Chemistry Major to Sales and Trading Career- August's Unconventional Success

Yes, investment banks love hiring non-finance majors and students from diverse academic streams. But don't let anyone tell you it's easier.

When August joined us, he was pursuing a degree in Chemistry and it was too late for him to switch degrees or take up any minors programs. His dream was to get into sales and trading after realizing that he had a preference for global markets rather than science. We knew breaking into sales and trading wasn’t going to be easy for him so we developed a meticulous plan to help him.

✅ Firstly, we worked on adjusting his CV to highlight strong transferrable skills such as his research and analytical skills

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✅ He joined regular interview training sessions to learn how to highlight his abilities, tackle brainteasers and technical QnA that would be asked in sales and trading interviews.

✅ We encouraged him to pursue sales, since he had an outgoing personality and was easy to communicate with. He also enjoyed working with people and clients very much so it seemed like the more suitable path for him.

✅ Since his product knowledge was weak, he pored through our technical training material and attended coach briefings to sharpen his financial product knowledge plus modeling and valuation skills 🤖

🎯We got August to get more pertinent experiences by joining trading simulation competitions and student investment clubs to imbibe stronger presentation skills along with market acumen.

He secured a middle office offer and a summer internship in private equity. We advised him to defer his studies and take up an internship in the investment firm. August's Chemistry background already trained him in data analysis and visualization skills that came in handy.

We encouraged him to keep applying to more firms in the subsequent semesters, building up his financial research and investment evaluation skills.

With sufficient interview training, August learnt how to present his weaknesses as strengths to interviewers, and eventually landed a sales and trading summer analyst internship in a large international bank!

His decision pivot from chemistry to a sales career came in late, around year 3 but August matched his unconventional move with exceptional effort to capitalise on his strengths and offset the weak aspects of his profile.

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