I will be graduating from college in May 2014 and have begun my job hunt. I will graduate with a major in Business Adminstrations with a double concentration in Finance and Economics. I was also part of my school’s student run Investment Fund, helping manage $1,000,000 of our endowment through security analysis and portfolio management courses.
I am very interested in getting a job in equity research, but realize it is incredibly hard to get into right away. I was looking for some insight in other possible jobs that will help me get into equity research maybe a year or two down the road as I study for my CFA. I am looking to stay close to home when I graduate to help pay off student loans and am not in an area rich with equity research or high finance postions. However, if you had any insight on possible jobs that will provide valuables experience or skills that would be desirable for equity research that would be great.
Have you read my two articles from Mergers & Inquisitions a few years back? This would be a most excellent starting point for you to learn about how to get into this industry.
Yes I actually have read those articles. They are very helpful. However, I realize I may not be able to get into equity research right away. I was looking more for possible jobs that are able to transiton into equity research or investments without gettin your trapped in a different finance field. I’m not sure if that makes sense.
This is going to be problem #1. You get an opportunity, you have to move to it. Don’t worry about the money, you likely won’t have a life to spend disposable income on anyway so you can funnel more money toward student loans.
I did a similar student portfolio management thing where we had $2M of the endowment. Didn’t really matter in the job hunt, got a lot of “that’s cool” but that’s it, granted this was back in 2009/2010 so maybe its more meaningful in a less chaotic stock market.