Goldman Sachs Engineering -> Trading / Trading Assistant

I just received a full-time offer from Goldman Sachs as a software developer and will be starting this summer after graduating. I pursued this job not because I was interested in continuing my life as a technologist, but because I wanted to break into finance.

I would like to land a trading assistant job within 1.5 years of entering the firm. How should I go about preparing to get this job? Is knowledge of finance important for assistantship roles? How important are maths?

6 Comments
 

Network within your company. Talk to the traders at Goldman and express your interest in trading. In the mean time, do everything you can to teach yourself about the markets.

 
Outlooker

Network within your company. Talk to the traders at Goldman and express your interest in trading. In the mean time, do everything you can to teach yourself about the markets.

This. You're of course not going to learn a ton about the markets and trading in your role, so you're going to have to make a push to do that yourself. You can kill two birds with one stone...speak to as many traders at your firm as you can, learn as much as possible, and also make sure you stay visible to them. It's always good to show initiative like this.

"When you stop striving for perfection, you might as well be dead."
 

If you have a good CS background and study up/network, I'm sure you wouldn't have too much trouble breaking into a quant role

 

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