Commodity graduate program or Ops?
Got frustrated after spending 4 years at back office of an investment bank in Mumbai, i decided to revive my career through an MSc at a London based business school. Its not LBS....I want to be a physical commodity trader because i guess i am way pass the S&T route. And i like how physical commodity firms rotate their graduates and train them to takeover the trader role...and getting called for an interview despite not beign from an elite school is common. I wanted to know if going from Ops to trader is possible? Or will i be doing the same mistake again?
There are very few commodity graduate programs out there and they are very competitive to get into. Within that, only a subset is explicitly grooming you to trade. Also being attracted to phys trading because it is the only one that will give you a call for an interview is not a terrific reason for putting your life on hold for over a year to have a chance at restarting at ops to have a chance at trading. That said, traders tend to come from an ops background in the physical space whereas at banks that path is much more closed off it seems although I have no experience on that front. Also if you do ops at a physical shop it is way more fun than backoffice stuff albeit more tense and stressful. Making a budget for some IT/accounting software purchases is way different from dealing with a vessel unloading during a port strike.
Confused do you have these offers or not? Not sure what you what are asking.
I dont have these offers. I am asking which position i should apply to if i want to become a trader.
Commodity supercycle has started hiring is up but mainly originators and renewable growth for now. So would say you need to explore all options.
Focus on the grad programs mainly since they the feeders but should apply to all since limited seats. Ops in a london or singapore is going to be vastly different than your previous gig to start with. But till know what offers/desks/options you got cant say further, some place ops people more than others.
Thanks for the response.
I have one more question.
Does having a 2nd masters degree make me overqualified for a graduate program?
Majority of shops it will not, since your still generally young “below 30”. Some shops may push you into have to take an ops role since we want younger brains to mold for GDP program.
Main advantage of GDP programs, if you pass all tests and crush rotations. The firm has spent resources to put you on a desk at some point, if none opens where you are or do what you do they have to think firm/global wide. From Ops, this is possible to but you really need to network and find supporters to help you.
Yes possible, I did this path. Graduate programs may take you there faster for the hardworking person but I wouldn’t discount anyone coming up the ranks in traffic/ops. It’s about targeting the right attitude from the right person.
How did you get your break into the graduate program? Was it a campus recruitment?
Not a grad program. I worked my way up from traffic.
Did you finally got where you wanted? did you find any S&t jobs?
PS-I am in one of those structured grad programs in India
Going to one of the London based business school for an MSc. Will work to break into a graduate program at BP or Glencore. I have not yet decided which commodity career to pursue.
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