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Why did you choose the RMI’s MFE program? And what was the best part about the course? As I had graduated previously with a Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics, Economics and Actuarial Science, a course that was quantitative and related to finance was a natural choice. After attending a couple of presentations from RMI and speaking to some of the lecturers there, I chose RMI's MFE program for its reputation, teaching quality, and broad, yet practical curriculum. This combined the best of both worlds - hearing from active practitioners and having the right amount of theoretical depth to understand concepts. The best part about the course was the collective learning experience from my peers - while the lectures were very comprehensive themselves and the homework sets challenging, the after-class discussions were perhaps the liveliest and has led to many friendships over the years. Which of the skills/topics you learned during the MFE Program helped you the most in your professional life? The MFE curriculum presented a very broad framework across finance, mathematics and technology to bring one up to date with the tools necessary to solve increasingly quantitative problems in business and finance. As a risk manager, I found this breadth of knowledge with the appropriate level of depth to be very helpful in engaging in productive discussions with senior management and the trading floor. In this sense, the awareness of all these concepts helps very much in breaking down and solving multidisciplinary problems, and the appreciation of the underlying principles has proven to be the most relevant and enduring benefit of the program. In your opinion, what are the top five qualities in an individuals who is looking to pursue a career in financial engineering? Finance, in particular on the trading floor, is a place where the problems are fundamentally the same but the technology constantly evolves. Therefore, one of the top qualities of individuals is constant adaptability to changing circumstances, and the measure in which one can look at adaptability is how quickly one can grasp of the underlying structure and principles that define the problem and solve it with the right set of tools given the environment. Adjacent to this is a constant curiosity to new ideas and concepts, and the proactivity and initiative to gain these skills. Lastly, it is crucial to work well within a team, and to be observant and patient. If you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently? I should have less time worrying about whether all of the answers were correct for the homework! Joking aside, I would not have done anything differently. What is the one important advice you would like to share with current MFE students? My advice would be to ask as many annoying questions as possible, preferably after class, to your very helpful and knowledgeable professors. You won't always get the same chances to ask them!
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