Equity Analyst VS Business Analyst Business, software, situation, management

ashycal

26 years old, have 3 CFA levels + CAIA L1. Currently working in my native country in Eastern Europe at application support of software vendor company that deals with Front Office & Hedge Fund products.

And now the situation. :-) Almost at the same time was offered two positions – either to move to Business Analyst role with my current employer, or join the biggest local asset management company (although just 600$ mm AUM) as an Equity analyst covering Caspian stocks. Salarywise these two offers are similar, yet BA position carries much more fringe benefits as the company is global leader in the field.

Chaps, what would you advice? Accepting equity analyst job would definitely reduce quality of life for me at least in the short run, but probably the potential should be higher? As a caveat, they told on the interview that salary is not expected to grow as long as local economy is sh*t. Also, they are unit of the local bank that has been overtaken by the state once it was close to failure several years ago.

Anyone knows how decent BA role in finance can be? Is it worth it? I’m a bit concerned where would I be in 3-4 years if choose this route. Probably it would be too difficult to change fields by then.

Your thoughts will be highly appreciated.

AndyNZ

isnt business analyst more an IT role ?

segalm

yes I think there's a terminology issue. At least in the US, BA is definitely IT. (Sort of a liason between business side and IT, but career track is definitely IT.)

profil

Business analyst may also be a glorified accountant.

Kapie

Yes, this gonna be Business Analyst in financial software vendor company. Exactly as DarienHacker mentioned, 'liason between business side and IT', fairly exposed to interacting clients.

Equity analyst would involve making stock recommendations, etc.

So what would you say? There are plenty of posts here by chaps who want to get out of IT, but not so much about Business Analyst role specifically. On other hand, equity analyst can be a great career start in asset management, the route is becoming Portfolio Manager or Fund Manager one day.

WarrenB1

take the equity role

Windjam

A "business analyst" is such a general term. It can mean anything from involvement in IT to accounting

soverby

As mentioned, that's IT stuff. Almost citing from job spec:

To understand the business needs of clients and to provide solutions that address these needs and meet end user requirements. To produce clear definitions of requirements and functional specifications for products together with comprehensive criteria for testing.

For Equity role, needless to say it's a relatively junior position. It would be working in a team with PM and doing some financial modeling & also checking 3rd party research reports to produce an opinion about stock. The company has only traditional long-only funds though.

IAmNeil

I would take the equity gig all the way.

rohitdoshi

Yep equity gig. Why else would you have taken the CFA and CAIA?