Equity Research ER

Equity research is a coverage job. A senior analyst covers a list of public companies in one sector, often 15 to 25, and you are the associate who keeps that coverage running. A normal week is model updates, a note or two, calls with the salesforce and clients, and reading everything the companies and their competitors put out.

Earnings season changes the rhythm. Every covered company reports within a few weeks, so you update a model the night before, listen to the call in the morning, and publish a note within hours. Between seasons you work on deeper pieces: an initiation of coverage on a new company, an industry report, or a channel check.

The senior analyst owns the rating and the relationships. You own the models, the first drafts, and the data. Over time you take over companies and start writing the view yourself.

What juniors hand in

• Earnings models updated each quarter, with estimates for the next several years.
• Earnings previews and recaps, published fast.
• Initiation reports: a long first piece on a company with a rating and a price target.
• Industry pieces, channel checks, and comps tables for the sector.
• Answers to client and salesforce questions, by email and on calls.
• Talking points for the morning meeting when your sector has news.

By sector

Teams cover one sector: software, semiconductors, banks, insurance, biotech, consumer staples, energy, industrials, REITs, and so on. You become the person who knows that sector's numbers cold.

Senior analyst and associates

The senior analyst's name is on the work. One to three associates support them. Associates are promoted to cover a few names on their own, then to senior analyst.

Bank research

Research inside a bank, read by institutional investors and paid for through commissions and research fees. Separated from the bank's deal teams by rules on what they can discuss.

Independent and boutique research

Firms that sell research without investment banking attached. Smaller teams, sometimes more focused on contrarian or deep-dive work.

Fixed income and credit research

The same job on bonds instead of stocks: credit quality, covenants, and recovery. A smaller group and a route to credit investing.

Institutional investors read and pay for your work: portfolio managers and analysts at mutual funds, hedge funds, and pensions. They call to ask what you think and to test their own view against yours.

Inside the firm you serve the senior analyst and the salesforce, who take your ideas to clients every morning. Your reputation is built on being useful to both.

Typically 55 to 70 hours a week, spiking to 80 or more during earnings season, which arrives four times a year for a few weeks each time. Outside of it the schedule is predictable and evenings are often yours.

Days start early, because notes need to be out before the market opens. Late nights come from model updates before an earnings release, not from a client's timeline.

Smaller intake than IB, later and less structured. Banks often recruit research summer analysts through a broader markets or research program, with applications in the fall and winter before the internship. Smaller and independent shops hire on their own schedule.

Interviews usually include a stock pitch, accounting and valuation questions, and often a written test: a short note or a model update under time pressure. A sector you can talk about with real knowledge sets you apart.

Freshman and sophomore year

Pick a sector you find interesting and start following its companies. Read their earnings releases and listen to a call.

Sophomore spring and summer

Write two stock pitches, one long and one short, in that sector. Enter a stock pitch competition if you can.

Junior fall and winter

Applications open, often inside a markets or research program. Reach out to associates in the sectors you like.

Within weeks

First rounds: a pitch and technicals. Many firms add a written exercise or a model test.

Final round

Meetings with senior analysts. Expect to defend your pitch and talk about their coverage.

Junior summer

You sit with a team, update models, and draft notes. Return offers are usually to that team.

You like going deep on a handful of companies and writing down a view you would defend in a meeting. You read 10-Ks for fun, or would if someone showed you how.

You would rather be right than fast, though you will learn to be both. You enjoy the craft of a model and a clear argument more than the deal itself.

Not for you if you dislike writing, want a big team around you, or want the broadest exits. Research headcount has shrunk over the past decade, so it is a smaller field than it was, with fewer seats and less turnover.

• Earnings models and valuation for public companies.
• Clear, fast writing for a professional audience.
• Reading financial statements, filings, and earnings calls critically.
• Forming a view and defending it in front of people who disagree.
• Deep knowledge of one industry.

Next to IB

IB executes transactions. ER analyses public companies and publishes a view, with more writing and fewer late nights.

Next to AM

At an asset manager you make the investment decision. In ER you publish the call and investors decide what to do with it.

Next to HF

A hedge fund analyst has P&L on every idea. An ER analyst has a published rating and a reputation, with less daily pressure.

Next to S&T

S&T trades and prices flow across the market. ER goes deep on a few companies and feeds the salesforce ideas.

The most common exit is the buy side: long-only asset managers and long/short equity hedge funds hire research associates because they already know a sector and can build an earnings model. Investor relations and corporate strategy roles in the sector you covered are the other common move.

Many people stay and become senior analysts. It is a career where knowing one industry very well compounds.

Research is IB with better hours.

It is a different job: writing and analysis on public companies, not transactions. The modeling overlaps; most of the rest does not.

Analysts just say buy on everything.

Ratings are a smaller part of the value than the work behind them. Clients pay for the model, the access, and the analyst's judgment on what matters.

You need to already be an expert in a sector.

You need real curiosity and evidence of it: a pitch, a competition, a sector you have followed. Expertise is built on the job.