Trafigura Junior Trader Program: physical commodities
Hello all,
I am new here but have noticed that there were a lot of interesting discussions about physical commodities trading.
I was wondering if anyone had started interviewing with Trafigura for their junior trader program. I applied 2 weeks ago in Geneva but am still waiting to hear from them.
Thanks and good luck to everyone!
I know someone who got an offer 2 weeks ago for the Houston program.
any idea how many they're hiring?
wow that seems quick, given the fact that applications opened only 1 mth ago and remain open until January. Maybe the offer was for the graduate program?
maybe they found somebody they liked?
are they hiring summer interns as well??
anyone know what sort of background they are looking for in the program?
I ve had an hr person tell me its 2-4 years of trading in exotics or quant stuff minimum to stand a chance. Any views on that?
Just chiming in to say I applied to the program in Geneva but haven't heard anything yet...
Ding, update email this morning but no invite/rejection yet. Fingers crossed, good luck to everyone, did anyone get anything similar?
Same here, maybe a phone screening is next? Not sure, I do wonder how and if a possible phone screening or first round interview would be similar to what has been said about the Graduate Programme.
That makes sense.
The e-mail feels like they can't decide between the cake and the cookie so they're asking both to stay fresh, and frankly I'm okay with that - at least now I'll know that if I haven't heard anything by those dates I haven't gotten through. It's more courteous than the majority of firms, who pretend like most applicants don't even exist.
Dbl Post.
Interviewed for this program in 2011, so I may be able give you an idea of what to expect. I applied in April; received call & email indicating their interest and setting up interview date in late May; interviewed first week of June. Interviews were conducted on a Saturday in Houston (there were several two-hour "shifts" from which I chose when setting up my interview window--I was led to believe that there were candidates from a multitude of geographical locations interviewing there on that day). The recruiter indicated that the firm was looking to fill two slots from the applicant pool and second round interviews would be held in Geneva.
That Saturday, I had two 45-minute inteview sessions: the first with two members within Finance/Risk, the second with two crude/products traders. My background is natgas (4+ year progression: risk->phys asset mgmt->phys/paper trading) and the risk team was interested in my understanding/perception of their business model and familiarity with general risk concepts. The 2nd interview, with the traders, was much more engaging. They seemed intrigued by my background, but did suggest that I might be "over-experienced" for the role, considering that I was already trading. After indicating that my interest was in transitioning into crude, they quizzed me on some derivative and swap structures before moving on to their own backgrounds/experiences. In their cases, both had come from large integrateds (think XOM,CVX,COP,RDS) and had engineering backgrounds. Didn't make it past 1st round, but interesting experience nonetheless--kept in touch with the two traders, though.
That's really interesting token, thank you for posting.
It definitely seems like a fine line between not meeting their 2-4 year experience requirements and being over-qualified. Maybe I'll say I have worked for 2-4 years, but not very hard...!
Were there any trick/logic questions? They may be confined to the graduate program since if the interviewers only have 45 minutes they'd probably rather find out about your industry experience than whether you think the moon is made of dairy products.
The 2-4 year part is not entirely true. They're looking for people who have demonstrated an interest in trading, but don't have the background. I know people who work at Trafigura and have clearly stated that junior traders tend to come from an Operations / risk background. They tend to have between 12-24 months of experience.
July--I think Walkio has it right: there didn't seem to be any hard experience requirements or limits and it seemed they were interested in evaluating people from outside the industry as well. The traders with whom I interviewed intimated that for most, if not all candidates, some amount of risk/ops rotation (at least 12 months) would be required--hence their question regarding my level of interest. Given that my experience was solely in the NG/NGL space, I figured that such a requirement would be inevitable despite my trading experience.
To answer your question, there was no formal logic/quant component in either session. Because the traders saw trading on my resume, they asked me about my experience with deal structure, derivatives, and asset optimization. As I understood it, 2nd rounds would include more analytical topics; unfortunately, I didn't get that far.
Curiouser and curiouser, these comments are definitely changing my impressions of the program.
I just rechecked the application and it says 1 to 4 years experience, seems like they're leaning towards the shorter end of that scale. That's good news for anyone who thought they were underqualified though.
I expected there to be a lot of risk assessment involved, but I wonder how much they're going to value actual industry knowledge? Just in case I'm definitely going to bone up on my risk theory/stats stuff in addition to the fundamentals, thanks again guys,
Has anybody heard back or gotten any prescreening calls from the Junior programme yet? Nothing on my end.
Nothing here either, and the sellotape holding my phone to my head is beginning to fray...
Also, if anyone hasn't read it, Pete2650 wrote a detailed account of the interview stages here at /forums/trafigura-interview#comment-865859
I also got "shortlisted", really happy about it. But haven't gotten a phone call or an interview
Congrats!!
I think it's worth bearing in mind that the deadline isn't until Jan 13th, so they're probably waiting for any last minute stragglers before they start making phone calls/sending out invites. Good luck to everyone for next week, hopefully,
Got same email as you guys. No news so far. I applied for this program last year and had an interview in Houston office. Did't make it to final in Geneva. There were no phone calls or other pre screenings. Just straight to the first round in Houston. Don't forget that they have another graduate program. May be phone intervies were conducted for that one.
Good luck everyone and hope to see in Geneva this year.
.
Hey guys, I am sure we all have, more or less, the same kind of background. I have a solid education with a masters degree from a well known uni, other than that I guess I fit the job description, 1 year of commodity trading (non physical) experience and 1,5 years as an analyst ibd.
Wish you all good luck, and if I get invited for an interview see you in Geneva :)
Derp, anybody hear back yet? Nada from my end.
Nothing on my side either. The final round last year was on 1st May. Don't know when the program starts.
