This is an excellent article, and one to which I shall refer a lot of people.

One thing I would add is there in the article, but I'd emphasise it differently. When I was preparing for interviews at university, one of the best bits of advice I got was that interviewers look for enthusiasm in a candidate. I was told: "The course is hard work, and the person interviewing you will be teaching you, and you will be no fun to teach if you don't love the subject. There are lots of candidates with the technical ability, but I always look for the one who really loves the subject."

It's clear that the writer really is interested in the stock market, or he would not have done his own research, built his website, and so on. This is like gold dust to an interviewer - I always ask analyst candidates if they trade stocks, or watch stocks, and it's amazing how few of them do. But without that burning interest, a candidate is unlikely to put in the time to become a really good analyst - if all they care about is money, then they should go into corporate finance or sales.

Another example is my own sister - I got her an interview with my boss, the head of European research at a bulge bracket bank, and she met the team and the head of sales. The report was unanimous: "She's very bright (she had just done an MBA at Wharton), everything's there, but it's just clear that she's not really interested in markets and stocks, she just wants a job." And it was hard to argue with them, as it was true. (She ended up doing well in advertising, which was much more to her taste).

So my advice to any candidate is to come armed with enthusiasm, and proof of enthusiasm, and this will really set you apart from other candidates. But one comment: an interest in the stock market as a form of gambling is not the same as an interest in stocks - what your boss will really be looking for is a passion for companies, how they succeed, and how the market rewards that - not just an interest in buying low and selling high. It's a fine distinction, but you can always tell who has that curiosity, and that's what every head of research wants to find and harness.

Good luck to you all!