If this is your first job, I think there is no wrong decision. People are often worried about making a mistake when they are only 22 or 23 years old. It's no big deal. 

You can always change to another job in 1-2 years (or even 6 months ;)). 

What you should be worried about is if you have been doing a certain job for 10 years and you hate it. Then you will struggle more to change. 

In short, you could do PwC or Trafigura for 1 year, then try something else and then try something else. I would not worry too much.

Hi there,

Congratulations on the offers! In terms of your question:

Q: Any comments on what I should be going for?

As general elements, I would consider the following:

• Where do you want to be in 5-10 years? Try to identify the company that can help you to achieve that goal faster. You can check LinkedIn for that (see below).
• If you consider the average person you talked to in each company, which one would you rather be? You will spend a lot of time with your colleagues in the next years - be sure you choose a company where the people are close to the person you want to become.
• If money and prestige were not a consideration, which company would you choose? This could help you to identify additional elements to weigh you have not considered yet.

In terms of future exits, you can check them as follows:

1. Look for alumni of the two companies on LinkedIn.
2. Check how many moved to your preferred exits in your target region.
3. Normalize for the size of the companies in the region.

If you want to do extra due diligence, you can contact Alumni of your university who worked there (bonus if they worked for both firms). Most likely, you will learn more in a 30-minute call with them than with any online research you might do.

Best,

Francesco

Hi there,

First of all, congratulations on the offers!

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your question:

I would highly advise you to opt for the option that better aligns with your professional (and maybe even personal) mid- to long-term goals. In order to make an informed decision, I would advise you to do the following:

• Weigh the different criteria that are meaningful to you independently of the current options (e.g., prestige, culture, international exposure, compensation, location). After that, score the two options based on your criteria and their weighting, resulting in two scores. This way, you have covered the left-brain perspective.
• Critically assess your initial reaction to the outcome of the scores. For instance, if you feel the urge to tweak the numbers, this is a solid indicator that you do not want this decision to become reality. This way, you have covered the right-brain perspective.
• By doing so, you will be able to integrate both parts of the brain into the decision-making, guaranteeing a higher chance that you will still be happy with it years later.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to address your specific situation, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

It sounds like the core reason for joining PwC is the pay, which is never strong enough to carry you through the tough times. 

I'd recommend you reflect instead on where you want to be with your career in 5-10 years and then ask yourself which of the two options is bringing you closer to that. 

This should make the decision process easier. 

Best,
Cristian

Hi there,

The answer depends on what your long-term goals are.

If you want to see a lot in a short amount of time, keep your options open on what to pursue later on in life, go for PwC.

If you want to have a more stable, relaxed job and are passionate about the energy markets, go for Trifigura.

Reading between the lines of your text, it seems like you have already made a decision. :-)

All the best,

Florian

Hi there,

Sounds like you love trading/energy markets. Sounds like you like Trafigura as a firm.

If x is what you want to do in life, why even do y?

My 2 cents at least :)

Go to glassdoor as you probably will find many former employee reviews on Trafigura.