A brief background about myself- I am currently temping in a back office(fund accountant) role in a bank. I have been temping there for 7months now and has been doing mind numbing work. Its to the point where I’m repeating the same function all day, everyday.
My long term goal is to get into Equity Research. I been interning remotely(unpaid) at a small sell-side research firm writting brief stock reports. I also recently picked up Wall street prep to try improving my financial modeling skills.
Lately(past 2.5 months) I been agressively networking and job hunting because I feel I’m beeing trapped into this back office role and feel that if I stay there any more longer I’ll be categorized as a “back office person”. My previous gig was another temp back office role(5 months). So yeah…it been 1 year already.
What advice can you guys suggest? I am not planning to take the cfa level 3 exam because I want to spend more time networking and job hunting. Any advice would be helpful!
I graduated in 2011. Beyond the the temp back office work, I only have the intern work, which I’m still doing on the side. What kinds of skills can I add to myself to make the transition easier? Do I aim for a middle office role or should I aim directly at trying to break in ER which I think would need 99% luck.
What has the outcome of your networking efforts been so far? Have you outrightly asked anyone in the ER department to review your CV? Are you getting positive vibes from the peeps your networking with?
Surely your “interning” gig would help? Is anyone giving you feedback on your reports?
THe info you’ve provided seems a bit wishy washy… you need to give more concrete details to in order to expect concrete advice…
I work in a satelite office in which there are only fund accountants. Therefore exposure to analyst is none. I’ve been networking through alumni events(waste of time). So far it hasnt been good. One of the factor is that I come from a state school and in all honesty, I just dont think there are much Analyst out there that come from state schools. The worst part is that for some reason, my local cfa society wont let me join as an affiliate memeber because I do not have 1 year of related experience ,which I think is total bs. I have plea and begged but they won’t let me even though the CFA program has been such a huge part of my life.
As for my internship, it has been good and I have gotten good feedbacks. It has been a boost to my resume as well as landing some interviews.
Lately I have been sending some cold inmails through Linkedin but with no success. Can anyone give me some suggestions on how they broke into equity research with an back office background?
Take CFA L3 and continue to network, no reason you cannot do both and CFA L3 will help you. Also, improve your english, bad grammar when speaking and writing will hurt you during the networking process.
It’s great that you are a recent grad – 2 years of operations experience won’t pigeon hole you. And you already have Level 2 in the bag, which is ahead of schedule even compared to people working on the buyside for 2 years. Level 3 is not the main focus here to break into buyside, prioritize networking over studying. Going to a state school has its benefits. You have access to a huge alum network, and there are definitely alums working in investment management today. Have email templates ready to send out emails to alums in the industry, ask for advice over the phone and attach your resume. Sooner or later you’ll get leads to job opportunities.
-Wall Street Prep & the sell-side work - good job - get your modeling skills up.
-Take CFA Level III. It is easier than Level II. You can nail it. That will be big on your resume.
-Don’t just look for ER roles. Look for wealth management/family office/other analyst roles that deal with investment research - maybe not security analysis but manager/macro research. May not be ideal but it gets you out of the back office crap and will get you CFA work experience for sure. Then just keep your eyes peeled for ER postiions. In this case if nothing opens up at least you can put CFA by your name in a couple years. That will help.
Two years ago, I did a two-part interview series on how to break into equity research with MergersAndInquisitions.com. You should take a look at these articles if you haven’t already - they provide a good starting point for breaking into the business. I have helped close to 100 people get into investment banking, equity research, asset management, or hedge funds (and it’s helped because I have worked in ALL of these areas myself). You can send me a private message with any questions.
Thanks for all these great advices and motivational support. You guys are the light at the end of my tunnel. I will continue to work hard and plow forward. Analyst forum is awesome becase of helpful people like you!
Where I work there is one trader who made it from Back Office to a trading position. It will not be easy, you will need to work harder to show all the time that you have a huge ambition and be very likeable. Unfortunately for you, times are harder nowadays so it will probably harder for you. Maybe what you can do is move to middle office and then to trading in addition to trying to move to trading ?