Questions

Please tell us about your experience of using the University's services.

As an international student, it was crucial for me to understand the UK job market well before I started making applications for full-time roles. The careers network played a big role in helping me understand how things work here in the UK. Not only do they provide career guidance, and mentoring sessions, but also give you the option to book one-on-one CV analysis sessions. They also take mock interviews for you so that you can become more comfortable giving interviews, It’s a huge plus overall.

What has been your biggest achievement during your course so far?

One of my biggest achievements is getting the UGS scholarship. As a UGS scholar, I help and conduct events for my fellow postgraduate students throughout the year. There is nothing better than having a fun evening after a hectic week with other postgraduate students. I am also honored to be the Postgraduate Ambassador and Maths ambassador, which lets me help potential postgraduate students make better choices about their studies.

What are the best things about your course?

I love everything about my course so far. In fact, I can strongly say that MSc mathematical finance at the University of Birmingham is one of the best curriculum courses you can find in the UK in the field of quantitative finance. There is a right mixture of theory and practicality in the real world. I love how mathematical concepts are structured here to help us understand them in a simpler manner. As it is an interdisciplinary course, we are also offered courses from the School of Computer Science and Business School.

Tell us about yourself and your journey to postgraduate study.

I am a finance guy. Founded Blackwater Capital during my bachelor’s, in a nutshell, it is a Quant Hedge fund. Completed my Economics degree from MIT, cleared the CFA level, and landed right into an MSc in Mathematical Finance to grow my knowledge base. The journey to postgraduate study definitely wasn’t linear, there were many hiccups and lows, but I had a clear view of what I think is best for me. An MSc degree doesn’t just increase my career prospectus but also helps me stand in academia. It’s just a different ball game compared to a bachelor’s degree where the focus is primarily on breadth.

What was your motivation for postgraduate study?

In the second year of my bachelor’s degree, I realized that quantitative finance is the field in which I would like to pursue my career. Being an interdisciplinary course, it required a higher understanding of complex mathematical and computation models. Hence a masters was a choice to deepen my understanding of these concepts. Postgraduate studies also gave me an extension to my education journey, helping me work on projects that I thought during my bachelor’s but couldn’t complete due to complexity or lack of guidance.