The end goal was clear. Become an ER analyst after getting through CFA and life will be good. Apparently, I had not done my research on this position. I’m a hard worker, but I’m married and want a family life too. All I hear is how you work insane hours as a research analyst. Is it true for every firm? I don’t mind putting in 50-60 hours a week on occasion, but if that’s the normal all the time, tell me to look somewhere else. Anyone have a good work/life balance in this position? I just have a few more hoops to go through before getting one of these gigs and want to know if I’m wasting my time. Sucks to realize this after all the hard work I’ve put in to pass these f’in exams.
Tough to be a family man in fundamental ER because you’ll be on the road approximately 40-50% of the time for intelligence gathering.
Check out this article:
http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/equity-research-on-the-job/
Also, I think it varies from firm to firm. I know a guy at Stifel who is an ER Analyst and he has a wife and 3 kids. However, the guy is a senior analyst and I think the associate analysts do more of the heavy lifting. He was leaving on Fridays at like 4pm, but there were weeks when he would work the typical 60 or so during earnings period. I definitely think it’s manageable. I have a few other friends at ER firms and they’ve shared similar sentiments. One of my friends works for a buy side firm in NYC and he was able to get through all three CFA exams while working at the firm. I think the hours are a lot more manageable than IB. From my understanding, the hours are better at boutique, small niche firms as opposed to the top dogs of the world like GS, JP, MS, UBS, etc.
depends. associates don’t travel like that