I’m currently employed by a major in the contracts department, basically generating contracts and resolving contractual discrepancies. Have an opportunity to take a position as a rail supply scheduling analyst for a pure play refiner, mostly sending heavy Canadian crudes to the gulf.
My question is, am I better suited/positioning myself for trading taking this role (a better group at a worse shop), or staying with my current employer (a worse group at a pretty prestigious shop)? Really need some help here. Ask any questions or PM for specifics. Thanks.
Try PMing monty09. How likely is it your current shop would need someone in a similar role anytime soon?
These decisions are often nuanced and complicated and based on a lot of personal factors. From the limited amount of information here, I'd say you should take the rail scheduler position hands down. Unless you have a clear view of how to do something similar at your shop, there is no reason to not take it. Canadian heavy to the gulf is where a lot of the action is now, so take it, learn it and do very well in the role. It will open doors.
Take it man. Crude by rail is changing the game and you get to be a part of that.
Unless you know you can get out of contracts in the next 6 months. Take the rail scheduling job. Contracts is probably the hardest place to show you are trading material.
Rail scheduling job hands down.
Take the rail job. Leave you current company on good terms and try to keep in touch with the analysts and traders if possible.
FWIW, one of my biggest concerns is irrelevance once Keystone XL gets built.
Keystone XL will probably fill up pretty fast and regulatory threats towards crude-by-rail are empty for the time being as no one want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
In the meantime, you should be able to meet plenty of counter parties and possibly move into a broader role.
Man, this pipeline will take years to build; by then you will have gathered enough experience to move up the ladder... take the rail job !
What did Barack resign? I missed this, when was this. Russ Girtling is basically the only person left who thinkw Keystone will be built before 2016, the rest of us have given up a long time ago. There is reason all the major rail paths are owned by PE/HF giants.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/dangers-aside-railways-reshape-crude-mar…
This article definitely helped assuage some fears. Great read for anyone who's interested.
You should be more worried about stuff that's already happened, marketlink, seaway reversal / twin, pony express, upcoming flanagan south, etc. Keystone XL is a question mark and irrelevant to your decision. There are still east and west coast markets that will stick to rail and it's not like the company is going to stick you in contracts after you've scheduled for a few years. So Keystone is the last thing you should worry about.
Worry about the job at hand, regardless of your opinion on crude on rail going forward. You are building a resume and your experiences speak to what you are capable of and what others have entrusted you with. The important thing is that rail scheduling will look good and will open doors. You will likely be working with a refinery supply manager, so you'll get to know a lot of refinery demand stuff. That makes you a natural fit to do refinery supply down the road or do pipeline scheduling to refineries or whatever else. If you perform well, the opportunities will follow. So now that you've had some time, have you accepted the offer yet? I think consensus is pretty clear here.
I accepted the rail analyst position. I was able to leverage the offer from the refiner in to an ops role at my current firm, but felt that the rail position was much more tied to PnL and offered more quickly increasing responsibility.
I felt that gaining rail experience early in my career could assist in developing a niche in the crude markets. I also feel that understanding refinery supply is necessary if you desire to trade.
While the ops role at my current shop is an attractive opportunity, I think if I were to accept it, it would be for the wrong reasons (the wrong reason being anything other than the development of my career). Staying at my current shop would allow me to continue developing my reputation for the chance to move to a PnL related role. The actionable word here is chance. I think this is risky for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that it's difficult to immerse yourself in a role when your goals actually lie at developing skills you won't acquire until your "next" role.
The new role will place me much closer to, essentially already within, a PnL driver where I can fully immerse myself and bust my ass at the role unto itself. Really excited to get started and hopefully I'll one day be in a position where I can be as helpful on these boards to others as others have been to me.
Congrats!! You will learn a lot. Let us know how it goes, maybe do a follow up post at some point!
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