This is purely to satisfy a personal curiosity, but I was wondering what it's like to trade for a large oil company like BP or Shell... I imagine that a lot of it would be purely market making, but does it often lead to better opportunities elsewhere (like, say, with a hedge fund or a bank)? I heard that BP has a training period of almost 3 years, and that afterwards your salary is still only around 60K with a measly 10% bonus--how does this number scale with experience?
Finally: Would it be worth it for a Wharton Junior (with on-campus interviews coming up with several big banks) to look into this further?
the "bonus" at BP is actually 5%. They are known to have the worst payouts in the industry.
With that statement, the job security is much higher. There are lots of structured transcations in the books that basically print money.
Many people leave because of the 5% payout.
10% bonus is usually the industry standard.
If you want to trade oil, I suggest pursuing the banks.
If oil/commodities is your passion, I'd say apply there as a backup. If you do decide to go with BP, try to get into their Chicago office (financials).
As I remember the training at BP was 3 years of back/middle office work before you got to look at a trading position. First year pay was a little below first year analyst pay but there are a lot of differences with working for an oil company. First of all as mentioned the job security - even if you suck at your job they'll generally just move you elsewhere which brings me to point number two - there are a lot more diverse roles you can move into (and while I'm using the work probably a more diverse workplace). The firms also place a big emphasis on just how far u can go with them - BP's CEOs tend to have started on the graduate programme and this is in contrast to the short term views taken at IBs. Lastly, for now, the training is excellent and u can often walk into a bank as an oil trader with the experience behind u. It's still pretty competitive to get in though.
Oh and incase u didn't guess I almost ended up at BP on their trading scheme.
I am also curious about trading for an oil company. Do banks look at this as good experience for their trading operations? I will be interning with an oil company in the summer in their trading dept., will this help me the following summer getting into an ibank?
This will be a VERY good experience. ibanks are aggresively expanding their energy desks..... as mentioned in this forum, most of the traders come from energy companies because those companies were the first to trade energy products.
This industry is like a catch 22 (well it's changing a little now).... All of the entry level experience jobs require relevant experience... retarded, huh? It's still the case as there is a shortage of people with energy experience.
Frankly, the pay being floated in this thread is well below what Wall Street pays its junior traders. Correspondingly, none of the best traders will be found at oil companies.
but many of the best traders started at oil companies....
Just curious, how much P&L do junior traders bring in for their book? and what is their payout structure like? just curious cause i've only been in houston trading in energy.
Many people in this industry make 7 figures with 10% of their p&l.
granted the hedge fund boys make much more.....
JJ, thanks for the info. Do you trade for one of the energy companies there in Houston or for a bank?
When you say 10% bonus vs 5% does that mean % of base salary or % of P&L?
P&L....
whoa this is some forum necromancy right here...
guy i talked to meant base, i'm pretty sure
good god that pay is horrible
if you want to trade energy start at a BB or a HF
If you have that opportunity...
how about shell? is their compensation comparable to the bbs?
i believe shell trading falls under the 10% umbrella.... correct me if i'm wrong people...
Bonuses are terrible but energy trading is incredibly difficult to break into and this is probably the easiest way (to put it bluntly the competition for these jobs is a lot less) to break into a bank where, as I'm sure you all know, the compensation is amazing.
and FYG I hope to eventually move into energy
Def suggest visiting this energy trading based forum: http://p075.ezboard.com/energytraders/benergytraders
You can get more responses there.
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