BP IST or BoFA SnT? Summer internship choice
Hey guys,
Hope you all are doing well, I have recently received offers from both Bank of America's sales and trading division, as well as the Trading & Shipping division at BP. I am a commodity guy but I also have a passion for cryptocurrency. BofA seems to be making moves in its floor to allow more opportunities for Cryptocurrency, but BP is much better at commodity than BofA. BofA's program allows me to rotate between 3 desks, while BP concentrates me on the same desk for 11 weeks. Also, the intern pay for BP is about 50% lower than what BofA is paying me, as for full time I'm not sure if that would still be the case. I feel like both places suit me pretty well, but I am honestly struggling to pick between one of them, I know this question might sound stupid to some of you, but I am genuinely trying to seek for your advice of where I should go. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! Both are summer internships.
BP easy. You wont learn anything from BoA
Haha I have heard similiar things, and tbh I do feel like that would be case since BOA at the end of the day still counts as a big cooperation so~
I was in a similar position and chose BP. The comps in commod trading scale exponentially after the first few years of training.
Internship/starting salary doesn't matter - it's only a few thousand grands after tax anyways. Look at the long-term upside. You can make up for all the salary differences vs BB S&T in one year if you're good and get a trading seat.
Thanks a lot man! Yeh that makes total sense! To be fair, BP's position is currently based in London while BofA based in HK, BofA is paying me 70k pro rata and I'm basically paying no tax while BP is paying high 20k. Just a piece of info if any future friends are curious about their comps at intern lv
aight so I had the same decision a few years ago - but for FT (both UK) - and I chose the BB
don't regret it one bit
BP's summer converts 50% to FT, and comp then is >30% lower than the equivalent grad at a BB.
Even after getting a phys trading seat (which takes 3-5 years of doing ops/risk/analytics...), comp will still be lower vs. BB - same at senior level
Head of a large crude desk gets $3m at bp... the best MDs at baml a) get paid more and b) there are more of them
Within BP, derivative traders are paid more than physical - check BP's 2008 Alison Myers lawsuit if you want evidence
Glencore/traf are a different story but downside risk is much greater
Phys commods trading is a great, niche, job, but gets overhyped way too much on this forum
Make 300k at bp for years and then what? no exit opps there - traders take larger size and eventually slow down
Just 2 cents here - do you want to do commodities for the rest of your career? Really a genuine question btw. If I was in your seat, I would pick the BB. They have a commodities desk and along with other desk across fixed income and equities. I think in the junior level, the more broad exposure you have the better. Also with these s&t internships, it doesn’t matter if you like the desk or you have a product in mind - what matters is if they like you + headcount of the desk. I like the odds where I have more chances to meet people in rotational format.
Thanks a lot for the reply man! Yeh I'm gonna be honest, I have never traded any energy in my life before getting the offer from BP (still haven't). I applied mainly because I felt like some skills in trading comm would help me to better trade crypto (sorry if this sounds stupid). With regards to the internship, I am totally with you on that, unfortunately BofA recruited twice as many S&T interns as last year so I feel like this year's return rate is not going to be high, plus the guy who I will be directly reporting to really didn't liked me during the interview (at the end I asked why he was asking me all about crypto nothing about traditional finance market, I assumed he is interested in it too, but he said: "No it's because there's nothing else to talk about on your resume rather than crypto" lol). Tbh, I care less about the product I trade but more on comp at this point, I guess maybe my thoughts are naive, but I feel like once I save up about $1 mil in USD term or something like that, I will probs quit my job and utilize Defi to generate passive income, while doing things that I genuinely love (things like teaching primary school kids Math). Haha I'm offrail, but yes, I will definitely take your words into considerations!
What is the position of BoA in commodities compared to other BBs?
Honestly not quite sure, but definitely not the top player, I think GS is the top player in that field
Not sure how BOFA stands in Commodities, are they both in the UK?
Yeh I'm not sure how good BofA is at comm too, but they are probably expanding their crypto desk which is what gets me really excited. Nope so BofA one is based in Hong Kong
Hey, I’m BofA S&T past summer intern (and received a FT offer in HK) and overall had a great experience. Feel free to PM me and I’d be happy to share more information about the firm’s trading floor in Asia
I'm heading into cryptocurrency trading. Have you thought about applying to the cryptospecific firms if you know a product you want to trade? They're paying very competitively and some have graduate roles available. B2C2, Wintermute, Galaxy Digital, Cumberland DRW,
Hey man thanks a lot for your reply! Yes definitely I'm looking into those, it's just that they don't really take any penultimate year students at the moment, but I'm definitely applying to them after my summer internships this year haha, thanks for the info!
Great point! The internships there are available (Galaxy, Wintermute), but the Graduate Roles are where a lot of things are being built out. Every firm wants to capture new crypto talent to train in-house instead of taking equities guys and having to explain to them the market structure of crypto and how liquidations can come out of nowhere and move spot etc. All firms listed up there do have Graduate roles, and I think if you’re looking for an internship you could reach out and give it a chance if you really want to trade crypto, but other than that going for the name brand tradfi bank with a crypto desk will be the next best thing and give you a leg up applying to grad roles for crypto next year.
It seems like you answered your own question. Would choose Bofa.
At this very moment I'm leaning towards them too haha, unless BP assigns me to my favourite team otherwise I think I would go with BofA
Have you thought about the option to spend the first few years at BofA in HK (commodity trading) and exit to Vitol/Glencore/BP/Shell/Trafigura/Mercuria etc?
Sounds like an interesting idea, but usually I'd expect it to be the otherway around no? I thought BP is in general better at comm trading but I could be utterly wrong haha
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