Hi,
I've worked as an analyst for the endowments and foundations group at a MM bank for close to four years. Most of my work experience involves fund manager due diligence, portfolio construction and optimization, asset class research / recommendations and portfolio level attribution analysis. Manager due diligence / research has been my favorite part of the job, but I think I would enjoy individual equity analysis even more (We don't invest in any individual securities).
Ultimately, I would like to work as an analyst for a mutual fund or equity based hedge fund, but feel it would probably be easier starting on the sell-side. I definitely understand the basics of company valuation, how the financial statements tie together etc. That said, I'm not an expert in any industry and any analysis I do personally essentially just involves me screening through Morningstar and then pulling data through them.... I don't really have "modeling" experience, although I understand Excel very well and use it daily (for whatever that's worth).
Anyway, should I pick a sector and just dive in, or approach it some other way? I'm open to moving mostly anywhere... Just as an FYI, I've passed Level one of the CFA exam and will register for L2 in the fall. Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated.
Thank you.