Anyone know a good place to start for Commodity jobs in Chicago?
- Thread starter Martim
- Start date
No, if you have a good track record on a notable commercial or spec desk with references that would do nicely.
If your mommy or daddy live there or aunty or uncle perhaps. If you don't have ties to Chicago and want to be serious about a career in commodities trading better look elsewhere. Your call.
I don't disagree at all with your assertion that coding and quant skills are crucial for a bank trading job. But a bit of disagreement and nuance overall. First the nuance, trading is a small specific niche of the financial services industry. While it's true that very few folks from the top business schools go into trading, it's absolutely not the case that i-banks and the buy-side aren't still recruiting and hiring almost exclusively from those schools. In the hierarchy (which seems to really matter to the people who go into finance) an associate is considered above trader both at an i-bank and on the buy side, which is the primary reason HSWB grads generally self-select not to go into trading rather than the other way around. I'd also point out that a good portion of every MBA class is made up of folks with engineering, math, CS, and science undergrad degrees, so if you want to hire a HSWB grad with quant skills you can just grab one of those. Not to mention the fact that a decent number of kids take college calc as a junior in high school....kids these days are amazing!
I am afraid you are confusing a few concepts here. First of all I never stated that MBAs are not hired into banks and funds at all. But the rate of hiring has significantly decreased. I would reckon at most half if not less of MBAs are hired these days compared to just a few years ago. That is more than 50% less. On the other hand much more STEMs are hired.
You seem to confuse the concept of job title with rank title. "trader" is a job title. An associate is a rank title. Comparing the two makes no sense there is no hierarchy among them. Almost anyone out of grad school starts as associate on the sell side. Whether trading or Ibanking or whatever other area.
I get you have an MBA and you see value in it. It's probably a pretty good education for someone who wants to become a CEO. But for any job that requires specialization and domain knowledge a generalist, such as an MBA, often is a misplacement. Of course MBAs tried for decades to hide that fact by not even letting STEMs in. But once the nerds had the chance to prove themselves they clearly showed their superior skill set as applied to trading and asset pricing. Heck they completely re-engineered the supply chain and work flow.
You seem to confuse the concept of job title with rank title. "trader" is a job title. An associate is a rank title. Comparing the two makes no sense there is no hierarchy among them. Almost anyone out of grad school starts as associate on the sell side. Whether trading or Ibanking or whatever other area.
I get you have an MBA and you see value in it. It's probably a pretty good education for someone who wants to become a CEO. But for any job that requires specialization and domain knowledge a generalist, such as an MBA, often is a misplacement. Of course MBAs tried for decades to hide that fact by not even letting STEMs in. But once the nerds had the chance to prove themselves they clearly showed their superior skill set as applied to trading and asset pricing. Heck they completely re-engineered the supply chain and work flow.
Sometimes these guys hire..orange juice futures though.
