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Browning: "Hello. I'm Candace Browning, head of global research at Bank of America Merrill
Lynch. I've worked on Wall Street for nearly 30 years, including 18 years as a U.S. airline
analyst. And I'm here today to share my thoughts on the rewards of a career in research. I
received my undergraduate degree at Brandeis University, not in business or economics as
you might imagine, but in history and Russian language. I went on to get an MBA at Columbia
University and through a project I did on frequent flyer programs, which did not exist
at the time, I was recruited by Pan American World Airways. I later joined Oppenheimer
and eventually landed at Merrill Lynch.
Browning: "Research plays a critical role at all the top Wall Street firms and quite
frankly, in the world.
Browning: "The objective and anticipatory investment insights that research analysts
provide influence the investment decisions of both institutional and individual clients.
Browning: "Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research is a powerhouse in the industry.
With nearly 700 analysts in 21 countries around the world, we cover over 3,500 stocks, nearly
1,100 credits, over 20 commodities and 40-plus currencies. To be a successful analyst, you
need to be smart, intellectually curious, a good communicator and intuitive. But that's
not all; you also need to be brave. Why brave? Because your job is to come up with anticipatory
investment ideas that are often out of consensus with everyone else on the street. It's a job
where you get paid to think. If getting paid to think appeals to you, Bank of America Merrill
Lynch is one of the best places to do it.
Browning: "We've been ranked number one global research firm by Institutional Investor magazine
for two years running and we have many other accolades as well.
Browning: "Now I'd like you to hear from some of the people who make this such a fantastic
organization."
Voorhees: "I went to the University of Virginia."
Alexander: "I went to Princeton University."
Smart: "I went to Columbia University."
Wilson: "I went to school at Harvard University."
Zhang: "I attended Columbia University."
Alexander: "In research, we provide the investment ideas that this entire global banking and
markets division goes out and pitches to investor clients. In research, we'll come up with investment
conclusion for a company. We'll talk to our traders about what they're seeing and what
they think about that view. We'll help our salespeople go out and pitch that idea to
hedge funds, mutual funds, pension funds... um... and we'll talk directly to those funds
as well to help them understand what our view is and what we think they should do."
Wilson: "There's really no typical day whatsoever. It's uh, one day, I may be on the morning
call, pitching a stock to the sales force. Or one day, I may be traveling with the management
team on a non-deal road show, speaking with other institutional investors."
Zhang: "Why I love this job, personally is, and this might be a very cliché answer, but
a lot of the people, 'cause in equity research, you deal with your clients, you deal with
salespeople, you deal with management and through all these interactions, you have a
very well-rounded network."
Voorhees: "What attracted me most to the role of a research analyst is it requires me to
be a generalist as well as a specialist, quantitative as well as analytical and it's a job where
I'm constantly learning."
Smart: "When I started off, I was considering either a research analyst role or a role in
trading and I figured by going down the an analyst path, I would get a better learning
experience and a better understanding of the fundamental drivers of acid prices over the
medium term, and that was something that was really important to me."
Alexander: "As a politics major, uh, I did a lot of writing and ya know, you do a lot
of writing here. So, there are many skills you need in research and you can pick up those
skills in many different backgrounds." Murphy: "My most favorite thing about New
York and working here is really the energy. The energy of the people at work, the people
on the streets, the cab drivers, uh, the folks on the subway, is really a big deal and there's
great energy in New York that flows over into what we do every day here at Bank of America
Merrill Lynch and it really is a lot of fun."
For more information, please visit our website at campus.bankofamerica.com