Should I skip my gap year before going to commodity trading ?

Hi,
I'm a 4th year student from a french business school and now I have the choice to go either into a gap year internship or for my 5th and last year of my grande école program at Raleigh.

I've been networking a bit and some of them told me that I should contact them back after my studies are completed in order to apply for graduate programs. I don't see any scheduler/analyst/trader assistant internships and I prospected on a worldwide scale.

So what now ? My school owns a campus at NCSU in Raleigh, USA so maybe it would help me to have a leg up in order to network in Houston, Chicago and such. I will graduate from my school and not from the university even if I study there.

I already have a relevant experience in a commodity trading company in a niche market but I'm afraid it won't be enough after my 5th year. Nevertheless there aren't many internship in that field so i'm kind of stuck today.

Thanks for your answers

14 Comments
 

Thank you for the information. I know getting work Visa or citizenship is quite hard but I have a few friends from my school who are working there now. Maybe the fact that I studied at a national university will help. Anyway if I can land an internship/junior/graduate position after I graduate I'll gain a lot.

 

5th year of schooling for (what I assume is) an undergrad degree vs. a year of real world experience is a no brainer. Get out there. Get real, valuable experience.

 

I'd be ok for the gap year but I can't find any internship (either with online application or networking). They told me that graduate programs are more common... The funny part is that I'm willing to go anywhere in this damn world.

 
tonixity

I'd be ok for the gap year but I can't find any internship (either with online application or networking). They told me that graduate programs are more common... The funny part is that I'm willing to go anywhere in this damn world.

If you cant get a job at a trading firm straight away, get a job w/ a surveyor or lab (guys who check commodity quality on behalf of traders when they buy/sell), at a commodity producer/consumer (mine, grain elevator, etc), or at a logistics firm (shipowner, warehousing firm, rairoad company, etc).

 

I was thinking about doing a commodity trading MSc if I couldn't land anything after my studies. Well I don't find any relevant internship so do I have an other choice ?

 

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