I recently had the pleasure of being asked to advise a young female graduate who was trying to choose between taking a job offer from a large investment bank or a small trading house.

After talking for a while, she confessed to me that she had already chosen the investment bank, and that the real reason she wanted to talk to me was because there are so few female derivatives traders in the commodities sector. (I have been an oil trader in both the physical and derivatives market for 10 years.)

What she told me next really surprised me. She said the investment bank had offered her a trading job with the proviso that she could transition into a sales role if she failed at trading. She also mentioned that most people of whom she had asked advice had tried to steer her towards sales instead of trading.