From Marketing Intern to Front Office Role

Hi all,

To start this story, I started my senior year of school with no real experience, and was attending a non target school in NYC with a average GPA. I didn't know what I wanted to do after graduating, all I knew is that I wanted to do something in business.

At the start of my senior year, I was looking for any internships I could do while taking night classes, and stumbled upon a back office/admin assistant job at a small start up energy company. I interviewed for the role and got the job, and was able to move up the ranks rather quickly.

I quickly impressed others with how fast I picked up different tasks, and was promoted to sales coordinator within 4 months when the previous person left for a different job. From there, I worked for about 7 months, and then when I graduated that following summer, I got a return offer to come back to the credit risk department as an analyst.

Having worked at this company for about a year at that point had helped me to determine the career path I wanted, and that was to get into commodity trading. At our firm, scheduling is a direct funnel into trading, as they work hand in hand, and scheduling is considered a front office role that affects PnL.

Fast forward to about 2 months ago, and I overheard a convo between the senior trader and my boss that he wants to hire another scheduler to the natural gas desk. I quickly conveyed my interest in this role to my boss and asked if he was open to giving me a chance to interview for the role. I got the chance to interview, and after a long wait (3 weeks!!), HR formally extended the offer to me today.

I won't get into exact specifics, but all in comp for this role including bonus is in the low six figure mark, and I am well on my path to achieving my eventual goal of becoming a commodity trader. I would've never imagined that I would be in this position two years ago when I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life post grad, and had no real experience. Keep grinding!