Life in Equity Research

I’ve been working as an Associate in Equity Research for almost three months and I’m loving every minute of it. The hours are great for a job in high-finance, 12 hours a day, Monday to Friday and the very occasional Saturday. And surprisingly, its never really been that bad. It really does help that not only do I enjoy what I’m doing, but I’ve also been given a huge amount of responsibility so I know what I’m doing is really worthwhile.

Three simple but important things I should keep in mind for any future jobs:

1. Whenever you ask any questions, prepare for it as if you’re going for an interview. That means exploring all avenues and making sure you know the topic inside out. You don’t want to come out sounding like an idiot.

2. Work late hours but more importantly, especially for myself, wake up early. I don’t mind working late, but I do have trouble waking up in the morning so I’ve got to try sleeping earlier and starting work earlier. It’ll be less applicable for investment banking but its always good to get as much sleep as possible. You’ll never know when you need it.

3. Double-check work. It doesn’t matter how confident you are that everything is correct. There is ALWAYS SOMETHING WRONG. It always pays to double-check work. Especially since you do a lot of work when you’re half-asleep. You don’t want spelling, formatting or formula errors in anything you do because you want a record of doing quality work.

And lastly, something that I’ll try to keep in my job next summer. Keep a log book of everything you have learned, and mistakes you have made. Nobody can remember everything (perfect example here) and you don’t want to be making the same mistakes all over again.

So sadly, theres just one more month of this and I’ll be back in school, and there will be regular updates again…