Commodity sales - Any thoughts on what to expect?

You could search for the posts by user "skins1", who actually is in the commodity sales business. He wrote many very interesting posts. Good luck!

I would probably know about the commodities market (obviously). Be able to talk about a crack and a crush spread. Maybe understand contract sizes of the various commodities, delivery month, delivery basis.

knowing how to value a plant would be helpful, typical transaction type questions... its more or less business devl

Depends where you will be interviewing at..At a more physical shop I would be concerned with economic indicators like planting intentions and weather outlook. At a bank i would know contract specs by heart. Know your months for each commodity.

If your an analyst the crack and crush spreads might be a bit much to know for an interview. To add to what monty said understanding margins might be good to know. When to run an ethanol plant(corn is at so and so price and you can sell meal at yada yada)...

thanks for the replies guys, ive searched the forum and found useful posts by skins1...

this is for macquarie commodities, anyone have any info on how they stand? i know they re not GS MS level, but they to get around 750+m revenue...

ive seen people mention that the major part is actually pitching to corporates, is that more of a case for a bank?

He means that there are plenty of great shops to work at, don't think that just because you are not at GS/MS then you are at a shitty place. Many places specialize and if you are in those areas then those specialized shops might have more clout than GS.

got it.

i suppose i should expect an occasional brain teaser as well?

would they ask various trading strategies, or is that a to remote from the actual sales job ?

Energy EM sales, is it a good place to be? Anyone know any specifics of the job / sector?

tnx

commodities sales is what it sounds like, "sales". they want to know that you understand the market and are interested, but the majority of the interview will be "fit", focused on if they think you can be a good salesman. they don't really give a sht if you can model crack spreads or whatever, you learn all that stuff on the job. I worked in commodities sales very briefly, and to be honest, the best salespeople were definitely not the smartest guys - if anything, really smart guys often pissed off their clients by overcomplicating things. you have to be able to cover both sophistocated clients and unsophistocated ones (there are a lot of those in corp commodities coverage). so they want to understand that you are patient and easy to talk to (but also that you won't screw things up)

don't think you won't learn anything there, though. you learn as much talking to the "dumb" clients as you do to the "smart" ones. that is what makes a market. commodities sales is a good place to start a career.

thanks for the reply.

what abt energy sales in particular emerging markets? i think besides metals, energy is the busiest commodity sector to be in. im not sure though what the hours are and what might EM energy sales bring in particular.