Todd Buechs is an associate analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, the independent research firm. He explains how he moved from the Marines to Goldman Sachs, Sanford Bernstein via Home Depot, and how persevering will never let you down.
If you want to work in equity research, you can't be afraid to have an opinion. As a sell side analyst I have realized that clients pay for an opinion, for information and analyses they can trade on.What does an associate researcher do? Day to day it's a question of working pricing models, keeping up with company earnings, conducting channel checks within the industry and making informed projections about the future. I've been in this role for a little over a year.
Marines Training
My professional career began in 1987 when I graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and joined the Marines. During the next 12 years I progressed from the rank of Lieutenant to Major and served in a variety of positions. During my career, I traveled the globe, and participated in the first Gulf War.
When people ask what I got from the experience, I can point to plenty of positives. First of all I learned about myself - my strengths and weaknesses, and as importantly I learned leadership skills. I learned to make judgment calls, to have the integrity to stand by my decisions, and to make decisions quickly. If I hadn't been a marine I do not believe I'd have been nearly as successful in life.
But after twelve years, I needed a change. I looked at peers who had left the service and how successful they'd been, and decided it was time for a new phase in my professional development.
From MBA to Goldman
In 1999 I went to The Tuck School at Dartmouth College to earn an MBA. I had planned to go into consulting, but quickly realized that my skills and personality were better suited to sales and trading.
In 2001, I accepted an offer to trade equity securities at Goldman Sachs and based my decision on Goldman's reputation and the strong Tuck alumni network. I began trading listed securities and later transitioned to NASDAQ technology securities.
After September 11, 2001, volumes were depressed and there was a lot of confusion about what was going to happen; it was a tough environment and there were several rounds of layoffs. My own career as a trader came to an end in November 2002, during the fourth round of reductions.
The great thing about Goldman was that as a junior trader I was given a lot of responsibility. In my last memorable trade at Goldman Sachs, I handled a 17.5-million share order. That large order served to underscore my current opinion that electronic exchanges are the future and cash traders were no longer critical to the majority of the daily equity trading volume.
When I was laid off, Goldman was extremely fair. I have a lot of respect for that. After I left Goldman, it took four months to get two offers of new trading roles - one on the buy side and one on the sell side. But I didn't see a great future there.
Home Depot
I looked around for other options. Home Depot, the household store, had a program for turning former military service people with MBAs into store managers. I began as an assistant manager.
As a former Marine, I didn't feel the responsibilities were beneath me, but I did start to think my education had equipped me for something more. As I began to search for a position that better suited my education, I let a good friend from Dartmouth who worked at Sanford Bernstein know that I was interested in returning to finance. He introduced me to Brad Hintz, the senior banking analyst here, and the rest is history.
Don’t Give Up
If you're looking for a job on Wall Street, my best advice is not to give up. I was very lucky: I knocked on one door and I got in. But there are plenty of other people who've knocked on hundreds of doors before they found the right one. Even if it takes a while, don't say \"It's too difficult.\" I'm proof positive that there's a position for everyone!
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