Is it too late for me to start a career in trading?

Ok given the title, you may be thinking that I'm a couple of years from retirement! I'm 24, with a desire to work in the city.

A little history about myself - I graduated with a 1st class Economics degree in 2006. I still regret not going to a top-ten uni despite having the grades to do so - my uni's placed around the 20's so that's the first hurdle. I know i'm competing against oxbridge grads who are looked at more favourably.

I work in investment consulting, a job which I took as I thought it may give me an advantage when applying for front-office positions at Investment Banks, and then the banking system almost collapsed making things a bit more difficult emplyment-wise. Given that I am now 24 and graduated 2.5 yrs ago I'm not sure I'm even eligible for graduate positions (I'd be 26 when the grads start in 2010, which would be the next intake - it's too late to apply for the 2009 intake now). How do I go about getting into the profession?

I'm currently studying for the CFA qualification although this, I'm sure, counts for nothing in the trading industry. I think I may seriously consider studying for the SII qualification in my spare time, and of course I will be learning as much about trading as possible. I have no knowledge of C++, although I speak 2 foreign languages fluently so I know I'd be able to pick this up quickly if it would be an advantage learning it.

I have a burning ambition to enter trading so any advice would be much appreciated.

I'm kind of in the same boat as you mate. Went to Imperial to do maths, didn't make the effort like I should have; got given the option to take a year out and repeat with the chance of a maximum 2.2, thought bugger this and left. The only place I found in London to take me in was Greenwich, any other UoL wouldn't take me for some crappy reason to do with already sitting UoL exams. Ended up getting a 1st (w/ honours as if that makes any difference), which from Greenwich was about as hard as wiping my ass. And now I'm doing a full bursary PhD there in CFD, which is mostly debugging c++; I carried on because I knew I'd have next to no chance getting a decent job with just the BSc. To be honest with you though, as a PhD I still have next to no chance when I'm competing with Oxbridge PhD's, who aren't necessarily doing a financial subject, but at least something a bit more applicable than mine. If you really want to enter a graduate position you should be fine as long as you can show you've been doing something since graduating, which you obviously have. There's nothing you can do about your uni, but if your cv is good enough, and you have the extra curriculars then you should have a fairly good chance at getting to interview. What I'm planning on doing, and have been doing, is actually learning about trading and financial maths throughout my PhD, and trading on my own account, which hopefully will stand me in good stead with getting a place in an arcade, which as far as I've gathered is really the place you want to be if you want to be trading sooner rather than later, and if your going to be good at it, if not then why bother...

One thing though mate, I speak 1.5 foreign languages fluently, and it makes no difference at all to the ease of learning to programming

I thought this was going to be a thread about the collapse of trading as a way of life... Mate you're 24 years old. You're still a baby in the eyes of those that matter, anyone who tells you that you can't get a job in finance at this age is just regurgitating the myths that seem to surround the industry.

Without wanting to sound like a bad movie, don't ever let anyone tell you you can't achieve something you want for your life. Especially at 24!

To give you an example, I had a friend who was studying to become a CA, decided he didn't like it and got a job with Morgan Stanley instead. All at the ripe old age of 31.

Besides, the beauty of trading is you don't need a CV and a nice tie, if you can substitute it with talent, determination and some financial backing

Too old?!

Thas nowt but an ankle grabber!

thanks for your comments. I'll learn as much as I can and hopefully will break into the industry.

I would have thought the potential issue might be the state of the industry at present or is that only banking: Wouldn't some of those bright young current employees in areas that are in crisis want to move to trading?

What's the London trading business like currently?

nine said:

I would have thought the potential issue might be the state of the industry at present or is that only banking: Wouldn't some of those bright young current employees in areas that are in crisis want to move to trading?

What's the London trading business like currently?

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Wouldn't have thought so; IBs tend to look down on prop, in fact it has been said that working at a prop firm is 'CV poison' for those in power at the banks, for reasons I am aware of but do not agree with. Anyway, you might get the odd extra guy coming through the gates, but there's no real job crisis at banks just yet; Lehman's guys got picked up by Nomura for the huge majority, yes Citi will lay people off but I'd imagine the talent will be picked up by other banks fairly quickly.