Cargill Commodity Trading Internship
I recently received an internship offer from Cargill for their commodities trading desk. I wanted to learn more about the program and its overall reputation. Any information on long-term prospects and growth opportunities is also welcomed. I was also wondering what are the exit ops? One thing that is keeping me from taking the offer is the location, it is in a midwest farmland town. Any thoughts on that? I know there is already a post on wso but it is a few years old and any updated information would be helpful.
Thanks in advance
Cargill is a great trade house for ags, and the biggest one of the ABCD's I think. You should take it if you're interested in trading.
How the fuck are kids getting offers from these places if they don't even know if they want to be there?
I applied to as many positions as I can and Cargill was one of them. I felt like that was best thing to do especially with the job market.
lol, I got my internship offer at a top oil/natgas shop and didn't know until I was halfway into the internship that it was good. Ended up going there FT
Is there any program to start as a trader assistant or trading trainee directly? Instead of staying at the middle office for almost 10 years?
Honestly the process is surprisingly uncompetitive at alot of these phys shops and alot of the recruiting is run by Karens in HR who probably know less about commod trading than the kids theyre interviewing. I interviewed at some of the large grad programs for crude trading, and got to meet some of the other candidates and was seriously underwhelmed by the caliber esp when compared to my IB/S&T recruiting experience
I cannot for the life of me figure out what Cargill looks for.
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I received an offer from Cargill without knowing about the company really. Only took the offer after my IB friends told me it was great
I interned with them you can pm me if you have specific questions. Generally, Cargill is the most prestigious of the ABCD. You're going to have to start in a random midwestern location (most likely) for at least a year. Commodities unlike banking doesn't really have exit opps. Your goal is to get a trading seat. Cargill likes promoting internally, but you can try to go to places like glencore or smaller shops to get paid more. If you like ags, Cargill is the best place start imo. Career starts as an associate (1yr) to marketer (1/2/3) to senior marketer.
Thanks for all the info. pmed
Is there any program to start as a trader assistant or trading trainee directly? Instead of staying at the middle office for almost 10 years?
Long term prospects and growth and growth are directly tied to your talent level. If you are good and get along with people well then the sky is the limit. You could be living in Minneapolis and running one of their large desks in 7-10 years if you wanted. Or if you aren't very good you will get passed up for promotion after promotion and end up running logistics at some other shop because you couldn't make it at Cargill. It really is up to you and your talent. Same for exit opps. This isn't banking so it isn't like you join with the intent of going somewhere else eventually because hopefully the hours will be better. Cargill, once again, if you're talented, is the exit opp. Trader's hours aren't that intense and the pay can be great. Assuming you have what it takes then with that skillset they teach you you could end up at any other ag trader or a commodity processor.
Thanks a lot for the insight!
Just interviewed with Cargill last week under the corp strat team. People there were truly talented with most of them coming out from McK, can't talk about the trading side of Cargill though
IIRC that thread was mine, and I did end up taking the internship, so PM me if you have any questions. My thought process was, I am interested in this company and this job as a physical trader, I have 12 weeks to explore and see if this is what I want to do and if I can stand living in the midwest, and if I hate it I never have to do it again and still get a big company and good job experience.
I think return of the tapes is 100% spot on with his comment about HR, but the ABCD's are getting much better over the past few years for the people they bring in for internships and especially full time. Everything everyone has said is true, they promote internally and recognize talent, if you can make it they will give you more responsibility and have a great opportunity to grow.
Thanks for the info. pmed
I got a full time offer there but chose to not go. Honestly, it's a great company with great people and training. The biggest obstacle for me was the amount of other stuff that you have to learn and work/rotate on to finally get to trading (along with the relatively low pay on paper). As someone who wants to make money now, (it may be shortsighted) but I decided to go into prop trading instead although I'm sure I would've enjoyed life more working at a place like Cargill. Nevertheless, I trade commodity futures, so perhaps I can go to a commodity shop one day.
What was your $ offer?
I have offers at other asset mgmt firms but they're more for mid office position. I might take the Cargill position and see if I like it. If not, I can lateral into a prop shop eventually.
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