Breaking into commodities as an engineering graduate - still possible?
Hey everyone,
could really use some advice here, been trying to break into commodities and not sure what the smartest next move is.
I’m finishing my MSc in Mechanical Engineering at ETH (graduating this October, ~3.75 GPA). Over the past year I’ve gotten pretty into commodities, mainly oil & gas, renewables, and metals like copper and zinc.
So far I’ve done an internship in business development and spent quite a bit of time trying to actually understand markets, reading things like Commodities Demystified, The World for Sale / Perfectly Hedged, Oil 101, and generally following news pretty closely. I also applied to a bunch of roles and made it to second round at Trafigura, which was encouraging, but didn’t convert. And yeah, Glencore is 0/4 with no interviews at all lol.
Right now I’m kind of stuck in a weird gap. Most grad programs that start in 2027 are not even open for applications yet, so that path is basically on hold for now. At the same time I’ve got interviews coming up for internships, one at BCG as a Visiting Associate and one at Axpo, which is a Swiss energy company, for a data analytics role. I’m also still applying to trading houses like Tricon and Peninsula, but haven’t heard back so far.
So I’m wondering what you would do in my position. Does it make sense to take another internship, even if it’s not directly commodity related, and just keep applying on the side?
Would really appreciate any honest advice, especially from people who didn’t come from a super traditional background.
Thanks