Today from 7:00-8:30pm I attended the Equity Workshop. The Equity Workshop consisted of representatives from five companies who came to speak about their roles and responsibilities. A typical day to day life of an Equity Analyst includes studying balance sheets, financial modeling and conducting reports. Analysts typically work in small groups consisting of one to three people. Each analyst usually focuses only on one specific sector such as energy, retail or healthcare. From this workshop, I was able to gauge where the different industries are currently heading in terms of stock valuations which I found to be very interesting. I also learned important economic information. One of the panelist mentioned the value of the dollar getting stronger and the fact that small caps tend to be more volatile (I actually have to perform more research on small caps to be able to understand what was said). In addition, I also learned that Equity Analysts have great networking opportunities. One of the panel members explained that similar to Sales and Trading, Equity Research Analysts usually meet with heads of different departments in different banks such as Chief Investment Officers and Chief Financial Officers.
Career wise, I do not think that I will pursue Equity Research but I am glad that I attended the workshop because I was able to build my financial knowledge as well as gain insider tips. I learned that it is getting to be more and more important to receive a CFA certification as well as learn new adaptable technical skills. The financial industry is always changing due to new technology so it is getting to be more important than ever to learn skills that are easily transferable in any sector in the financial sector. In sum, even though I am no longer considering Equity Research, I am now interested in pursuing Sales and Trading based on what was said during the discussions.
Equity Workshop (Career)
