Landed a position at Glencore straight out of Uni - Now how do I become a trader?
Hey guys I'm new to this forum. After terribly failing at my interview with Trafigura for their 'New Grad' program (they asked some ridiculous questions) I decided to not give up and eventually got an interview with Glencore. The role I secured is a "Trading Assistant" for their copper department. I was wondering now, what's the best way to move up the ladder and secure a trader role (with a P&L attached to me) or if not that, what would the next best position be to aim for? I have heard a scheduler role is pretty good?. I would appreciate everyone's insight on this as many of my relatives/friends have no clue about physical trading houses and their career paths.. almost seems like the majority of people are clueless when it comes to commodity trading..
Start by being a really good traffic person, don't whine about stuff, take on more and more and more responsibility, be really good at it. Find ways to do things better than the last person who was doing it, improve their processes. When things inevitably go wrong, find creative ways to fix them, hopefully not only stopping the bleeding but making money for the company. Build relationships with the traders, pay attention to their phone calls with counterparties, pay attention to what they ascribe value to.
Make your way closer and closer to the P&L generating stuff. Eventually if people like you you will get a shot on a limited scale. It is pure luck (ie people above you quitting) as far as getting a bigger seat, unless you somehow develop a new market or find a niche no one was looking at before (careful here, there are no free lunches. If a company as big as Glencore is not doing something, it is probably not because they just need one more person to do it).
I would not leave after just one year. The biggest players in primary metals are playing a whole different ball game from the smaller guys. If you get P&L for a few years and know the rest of the industry, your value to a firm trying to start a new book or replace their current subpar head of copper is $$$$$.