You should try to get a part-time or summer job with any brokerage firm that has either a floor operation or an inhouse trading department and many do who are not in cities with exchanges.
You go after any job that the firm has open, you need to help fill out your resume.
There's no reason to get with "one of the big banks" very few banks are on the floor, but there are more brokerage firms
Try to get a job either in trading, P&S, stock loan, Fails, or almost any back office operations.
Once you learn something about the markets and the products traded in those markets you can always move into trading. And the more people you meet in the industry, the better you will have a short of getting what you want
Trading stocks? Not many people do that on "the floor" anymore. It's all online. If you are thinking of going into trading get a degree in finance, econ, or something related.
Look at equity trading, hedgefunds, etc..
Currently in year 9, so am beginning to think about what sort of place I need to go for work experience. I want to work as a trader on the trading floor when I am older. I live nowhere near the city so there is no chance of me getting a placement at one of the big banks. So what sort of smaller firms do I need to be looking at in order to learn the ropes as it were?
