I dreamed to be a financial writer so I really want to get industry experience for a few years in the securities industry, especially as a research analyst. But I’m just a college graduate with no research experience. I have internships in finance but they are not exactly research, and have taught myself Wall Street Training courses as well as VBA programming. I know that it takes a lot more to break into security research, and I’m trying to reach out to small research companies or brokerage houses to propose a “trial internship” and offer free help on their projects. What do you think I should teach myself in order to have a great pitch? If I know basic financial modeling (from Wall Street Training course) is that enough to ask for an intern position? How should I teach myself ‘quantitative skills’? And I also need the H1B after a year if that makes any difference when approaching small companies for internship. I think a lot of us fresh graduates have the will to study at home and do unpaid work. Please share your thoughts as I bet many other college grads might be wondering the same question! Thanks!
If you doing a “trial internship” for free, your visa probably doesn’t make a difference. small companies may go for this. VBA doesn’t do that much for you in research. modeling is important. writing skills is important.
Write a real simulated initiation as your “pitch”. grab a hold of an initiation from a big shop (jp morgan) and copy the format of that, section by section, pick a lesser known company. a large company with 30 analysts makes it very hard to be differentiated.
I did an interview series with Mergers and Inquisition a couple months ago and all the advice here that applies to stock pitching in hedge funds also applies to sell side research preparation. I suggest you have a look. http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/hedge-fund-case-studies-part-2-research-structure-stock-pitch/
Thanks! The interview is so helpful.
My pleasure