What’s the most exciting industry to cover as a sell side equity research associate? The best exit opportunities as well.
The one you have an interest in.
disagree. There are certain industries that have better exit ops and are naturally more exciting to research.
Aerospace & Defense
What is exciting to research is what you’re interested in. Your logic does not make sense. I like Oil & Gas, I’m excited when I research it. Someone might like planes and defense, I couldn’t care less about it and thus it’s not exciting. Someone might like finance, they’ll be excited to research that. Someone might like technology, they’ll be excited to research that. Do you see where this is going? SS ER exit opps depend on what you want to go into afterwards. If a fund focuses on Defense, and you did Insurance, then they probably won’t be interested in you. If a fund wants someone who is good at excel and can model different things, then your industry focus doesn’t really matter. Regardless, most finance firms don’t really care what your industry focus is as an associate. Your industry focus will matter if you want to go into the actual industry, then your industry choice will obviously be important, e.g., Lockheed won’t hire you because you covered Technology firms. Better exit opps =/= more exciting to research. Therefore, the one you are interested in is the one that is most exciting and will lead to the best exit opportunities because you’ll like what you’re doing and be better at it.
I realize pawn asked what was the most exciting, and I don’t know if we’re going to get any better answers to that question specifically. However, I was wondering if some SS guys wouldn’t mind posting some general pros/cons of the industries they covered: travel, people they get to talk to, new products they get to see in development, etc. I realize some of the answers are subjective, but I think a lot of us would enjoy hearing some more info on the best and worst stories people have out there.
I saw an analyst that covers companies that makes paper. I can imagine that is a sad life…
99 cannon sloop Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I saw an analyst that covers companies that makes > paper. > > I can imagine that is a sad life… It’s actually fairly volatile and there’s been some M&A activity recently. Also, the industrial sector tends to be a good read on broader economic strength, so you get a lot of attention with sector calls as it often signals business spending.
I know a guy who was buyside at fidelity and was in charge of Playboy. Duh Winning!