What should this job pay? What are your thoughts? I was just contacted. ----------------- Research Associate Full-Time Job Firm, publishes independent investment research. Position Detail: * Do you have a MBA with a focus in accounting, finance or economics with a strong interest in investing? * Are you looking for an entry point to an analytical career in the securities industry? * Can you thrive in a truly collaborative environment where blue jeans are the norm and success is measured on quality and output If you answered “yes” to these questions, then we have one more question for you. * How would you like to join a growing company where intellectual honesty, analytical rigor, and personal accountability matter; and where your hard work makes a difference? If so, then Firm wants to hear from you. Firm, publishes independent investment research. Our strategic plan calls for us to have a sizable database of reports available to the marketplace over the next year. To meet this growth plan, we have openings for 6 Research Associates, a Senior Analyst, and a Financial Editor. Reporting directly to a seasoned and experienced analyst, the overall metric of your early success in the role of Research Associate will center on the speed with which you become a fully contributing member of our analytical team. In the first 6 months, your performance will be measured in the following areas: * Learning our unique approach to analysis. * The quality and volume of completed ® reports produced. * Your capacity to thrive within and contribute to our collaborative analytical environment. You can review a sample report at site. If you think you have what it takes to contribute to our team, send your materials, including salary requirements, to. Applications without salary requirements will not be considered. We look forward to learning more about you.
Probably low since it makes a fuss about salary requirements and it basically is just saying you need to pump out as many reports as possible. I’d say 60-70k with <10k bonus
I looked at a research report sample for these guys and the research looked pretty quantitative. Spent a lot of time reviewing stuff in SEC filings and other financial disclosures, but didn’t reference any discussions with management, valuation work, etc. I’ve never heard of the company whose job listing you posted before, and thought that the research report didn’t do a good job separating the wheat from the chaff or at the very minimum providing an actionable investment idea. Moreover, I understand that the goal of the firm is to compress several years of due diligence/company history into a two-page summary, but nobody really cares about that – investors are really more interested in what’s going on now, and what’s going to happen in the foreseeable future. I am skeptical that these guys really understand equity investing. From the one sample report I read, I was not impressed at all and would probably think that any prospective buy-side client would not value the research either. Plus, I’m always suspect of firms that use “quantity of reports completed” as a performance metric (as opposed to quality). Thus, I suspect the compensation must be very low for an MBA role – maybe $50-60K. This firm definitely isn’t what I had in mind when I saw the “research associate” title of your thread, and apparently the job itself, at least what I gleaned from the sample report, doesn’t have much in common with the own experience I had working in equity research. I’d consider posting a sample of the research report so others can provide their opinion on it, but will leave that to your discretion. Anyway, sorry if my assessment is a bit sobering and harsh, but I honestly don’t understand how firms like this stay in business and even manage to attract talent. Either the economy must be really rough, or most people out there just don’t know how to tell a good research/money management firm from a not-so-good one.
Thanks Numi, I’m on the fence if the job is even for me. It was posted on my schools website and I was contacted. The director has the CFA Charter which may have prompted the call. I need to provide a writing sample by next week. I’ll let you know what happens afterwords.
If anyone is interested in helping me out, I could send you a copy of a research report they have on their site. Numi, how did you find out which firm this was?
It’s better to have an internship and be employed than not, but it’s also important to note that this isn’t your traditional equity research associate role as I don’t think you will get that much exposure to the quantitative aspects of the associate job, unless you specifically ask for them. If you’re eventually looking for a full-time equity research associate opportunity like the ones they have at big banks, you’re going to want to make sure you get your feet wet with modeling, valuation, and really understanding what it’s like to develop an actionable investment idea. As I mentioned earlier, I wasn’t impressed by the sample report I read, but having a summer job is probably better than not having one at all.
QuantJock_MBA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > If anyone is interested in helping me out, I could > send you a copy of a research report they have on > their site. > > Numi, how did you find out which firm this was? I used to work in equity research, so maybe I’m just accustomed to discovering useful information about stuff that might ordinarily be hard to find…
Numi, I understand why investment ideas should be actionable, but what are the key criteria you use to determine actionability or not?
if in nyc, equity research jobs are currently around 100k (with bonus) for 1st years…
I looked at their page. It looks like someone took Frontpage and just decided to throw something together in 5 minutes. Also, their research reports… I dont even think I would call them that. Still, lootz is lootz and if theres nothing else, I say go for it.
