Hi all,Just to have some little advise from all of us. I have just finished a Master in Quantitative finance here in Spain - The master gave me the quantitative aspects of financial instruments - from price modelling to valuation and risk management through the application of closed formulas as well as of Monte Carlo simulation. Our basic books were Derivatives (Wilmott) and Option Futures and other Derivatives (Hull) with some little practice in using Matlab.Now I am very interested in develop my professional career in the energy sector, due to the new opportunities in the european liberalized energy sector but I do have not professional experience yet. At this point, what to do?1) Take another extra finance course specialised in energy risk management, and in that case which one is the most required in the finance world? 2) Apply to a job position in a energy company - quite difficult due to my lack of experience although I am studying Les Clewlow & Chris Strickland book and papers-If any of you have had the same dilema, I would appreciate any advise about possible courses or energy companies interested in training in that specialised area.Any help would be very appreciated.Mónica.

Moni,Jobs in the energy sector that you might be looking at seem to be split up into three major catagories: traders, middle office analysts, industry analysts. (someone please step in if you feel I've missed any.traders trade hedges, do bidding, etcmiddle office analysts do VaR calculations, mark to market of portfolio, risk management, performance, work out the demand (in the case of a retailer), operational risk, credit risk, etcindustry analysts look at regulatory stuff, forecasting prices, forecasting system demand, etc.Most of the traders seem to have trading experience in other industries, but I'd say that if this was the area you wanted to get into, further study would not be that helpful - a trading mentality (and dare I say it, contacts in the industry) would count a lot more, along with experience.middle office analysts would typically have no more academic background than you do now, however you may need to improve your VBA/Access skills to be really useful to a company. Knowing more complex mathematical models for pricing energy derivatives, while possibly being helpful at one of the few top companies, may actually be a hindrance at most other companies, as a lot of the methods aren't actually practical. And in a year of working you'd probably know more about this stuff than most of your lecturers.if you want to be an industry analyst, then possibly further study might be good. They seem to value statistics, econometrics, economics skills, and industry experience. However I don't know that they'd value an "energy risk management" course, as packaged by a number of universities.So to sum up, I'd suggest that further study would actually make it harder to get a job (although if you got a job it would be a better one, but there are less jobs for the highly qualified) - certainly this would seem the case in Australia - possibly someone could confirm if this is the case in the US or Europe.Good luck.

I think a better way is to break down jobs in energy trading into commercial and non-commercial functions:Commercial:- Trading - Anything from trading day-ahead to options and helping to originate and structure deals. Very similar to any other trading role in any other market.- Origination - The easiest comparison is with a sales role in an I-Bank: Talking to clients, helping structure deals, negotiating with the client etc.- Structuring - Signing off deal structures, helping to optimise and improve structures and is probably the area on the commercial side that requires the most quant finance knowledge.- Analyst - This is market analysis and is usually a support role for traders and originators - building supply and demand models for countries and regions in the gas/power/oil markets and helping the traders work out the microeconomics of the the commodity. This is typically a more junior role that usually does not require a graduate degree (apologies if this is not the case), whereas the other three roles are typically for graduate degree people. However, trading support people (those involved in the physical scheduling and settlement of energy deals) do graduate to trading roles on the short end of the curve very often, simply because they understand the behaviour of that part of the market better than most.Non-Commercial- Research - Look for PhDs etc. not just in finance, but microeconomics, game theory all that stuff. They build new models for pricing and market modelling.- Product Control - Trade accountants - not very glamorous but I think some trading companies did not take it seriously enough.- Risk Management - Market risk - VaR, trade approval etc.. Credit Risk - Counterparty analysis and quantitative loss modelling.After the Enron blow-up, most firms scooped up as many Enron people as possible and hence stopped hiring so aggressively once finished. However, as of a few months ago, I know many of the firms were still looking for analyst/junior trader level (i.e. cheap!) people in London. Also, if you are willing to relocate to Germany (Essen, Frankfurt) or Holland( Amsterdam,) there are other opportunities.Also, like gjlipman says, a lot of the complex pricing model stuff just isn't practicable and arguably it is more useful just to get in there and get some practical experience.Espero que tengas suerte!cfp928

gjlipman adn cfp928,Thanks for your information.Can anyone recommend head-hunters specialising in Energy and Commodities? I so far know Commodity Appointments only.Thanks.

I think most of the headhunters that advertise on Wilmott.com have energy market people as well. But why not talk to the energy companies direct as well? Talk to the HR people and they will be able to tell you if they are looking for new recruits etc.. I know, HR people are not usually the most expert bunch when it comes to assessing your potential, but in these times, if a company can save on paying headhunter commissions it might work in your favour.

it's been six months since i'm looking in energy trading and i can tell you that in Europe is quite tough.as it has been said, companies have made their shopping after Enron collapse... UBS Warburg is first position (as I saw on papers, it is not as successful as they forecasted)with Reliant "turn-around" trades, Williams cash crunch and others bad news, the situation could hardly been worse.I guess in US, it should be better (am I wrong ?)