My role is to cater to clients such as airlines or shipping companies, for whom the major cost item is fuel (oil and natural gas). Oil producers who sell oil in the market are also my clients. When somebody's main expenditure or income is so volatile in terms of its price, it makes it very difficult for one to sleep at night, not knowing whether a world event would lead the prices to skyrocket or plummet.

So, companies such as shipping companies and airline companies engage in an activity called "hedging", which in simple terms would refer to fixing a price for a future purchase of a product, so that any future price increase or decrease would not have an impact on the pre-fixed price. We help clients determine what should be the ideal price to take a bet on, based on our assessment of what the price of the product would be in the market 6 months or a year. For instance, where an oil-rich country such as Iran is allowed to export oil by way of freeing up restrictions by the US, it may result in a higher world supply of oil and consequently a drop in the oil prices. If an event like this is foreseen, oil buyers may want to lock in their prices at a low price, and oil sellers may want to lock in at a higher price. We help clients decide what price to lock in on.

No two days are the same at my day@work. Through the week, we try to put together charts analysing prices, find relevant data, form storylines, and on Friday, we publish our analysis of oil prices which are sent to clients.

I did my school education at Mumbai, where I attended junior college for 2 years after Class 10. I chose the Science stream, which included economics as one of the subjects. I instantly took a liking towards it, and I did my under graduation in economics (BSc) at RA Podar College of Economics, which has a University of London program, affiliated to the London School of Economics. I then did my MSc Economics at the London School of Economics (a 10-month program). Truth be told, until I went looking for jobs after completing my post-graduation, I didn't know about a career like mine exist.

Now, coming to whether my skills are transferrable - though my skills are pretty specialised, I could always move to analyse any other commodity in the market. I am an economist, but not all of my colleagues are. While some of them are economists, some are CFAs (Chartered Financial Analysts), and some are stock traders.

If at all, I want to switch careers, alternative options that I would be looking at would be in the fields of econometric modelling, data analysis or a policy consulting role. If I want to take up a job in finance, CFA will help me do so. A doctorate is also another option.

My love for numbers, statistics and analysis prompted me to choose this career. If you have similar interests, and a penchant for understanding world events, being an economic and commodity research may just be your forte!