Campus life: "EDHEC’s MSc in Financial Engineering is widely considered to be challenging and renowned for its excellence in the industry"

What is your background before joining EDHEC?

Before joining EDHEC, I received my bachelor’s degree in Mathematics in Business and Economics from the University of Mannheim. I enjoyed my studies of rigorous mathematical concepts and I felt like I wanted to apply the concepts I had studied in a finance-related environment. As I also really enjoyed the finance classes I took as a minor.

You joined EDHEC at the Master 1 level of the MiM-Finance. Can you sum up your experience of the track?

My time at EDHEC started in 2020 during the height of the Covid pandemic. Luckily, the administration, the management, and the professors made sure we had the best possible learning experience and still were able to enjoy our time as students. We were on campus as much as possible during this time as it is crucial to network with our peers and to learn as much as possible. I enjoyed working together in groups and doing assignments that have real relevance compared to short exams that just validate that you can remember things by heart. Even though those assignments and presentations are sometimes cumbersome they make sure you really understand the content.

You chose to specialise in Financial Engineering for your Master 2. Why this choice?

I decided to join the Financial Engineering track as this was my aspiration from the time, I joined EDHEC because I felt my mathematical background would be most valuable. Furthermore, the classes I enjoyed most and excelled at were the classes in derivatives, econometrics, and fixed income. Also, I extremely enjoyed my internship with BNP Paribas on an equity derivative sales desk such that I made up my mind that I wanted to pursue a career in this field. Thus, I decided to join the MSc in Financial Engineering which is widely considered to be challenging and renowned for its excellence in the industry.

What aspects of the MSc programme do you enjoy the most so far?

What I enjoy most about the programme is working on challenging projects together with people from diverse cultural and educational backgrounds. I think nobody would argue with me that the more diverse groups are the better the results they come up with are. Different views help us to come up with more and therefore necessarily better solutions. This possibility to learn together and having content delivered by great professors.

Your favourite class? Professor? And why?

I think it is really hard to say which class I have enjoyed most so far as I was lucky enough to follow a lot of amazing classes. However, I would say the three courses I enjoyed most were Advanced Derivatives, Machine Learning, and Advanced Fixed Income. Those three courses were the best for me because they were quite technical but also quite applied. Especially the two courses mentioned first by my favourite professor Dominic O’Kane were not only extremely interesting but thanks to the extensive coding exercises I got to better understand the content I was studying and further improve my coding skills.

How different are the courses at EDHEC, compared to your University in Germany?

I would say they are quite different. My bachelor’s degree was extremely focused on academia, and we had to submit weekly assignments to be allowed to take an exam at the end of the courses. Whereas, at EDHEC the focus is not just on academia but there is also a strong emphasis on interpersonal skills thanks to the many group projects, real-world assignments, and presentations we are asked to do. I am extremely thankful for this as I genuinely believe that working together with others – including people you might not get along with – and real-world assignments are much more important for my career than being able to perform in a 90-minute exam with shortened examples. In all our assignments we often see that concepts that seem easy at first have some pitfalls as soon as one tries to apply them in a real setting.

What has been the greatest opportunity you have had at EDHEC so far?

Honestly, there are many: I was lucky enough to have great professors many of them have not only outstanding academic profiles but also hands-on experience from working in the financial industry. I was lucky to attend many alumni events and be able to ask questions to former students who made it in this competitive environment. I was lucky to be able to land great internships with Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, and Moody’s thanks to what I learned at EDHEC. And I was lucky to get to know a lot of amazing students throughout my studies so far. I look forward to making it together with them in the financial industry thanks to the experiences we made at EDHEC.

Can you tell us about the career services you benefited from?

First of all, I think it is vital to have somebody who saw as many CVs and Cover Letters as the recruiters at the top-tier banks. They know what the recruiters are looking for and how to adjust to land the best possible roles. Furthermore, it is great to have somebody to talk to.

Joining EDHEC makes you an Alumnus from the start. How have you benefited from the EDHEC’s alumni network?

Yes, without a doubt. Before joining EDHEC, I did not believe that alumni would be willing to take some time from their busy schedules to speak to people they don’t know. But in almost all cases, they offer to have at least a short 10-minute call with you when you approach them via LinkedIn or email and show genuine interest in what they do. Furthermore, Emmanuel Jurczenko, the director of the graduate Finance programme at EDHEC regularly brings alumni to our campus in Nice. During those events, we had the opportunity to ask questions we might not want to ask on a trading floor to former alumni who are now working at Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, or other banks and financial service providers. For me, those sessions are extremely valuable as it just takes me an hour to understand certain roles, I have not encountered during my gap year. That information helps extremely during interviews.

What are your career aspirations?

I aspire to start a career in the field of equity derivatives ideally through a graduate programme that allows me to also hold trading and structuring roles. Roles I did not experience firsthand during my gap year. I want to work in this field as the ideal workplace must offer three things: challenging tasks that sometimes might frustrate you a bit before getting the gratification of coming up with a solution. Secondly, I want to work with the best colleagues as I want to learn from them and grow but also there is nothing worse for me than working with unmotivated people. Thirdly, I want to have some randomness in my job as I want to come into the office in the morning without exactly knowing what the day will bring.

What advice would you give someone who is thinking about applying for the programme?

The best advice I could give is to start taking advantage of the vast alumni network from the first minute. Many of my fellow students including me did not know how many roles in financial markets are out there but speaking to alumni helps to understand that. This will give you an edge in real interviews. Secondly, speak to the students in the M2 on campus as they were in your position just 2 years ago. Picking their brains in the application processes is invaluable. Thirdly, be always engaged and do the best you can in anything you do. People from your class will remember you and the world of finance is extremely small.

If you had three words, to sum up, your EDHEC experience, what would they be?

Engagement, Companionship, and Succeeding

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