Nothing here either it almost seems like a previous poster said they'll just schedule a first round interview. Did anybody find out if this start in June/July or earlier?
Hi guys, when you all say " short listed " does it mean you have received the same general email that " they have identified a particular interest in your application " or is it something else ? . I just received one email from them saying the first round will be on 2 feb and final will be at the end of feb.
Yes that is what I got, your application is of particular interest, so who knows what that means
Errr, in hindsight, did anybody apply and not get that e-mail?
I was shortlisted back in december, still waiting for a definitive answer...abcd, did they provide you with any more details? how are you going to prep?
No mate. As I said I just received the same email that u all have recieved and to be honest I afraid they still have to short list candidates.
This^
gotcha....they must have received crazy amounts of applications....how will you guys prepare should you get the invite?
That's actually something I've been wondering I applied for both the Stamford Metals and Houston Oil programs but not sure which one I am getting interviewed for. Did anybody else apply for both? In regards to the oil program I am thinking on focusing on the oil 101 book.
Aaaand I just got rejected. Fuck.
Me too, got the same reply! Did anyone get invited?
Reject. lol
I don't think they are hiring anyone. they probably don't need more man power.. Seems like no one was successful which is really weird..
I don't think they are hiring anyone. they probably don't need more man power.. Seems like no one was successful which is really weird..
I don't know if they aren't hiring anyone, some people said they'd been invited to interviews in Houston.
But it sucks, they could at least have offered a telephone interview screening....
That was before the Junior program was initiated, so can't be the Jr trader program.. this is really shitty of trafigura, at least do a telephone interview
Got rejected here too, glad I wasted my time past 2 months preparing for nothing.
Exactly.
Everyone got rejected because they don't hire for the programme this year. They are fully staffed and bet more on Graduate program, is my guess
GG2013 did you go through?
got phone call on sunday. its at houston. told em i can't do weekdays... apparently its on a saturday. everything token has said seems to be true. so it seems they are interviewing still.
Hmm, I guess they're hiring in Houston but not Geneva? Congrats to everyone who got through,
Accepted, but from the first day of this thread the only people who've been getting interviews have been in Houston, there hasn't been a single post or mention about Geneva interviews, on this or other sites despite almost a dozen people here getting prelim e-mails about Geneva.
So yeah, I don't know anyone who got first round GE, does anyone?
i know some of them see some of these threads they just dont post.. i can sort of understand why. they had to figure it out on their own and don't see why they should increase their competition
Yeah, anyone who searches for Traf interviews is pretty much bound to end up here...there's just not a whole lot of motivation to post.
That said, wouldn't they do all first rounds for north america candidates in Houston/Stamford? Doesn't seem make much sense to fly everyone to Geneva for first rounds. For the grad program, they just had people interview in the closest geographic location even for those who ended up being placed in a different country. .
.
geneva were definitely hiring for the jnr trader program, i had my interview a couple of months ago. i messed it up unfortunately but have been asked to go back again when applications re-open in the autumn. makes me laugh people thinking just because they weren't good enough the company weren't hiring..
It also makes me laugh people thinking they messed up their interview when they r rejected. You got rejected just because u r not good that simple and Trafigura just made a mistake to call u for interview -- we r not living in an ideal world mistakes could happen.
Did you really need to make a second account to say the same thing you did with your JonnyBrav0 account? How's your insecurity working out for you? Good luck landing that Trafigura job with your broken english.
not true - you can mess up an interview but not really an application. if your cv / what you have had time to write about yourself & your ideas about commodity markets are not good enough to get you an interview, then you are not good enough.
i would imagine the firm they took people from is glencore, when i interviewed i met a guy also interviewing who was controlling a reasonable proportion of a niche book from glencore zug office. if you are of the calibre to already be trading physical and can bring contacts with you then i think you would need to be pretty impersonable for them not to give you at least a shot
i stayed in touch with a couple of the traders that interviewed me - all really good guys. i think there will be more opportunities if you can show you will add value. apparently most of the books are controlled by guys in their late 20s / early 30s, as a reasonable number retire / can afford to seek something more chilled when they get much older than that
Was not glencore
they extended offers to 3 people and all are at the same firm in different offices
I don't know about ur technical strength but what I could see from ur posts u have personality problem -- I hope they didn't reject u because of this.
hi guys, anyone heading to geneva for the international oil trader role? two days of trading games.. any suggestions how to prepare on that pls?
Trafigura Jr Trading Program (Originally Posted: 02/11/2013)
Has anyone been to Geneva for the Trafigura Jr. Trading Program interview? Any idea on format or what to expect.
Many Thanks
omg
anyone have an idea of what the assessment test is like?
Trafigura Junior Trader Program (Originally Posted: 12/19/2012)
Hey hey,
Has anyone applied to this and heard back? The deadline isn't until next month but it would be good to get an indicator of whether they've passed on my application or are just waiting until after the deadline to contact applicants.
On a more general note, has anyone applied to the program in the past? It seems to be new since there isn't a lot of info/experience on it around the web (it's different from the graduate scheme in that you need to have a few years experience to apply).
Thanks!
Educated guess: The typical trader at Trafigura knows how to use the search function.
D'oh, I searched a week or so ago and didn't find anything but there's a brand new thread about it (/forums/trafigura-junior-trader-program). Thanks for pointing it out, if any mods want to merge threads that would be great.
We haven't really said much, you could probably just post your questions in the other thread.
They never acknowledged receipt of my application. One day they just called me up on my cell and started interviewing me. It was odd, but I made it to the next round.
Markov if you don't mind me asking. What kind of questions did they ask you?
Some mental math, and questions about the risks of moving and trading physical commodities.
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