So What Exactly do These People get Paid for?

[dallas]

What are they paid for?

There is some truth to the point of that question.

About 10 years ago, associate equity analysts got about 200K in salary. No joke. These days, they get perhaps 140K with similar education and experience becuase the market has just decided that they weren't worth their weight. Market research analysts aren't AS highly paid, but they haven't seen a similar industry shakedown as the equity people.

That said, they still have a valuable function. In the case of the gaming industry their research informs retailers which games to buy, and how many. Research gives developers not only an idea of what kinds of games might be popular but also the expected market for their games. And so on.  A good general way to think about the value of these analysts is that they reduce the risk for the big players involved in any industry.  They just make the industry and market a loootttttt more efficient by giving an accurate picture as possible of the market so that (bigger) mistakes aren't made by the big players. 

In a few years, my MBA is going to be finished and i'm gonna email michael pachter to see if he'd accept a grunt analyst working for him. Most of these senior analysts have 4-5 analysts under them working.

I still kind of want to go the equity research route, but getting into gaming and this website has been the critical tipping point that is making me think about a research career focusing on the gaming-related industry. Sounds crazy? Hope it works out either way and i'll probably make a move in a few years when this non-profit kind of work gets old =)