing so wouldn’t be a problem.
Question 3 - If anyone would be willing to speak/email for the next couple weeks, particulalry w/ feedback on whatever I do write about, if you PM me and we are in the same city or you would be visiting any time, dinner/drinks would be on me (or any other reciprocal help I could provide).
Put a web address for your work on seeking alpha that you mentioned (i’m not saying to do that here for everyone to see, but I mean when you actually send in your CV).
If your work on SA is any good (and the majority of stuff on SA is crap - not saying yours is though), then it’s a good way to help yourself stand out.
And yes - you need to be able to cover multiple industries in the majority of investment management firms (it’s unlikley you’ll spend your whole career specialising in one sector if you work on the buyside), so if that’s what you’re looking to apply to then I would say get up to scratch on a couple of stocks in another industry.
Regarding the modeling of DCF, public comps etc. - some firms are more model intensive than others, but it’s always really good to know this stuff anyway to help you stand out and show you know your stuff.
Thanks capaldij. I’ll link my SA profile, I have a couple Pro articles and a couple editor’s picks, and I’ve generally gotten good feedback and really do appreciate criticism, so I don’t have a problem putting that on there.
As for industries, I’ll start looking into others. For the purposes of getting into this first round, should I stick with what I know best and write about biotech? And then just be prepared to talk another industry/company if I get that interview? Or since I’m linking to my Seeking Alpha assume they’ll see that writing and then submit another company to show the diversity?
Your resume looks good but do you think Seeking Alpha qualifies as work & leadership experience? I’d rather see that towards the bottom but that’s just me. Good luck my friend.
Well, in my normal style (chronological), the b4 experience I have would be first, with SA second, but it was suggested at WSO that I put the more relevant experience first - aka not the audit experience. I’ve never done it this way so hopefully don’t get dinged for it (looks odd to me to go from present, to 2012, to present).
Unfortunately as most folks have made crystal clear here and WSO, audit <> ER experience (although I see more overlap than many), which is why it’s kept lower. The articles I’ve written are generally pretty lengthy/meaty, not necessarily just a couple paragraphs of rehashing old info, so I’m hoping they take the time to at least look at my profile. As this and my class are the only real “research” experience I have, I feel the need to attempt to focus on the two.
Maybe I should just change the section title to “Experience” or “Work Experience”?
I’m thinking of emailing Numi based on the reviews, but going to hold off just a bit more. Appreciate the responses re:resume. Networked my way to meet with an associate partner at this firm, so hopefully that proves fruitful in some way.
Impressive. Why don’t you host a blog or a simple website with all your articles, write-ups and researches (being careful about the copyrights) and put a single link of the blog/ website for anyone interested to see them. Not much labor is needd to do it. You have worthwhile creative contribution to show, show it. Also, interact with Numi to get a better perspective and advice (as said above he is the right person for you on AF!)
haha. your resume format was the last and final format I used too. i copied it off a bsd when i was in undergrad. btw, the things you did in big 4 is good enough to be at the top and the student run fund should prolly be higher than seeking alpha. I’ve read articles from fundfire recently that ppl who participate in student run funds are huge plusses for investment managers. passing L1 in my opinion would be a huge plus though given you are in a different industry.
@mygos - I have a website and it looks pretty good, however I don’t have content as I can’t post the articles I write for Seeking Alpha due to their licensing, etc. Would it be a better idea to just publish on my own website from here on out and link to that instead?
@nery Thanks. I feel like I have to have some semblance of order though. Ex - in my case you can think of the resume as chronological by type of experience -> first two are research related, in chronological, then accounting, and then consulting.
I talked with a research analyst today outside of my city and he had a good point re:my question 2. Seeing as though biotech has had the run that it has, and is quite dependent on binary events vs. any meaningful cash flows/modeling (talking early/mid stage biotechs, not the GILDs of the world), it would probably be a better idea to go into different industry/sector for my pitch. Just thought I’d share for anyone equally interested in the question as I am.
In that case you can always have a section on "My other Works"or something like that. Then you can provide a sum-up in 5-10 sentences what is the focus or theme of any of your creative work copyrighted by others or not and the say for more go to …(give the link) and if you are not allowed to even give the link for some proprietory reasons can just list your work client-wise saying what was the work for/on. The subject /topic should reflect the depth of your work to those interested to know about you. The link to your website should be a prominent part of your cv, as well as vc.
In case it is going to be more of an asset for career growth, and you can afford it, then you must, of course, publish it on your website. It is all a question of better return, you have to decide on each. Anythng which can be useful for career seeking /growth and is your own creation (article / paper or even some projections/ research in investment or finance) pays more if you can retain the right of authorship unless the payments are good enough (in that case you should be able to give as reference at least). There are at least two cases I know who expanded such initial effort on their website to full fledged activity and go commercial leaving lucrative jobs in reputed companies and both of them are well established in their financial consultancy and research field.
Good advice from mygos. Ultimately, if you are trying to get into an equity research job (especially the buy-side), developing some type of track record is of utmost importance. It is the best proxy for someone who can perform a critical task: picking winning stocks.
The one thing to keep in mind is that it will take a while for your site to develop meaningful readership. Obviously this all depends on your output, how creatively you can move your site to the top of the search queries, and so forth, but it will take a while. In the meantime keep also posting on SeekingAlpha and use that to link to your site.
More importantly what you need to be doing is diversifying your scope outside of niche biotechs. Understanding how to analyze biotechs is valuable as the sector has outperformed most others in the last year and a half, and there have been tremendous pockets of value due to M&A, tax inverssions, clinical trial milestones and other things seemingly more than ever in recent memory. The problem is that biotechs, especially small caps, are so specialized that they just don’t have a place in most funds (people don’t buy them because they’re perceived as too speculative, and rightly so) and liquidity is often too thin. You’re better off putting together some pieces on companies with real business models if you want to diversify your appeal to potential employers.