A day in the life of Jake Weiss, Graduate Analyst

Jake was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Mathematical Economics. Prior to joining Vortexa, Jake worked as researcher for The Concord Group which is a real estate consulting firm based out of Newport Beach, California. Fun fact: I love baking, my favourite thing that I have made is a pretzel bread pudding. Second favourite thing that I have made, pretzels.

What does day-to-day life in your role look like?

Being based in Houston, my mornings tend to have at least one or two meetings while there is still overlap with the London office. After my meetings I’ll take stock of what I have on my plate for the day and set a goal of what I want to finish, and where I want to be with my ongoing tasks by the end of the day. Each day there’s something different going on, and my projects will change priority depending on client needs or what’s happening in the news. 

What would you say is the most interesting aspect of your role?

I really like the investigations we run based on current news. Whether it’s a drought in the Panama Canal causing congestion, Venezuelan Sanctions being lifted or renewed, or attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. The news has such a big impact on our work that I find myself hearing world news and thinking “now how is that going to affect tankers or exports in that region”.

What was your path to joining Vortexa? 

Coming out of college with a Mathematical Economics degree, one of my economics professors was an energy economist, and his course is what got me interested in the energy field. I was searching for analyst roles in the energy field on LinkedIn when I saw Vortexa’s graduate energy analyst position, and it seemed exactly what I was looking to do.

What kind of qualities does a person need to have to succeed at Vortexa?

They have to be curious and eager to learn. Ask questions whether it’s regarding markets, data, or learning the tools of industry.

What do you like about the culture? 

Everyone is super willing to help out if you need something explained to you, and if whoever you’re talking to doesn’t have the answer they’ll point you to someone who does. They really make you feel at ease and welcomed.

Who do you collaborate with?

All most all of my collaboration has been with the analysis team, which is further split into 3 groups of analyst, market, data, and freight. I collaborate most with our market and data analysts.

What are the first three things you do on a Monday morning? 

Check my phone for any slack messages and to confirm my meetings for the day, grab coffee or tea depending on what I’m feeling that day, and finally make sure I’m all prepared for the first meeting I have.

What energises you most about working as a Graduate Analyst at Vortexa?

Honestly it’s getting to work with my coworkers. I had an introductory meeting with a person who’d just joined Vortexa, and she made a comment that in all of her introductory meetings with the various teams everyone is always smiling. It feels like everyone is just very excited to be here, new hires and people who’ve been here since the beginning, and that definitely feeds into my own energy and readiness to work.