FX Sales & Trading Graduate

Hugh Stevens

Finance

Degree Apprenticeship

NatWest Group

What was the interview process like?

The interviews were predominantly competency-based, but also tested your understanding of financial markets and awareness of current affairs. As well as face-to-face interviews, we also had to take part in a trading game and individual presentation exercise.

How much responsibility were you given?

Certainly more than I expected. Both of my rotations were on trading desks so the first couple of weeks on each were spent shadowing traders and learning as much as possible, but once I’d built up my understanding I was analysing client trading behaviours and personally recommending pricing changes as a result.

What advice would you give to someone applying for your role?

In terms of the interviews and application process, I’d advise treating it as an academic exercise: commit a few days to fully research the company and what’s going on in the relevant markets. Make sure you know exactly what opportunities are available because you don’t want to tell an interviewer that you’ve always wanted to work in commodities if they don’t have any commodities desks!

Describe a situation where you surpassed expectations.

On my first rotation on the EM Rates Trading desk, I worked with one of the senior traders to put together an Excel spread-sheet to help them price various interest rate products. Even now (2 years later) they are still using an updated version of that same sheet that I put together as an intern!

How promising are the graduate prospects?

The graduate scheme in FX is different to elsewhere in Markets. You spend the first year rotating across Sales, Trading and Strategy which is great because you get a chance to meet lots of different people and get a flavour of what you’re really suited to before joining a desk. You also have plenty of ‘extra-curricular’ opportunities to continue networking amongst your graduate class after they’ve joined different areas of the bank.