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Forums - Gaming Discussion - How does one become a gaming analyst?

amp316 on 02 February 2010

More specifically, how does one get paid for being a gaming analyst?  Even more specifically, how does one get paid 6 figures to do it? 

I can think of several VGChartz members that would be very good at this job.  I mean, everyone that has hung out on this site has expressed their opinions on what may or may not happen in gaming and is an analyst to a certain extent.  Obviously being right or wrong isn't a factor.  The most famous "analyst" in gaming today is Michael Pachter and he's almost always wrong. 

The reason that I ask is that I want to get paid for being wrong all of the time.  It seems like a job that I could get into.  Making incorrect predicitions, and getting paid for it, sounds like it would be a lot of fun and is now at the top of list of dream jobs.  It has leapt in front of being a movie critic, food critic, or globe-trotting adventurer for me.  It sounds like it's so much fun that I might decide to do it for free on this very site.

So what is it?  Does one have to be a puppet for the gaming media and say whatever they are told to get paid big time cash for their "predictions"?  What do you think?  Has anyone ever analyzed how an analyst gets their job? 

   



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supercat on 02 February 2010

2 big ways:

1. Finance degree & MBA & CFA - then join a sell side research shop or investment banking firm as an analyst

2. Marketing degree ( or mabey finance as well but this isn't as common) - then MBA, then join market research firm such as EEDAR or whatever.

Market research salaries won't be as high as sell side research but you will have the benefit of being more objective rather than somebody who has to constantly overhype gaming companies so that their traders can move the stocks------- MS's Natal is going to be daaa shiznit, so buy now!!! buy buy buy.  If you get your MBA though, you should be able to make 70K if you were an average, not poor employee, and not the highest one either.  120-150K including bonus would be the norm for somebody w/ an MBA and CFA as a sell side analyst

In either case you have to be mothodical, analytical, intellectually curious, etc.  You'll also have to be a good writer because executives will be judging your reasoning partly by your writing skills, so if you arent a finance or marketing major and then get your MBA, then it would probably be a good idea to be something like an english or philosophy, mabey even history major.  The degree of education will be immense so this isn't the kind of job that any troll on this board could hope to accomplish.



amp316 on 02 February 2010
supercat said:
2 big ways:

1. Finance degree & MBA & CFA - then join a sell side research shop or investment banking firm as an analyst

2. Marketing degree ( or mabey finance as well but this isn't as common) - then MBA, then join market research firm such as EEDAR or whatever.

Market research salaries won't be as high as sell side research but you will have the benefit of being more objective rather than somebody who has to constantly overhype gaming companies so that their traders can move the stocks------- MS's Natal is going to be daaa shiznit, so buy now!!! buy buy buy

In either case you have to be mothodical, analytical, intellectually curious, etc. The degree of education will be immense so this isn't the kind of job that any troll on this board could hope to accomplish.


I understand that numbers 1 and 2 are the pieces of paper that are needed, but it seems that more importantly one needs a degree in BS.

MS's Natal is going to be the shiznit is simlar to certain things that I have heard certain analysts say, so I don't know if I agree.

I am methodical, analytical, and curious, but I suppose that I don't have enough education.  I do think that I could make incorrect prediction after incorrect prediction though and that's all that really seems to matter, now doesn't it?



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iLLmaticV3 on 02 February 2010
supercat said:

2 big ways:

1. Finance degree & MBA & CFA - then join a sell side research shop or investment banking firm as an analyst

2. Marketing degree ( or mabey finance as well but this isn't as common) - then MBA, then join market research firm such as EEDAR or whatever.

Market research salaries won't be as high as sell side research but you will have the benefit of being more objective rather than somebody who has to constantly overhype gaming companies so that their traders can move the stocks------- MS's Natal is going to be daaa shiznit, so buy now!!! buy buy buy.  If you get your MBA though, you should be able to make 70K if you were an average, not poor employee, and not the highest one either.  120-150K including bonus would be the norm for somebody w/ an MBA and CFA as a sell side analyst

In either case you have to be mothodical, analytical, intellectually curious, etc.  You'll also have to be a good writer because executives will be judging your reasoning partly by your writing skills, so if you arent a finance or marketing major and then get your MBA, then it would probably be a good idea to be something like an english or philosophy, mabey even history major.  The degree of education will be immense so this isn't the kind of job that any troll on this board could hope to accomplish.

Epic.



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megaman79 on 02 February 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyXXQRp1OtM

Professionals



“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.

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amp316 on 02 February 2010
megaman79 said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyXXQRp1OtM

Professionals


See.  I wouldn't mind getting paid to do that.



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amp316 on 02 February 2010
iLLmaticV3 said:
supercat said:

2 big ways:

1. Finance degree & MBA & CFA - then join a sell side research shop or investment banking firm as an analyst

2. Marketing degree ( or mabey finance as well but this isn't as common) - then MBA, then join market research firm such as EEDAR or whatever.

Market research salaries won't be as high as sell side research but you will have the benefit of being more objective rather than somebody who has to constantly overhype gaming companies so that their traders can move the stocks------- MS's Natal is going to be daaa shiznit, so buy now!!! buy buy buy.  If you get your MBA though, you should be able to make 70K if you were an average, not poor employee, and not the highest one either.  120-150K including bonus would be the norm for somebody w/ an MBA and CFA as a sell side analyst

In either case you have to be mothodical, analytical, intellectually curious, etc.  You'll also have to be a good writer because executives will be judging your reasoning partly by your writing skills, so if you arent a finance or marketing major and then get your MBA, then it would probably be a good idea to be something like an english or philosophy, mabey even history major.  The degree of education will be immense so this isn't the kind of job that any troll on this board could hope to accomplish.

Epic.

Epic response.  Epic response.



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amp316 on 02 February 2010
RolStoppable said:
Yeah, you need to go to a college and get a degree, that's the hard part. Once you got a job, you don't need to have any idea of the things you are talking about.

More than 90 % of people will believe in what you say as long as you present it with some numbers and nice graphs thrown in. Those people don't really understand what you just said, but it's human nature to avoid asking questions, because others might think that you are stupid, if you do.

Yeah.  The degree thing is a drag.

Charts and graphs I could do though.  Also, I am very good at acting like I know what I'm talking about so no one would probably ever question me.   



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Tag "Sorry man. Someone pissed in my Wheaties."

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trashleg on 02 February 2010

just start doing it, freelance on the internet :D



Highwaystar101 said: trashleg said that if I didn't pay back the money she leant me, she would come round and break my legs... That's why people call her trashleg, because she trashes the legs of the people she loan sharks money to.
supercat on 02 February 2010

http://wedbush.atsondemand.com/ - for open jobs @ wedbush
http://www.wedbush.com/inside/CapitalMarkets/ResearchProfessionals.asp - for what it's worth, pachter's biography if you think or want to measure up to da pac-man