Rising stars of the industry are keen to embrace new technology and work with senior colleagues – and if given the right opportunities, their career paths can develop faster than ever before, panelists at FILS Europe affirmed.
Young traders are ambitious, and want to be challenged in their roles.
“You have to be outside your comfort zone every day. That’s how you know you’re doing a good job,” one panellist said.
“Junior traders used to be doing much less value-add work, Now they’re having higher level conversations,” another speaker added
The importance of shadowing senior traders was also emphasised, alongside being given the opportunity to learn in a real trading environment rather than through simulations.
The panelists stressed the value of two-way mentorships, whereby they are given the opportunity to share new technological skills with seniors while learning from those with more experience.
While young people may be better at using technology than their older coworkers, panellists were keen to emphasise the value of being a generalist.
“Technology is important, and you need to embrace it, but you don’t have to be a specialist in coding or quant to be a trader,” said one junior. “A generalist mindset is more important.”
Looking forward, Mehdi Abdi, head of global credit at PGGM Investments, added that he expects desks of the future to be more of a mix of disciplinary backgrounds. AI and quant skills will be important, he confirmed, but so will interpersonal skills.
He went on to stress the importance for young traders in the industry to put themselves out there and build relationships with others in the industry.
That said, the panelists were keen for firms to embrace technological developments.
“If they lean into big industry changes, there are more opportunities for junior talent,” one panellists said.
On AI, one of the fastest moving developments of recent years, they noted that while they are using the technology to find answers for questions and complete lower value tasks, trade execution remains manual.
“The human touch is still needed,” Abdi commented.
Another trader added that “AI won‘t replace actual intelligence”.
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