I've read enough to understand that hard work and passion does not exactly translate to success in trading. There are many out there that have yet to achieve consistency after 10+ years of trading. I am very passionate about trading and I have confidence in being able to find my edge, but I believe I should still have something to fall back on like a job so I wouldn't be homeless at the end of the day.
So because of what you read you decided hard work and passion is not for you? Mediocre GPA and no coding skills...hmm. So what ARE you passionate about and what skills DO you have? Your latter comment is irrelevant imo. Or do you want to waste your education and become on of the 98% of broke guys in life who lie to themselves that they are successful traders? I don't think so. So, forget trading for the time being and focus right now on your life and future. What are you good at and what do you enjoy doing? You may not like to hear how I say things but I tell you at least the truth.
Your last two posts are refreshingly correct and wise. Work Hard, Work Smart. Those two give you are definite advantage. Also commit. I tell people "Make up your mind.... So you can change it". Details make a difference, some would say most of the difference. BTW: It took me 7 years of breaking even, a 5 year break, and 2 years more to get consistent and profitable in ES. Tool improvement helped a lot. Just 1/2 days (12 hours days), and a lot of analysis and meta analysis. I had no financial pressure.
I’m not sure whether such jobs still exist, except for scammy shops where they may ask you to put up your own money and/or pay various fees, then getting paid commissions. Or when your job is to simply execute trades for someone else, or to help execute specific strategy, under tight risk management. Actually no one is even allowed large leverage utilized by pro traders from the past anymore, and needed to pyramid into positions, for example. Any “real” traders are a dying breed and looking for new careers as well, or trading their own money. Some may manage hedge funds, but that’s also different from traditional trading. While trading doesn’t even work unless it can conform to specific rules that can be tested, which can then be automated, not needing any smartasses who think they can outsmart a strategy and trade other people’s money. That’s like trying to be a professional blackjack player - but you either have to follow the basic strategy or count cards (finding a structural cheat in case of the stock market). No one would hire you thinking that you can win more by not following the rules. And the trading industry is also at risk of being taxed on trades, restricted from shorting, further deleveraged, etc. Personally I don’t think that trading jobs will even exist 10-30 years from now, if they even still exist now. Except for being an entrepreneur and running it as your own business, but you can’t learn this from someone else because pro traders work for themselves, and even then it’s hard to figure out who may be lying. While even large banks and institutions experienced large trading losses and had to get rid of trading branches, or hire risk managers to watch over every trader and restrict their freedom and leverage. So having a goal of having a job as a “trader” seems at least strange to me, similarly to waning to have a job as a “blackjack player”. Both stock markets and casinos are now mature, professional and regulated industries overseen by professional risk & compliance managers (and mathematicians in case of the stock market) who don’t want any wise guys around who imagine they can beat the system by making non-math based decisions. Good luck.
Investment bank grad scheme, then moved to the buy side. Another option you might consider is getting a back or middle office type job and working your way in from there. It is possible, although not as easy as if you can walk straight into the front office. The other thing that might help is that some IB grad schemes recruit initially through an online test, which is background-blind. It probably helped me: I did a maths test and because I was in the top 1% or 5% (can't remember) I was guaranteed an interview. I had a slightly weird CV (I was 7 years older than the average grade) went to a good university - but not super top tier - but I was top of my class acamemically, so I may or may not have had a chance otherwise. Finally, this might help. GAT
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/ You'll need this for today's trading environment - especially if you want a job at a private fund, proprietary firm, or IB. I wish you good fortune !
Maybe with an MS in Economics from Chicago or MIT. Zero chance with a mediocre GPA from a State School. None. I've seen Banks and Funds hire Engineers, Developers/Programmers, and Physicists from State Schools but he's clearly not that.
He asked what route I took. I told him. I appreciate it is not relevant to him. But I also gave him some advice that might be more helpful to his specific CV. I don't know what a 'state school' is because I'm British, but I can imagine it's a lower teir university. GAT