Also, I think by ‘accustomed to discovering useful information’, numi means he’s not allergic to google. 
I like your title.
I don’t understand, disclosure insight is independent, but they are associated with a brokerage? What do you guys think of independent research boutiques? the pay is obviously less as they are not pushing the ibanking arm.
numi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > QuantJock_MBA Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > If anyone is interested in helping me out, I > could > > send you a copy of a research report they have > on > > their site. > > > > Numi, how did you find out which firm this was? > > > I used to work in equity research, so maybe I’m > just accustomed to discovering useful information > about stuff that might ordinarily be hard to > find… I know this firm and have seen their reports as well, and concur with numi’s assessment
ASSet_MANagement Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I like your title. In honor of your return, I had to.
You have to assess the risk to achieve the return… Thoughts - Negatives: what numi said & pay probably lower than a traditional bank Positives: they give you money & experience: looking at their report you will gain a decent insight into understanding equity risk factors, how they rank and how they differ for different types of organisations and sectors - someone is likely to want to pay you more for that knowledge down the line I personally thought the report was fine for overall analysis (i.e. shortcut for an investor to make a decision such as negative clearance). I suppose it depends on the audience, but will defer to those better placed (e.g. numi et al)
Im surprised no one has asked how they make money? I worked for a start up firm for a year, and this sounds like a start up. When the say accountability and quantity, that is code speak for slave driving. I mean seriously degrading you publicly for thinking you can leave the office before 9pm and have weekends off. I would find out how they make money, interiew them, and see if the model makes sense. And I would never work at a start up without solid options or bonus related directly to the company performance because your activities may end up becoming best practices.
BizBanker – see in my post above: "Anyway, sorry if my assessment is a bit sobering and harsh, but I honestly don’t understand how firms like this stay in business and even manage to attract talent. " With that said, I definitely agree that this business model is suspect and an employee’s output-to-reward ratio might not be very favorable for the employee. bchadwick – when I say “actionable investment idea,” I want to get a sense as to whether I should buy/sell/hold, what my risk/reward trade-off should be, and what my time horizon should be. It’s pretty straightforward and if a piece of research can’t help me understand the answer to such key fundamental questions, it’s just not very useful research. QuantJock_MBA – I’m not sure how you feel about sharing a sample report but it might be informative to others here so they can look at the report, and understand what people on this forum are talking about when they’re discussing the pro’s and con’s of that report. I’ll leave that up to you.
BizBanker – see in my post above: "Anyway, sorry if my assessment is a bit sobering and harsh, but I honestly don’t understand how firms like this stay in business and even manage to attract talent. " With that said, I definitely agree that this business model is suspect and an employee’s output-to-reward ratio might not be very favorable for the employee. bchadwick – when I say “actionable investment idea,” I want to get a sense as to whether I should buy/sell/hold, what my risk/reward trade-off should be, and what my time horizon should be. It’s pretty straightforward and if a piece of research can’t help me understand the answer to such key fundamental questions, it’s just not very useful research. QuantJock_MBA – I’m not sure how you feel about sharing a sample report but it might be informative to others here so they can look at the report, and understand what people on this forum are talking about when they’re discussing the pro’s and con’s of that report. I’ll leave that up to you.
BizBanker – see in my post above: "Anyway, sorry if my assessment is a bit sobering and harsh, but I honestly don’t understand how firms like this stay in business and even manage to attract talent. " With that said, I definitely agree that this business model is suspect and an employee’s output-to-reward ratio might not be very favorable for the employee. bchadwick – when I say “actionable investment idea,” I want to get a sense as to whether I should buy/sell/hold, what my risk/reward trade-off should be, and what my time horizon should be. It’s pretty straightforward and if a piece of research can’t help me understand the answer to such key fundamental questions, it’s just not very useful research. QuantJock_MBA – I’m not sure how you feel about sharing a sample report but it might be informative to others here so they can look at the report, and understand what people on this forum are talking about when they’re discussing the pro’s and con’s of that report. I’ll leave that up to you.