I would say if you are happy with your job .. don't think about shifting to ER. this is very difficult from what lot of people think. It involves huge amount of mundane work and experience under your belt to become an analyst worth its name. CFA certification is the best thing one can do as far as investment in urself goes. But do not expect any return before you complete all levels and get Charter which comes with 4 yrs of relevant exp. CFA does make you marketable but at the end of  the day its all about how do you present yourself . 

@futureball ji- i am currently working in IT sector only and things here also are not as rosy as it seems from outside. Having worked for more than 3 years in IT, I have realized that its not my cup of tea.

Its a good job, buy 75% from Sensex and experiment half cooked wisdome with remaing 25% and in the last if portfolio fails then blame Sensex and if it clicks then claim credit that one's picks are marvelous. On top of that advise and preach gullible investors that think long term (how long nobody tells!). Just see how many MF Mgrs have delivered in past 3 years, 90% returns for past 3 CAGR is abysmally poor and benchmark is SENSEX so no risk to the profession!!!!

My 2 cents having been in ER for abt 8 years including sell side & buy side + PE. But mostly the descriptions are true of any other role in an investment bank as well.

Caution: V long post with no original conclusion!!

Sell side

You will be starting as an associate where you will be expected to bury yourself in excel models for about 2 years as someone's assistant. Serious grunt work...but thats same if you were in any other divisions in an investment bank.

In 2- 5 years you will get some stocks to cover. The stocks (and sometimes even the industry) will however not be in your control.

Then you will slowly start to realize that your job is 90% useless. Rarely, do your customers read your reports in full, and you will be covering the same stocks that are covered by atleast 10-15 other investment banks (basically banks are interested to cover only the largest and most liquid stocks unless there is investment banking fees involved).

You will thus come to the conclusion that you are effectively a glorified salesman taking pressure from ur customers, companies you track and the i banking dept of your firm

I worked for an MNC where some sort of chinese wall exists, but if you work for a tier 2 indian brokerage (tier 1 would be Kotak, IDFC, Enam etc) you are effectively selling investment banking. And if your research is for retail audience it is a fraud job!

Buy side & PE

If your passion is to really analyze stocks (esp with a long term, value oriented strategy) you may do better on the buy side.

But here again you will be driven by the need of mutual funds to perform on a quarterly basis (an anti-thesis to the value oriented strategy). Most mutual funds and hedgies are extremely short term oriented (Franklin and HDFC are exceptions to an extent though)

In PE, you will be able to do a bit more long term work, but 90% of your time will be spent making huge reports on companies just to reject those (the due process of making investment memo's), reading legal due diligence & other documentation etc etc all of which are mind-numbing experience!

Money
Generally sell side pays more than buy side. but even in sell side money made depends on whether you are in an MNC or a local firm (local firm pays much much less) and the hotness of your sector. I have known colleagues with abt 10 years of experience making more than 1 cr an year in the last bull run (some of the same guys made abt 20-30 lakhs 1-2 years later in the bear market) but also associates making less than 10 lakh (and this in Mumbai).

Buy side gives you less money but then pressure in sell side is so much more.

PE money is good...similar to sell side

Other items

Being in the industry, you (if you network hard enough) will become aware of hidden opportunities (legal ones i mean) before the rest of the world so you may be able to benefit from those

You may also come to know illegal (insider/front trading) info but you take them at your own risk; if you are inclined in those.

It is very rarely that you will be allowed to trade on the stocks that you are officially analyzing (policies vary from co to co but in general the classy firms have a very strict policies regarding this)

Conclusion:
ER is just like any other division in an investment bank involving mindless monotony in the first few years, attracting the most ambitious and smart minds for the payday that MAY come once you become a senior guy. It has nothing, REPEAT NOTHING, to do with serious long term value oriented investing approach.

My personal experience:

The work was mind-numbing in the initial few years but then became much better later on. You also get to be in close contact with some seriously brilliant minds (all frustrated but still v brilliant and ambitious) as well as the top management of companies. an un-paralleled experience i would say

You actually learn to analyze a company (which you dont learn in the b schools), learn to understand that most of the so called experts and management are bullshitting through their nose. A dose of cynicism that can do wonders to your own personal investment. You also get a lot of information sources and contacts.

I was also lucky to be in the right place at the right time (started out of college just as the bull market began) and received most of my compensation just as the bear market began.

I also had a v frugal lifestyle which is extremely imp. i knew 30 year old colleagues of mine who bought BMW's thinking the good times will roll on. I was saving like 70% of my post tax income because i knew i would soon be leaving this place. I was also lucky because i made a job change in 2008 with a multi year guaranteed bonus (it happened before the shit hit the fan and my new company was still expanding!!!) that contract proved v handy when things did melt down in the second half of 2008!!

The money in this field is extremely volatile so dont expand your lifestyle because you made so much last year. Next year you may make half or be jobless!

Advice

If you are just a B Tech with CFA level 1, and if you still want to enter this field, i would recommend an MBA (top 10) to get into the industry (at the MNC co's) meanwhile you can finish the CFA as well.

If your intent is to learn how to seriously invest, you can do that by completing the CFA, reading some good books recommended elsewhere in the forum. You dont need to waste 2 years for an mba and then another 3-4 years of mind numbing work and pray for good times!

If you hate your tech job and is looking for an industry change, then you may as well go for an MBA...mebbe you will get interested in finance or in marketing! But please do think twice..the grass always seems to be greener on the other side!

If you are just looking for fast money, it will depend on how much you are currently earning and how good you do in your MBA (and how good your school is) and how good the economy is etc etc...i would advise against fast money!

This is a field which attracts great minds but then burdens them with the most mundane tasks (sort of like a boot camp for armed forces). Not for everyone and certainly not purely for money or glamour (but then everyone including me goes there for the money n glamour)

Hope this helps!!!