MSC FINANCIAL ENGINEERING

DEUTSCHE BANKER FINDS RIGHT BLEND OF MATHEMATICS, FINANCE AND COMPUTING IN FINANCING ENGINEERING PROGRAMME

Internships at three different companies didn’t quite pique Deborah Koh’s curiosity about banking, but they certainly kindled her interest in finance.

Her experiences at commodities trader Cargill, International Enterprise Singapore and the Monetary Authority of Singapore were disparate, but they had something in common.

“That was the application of my mathematics, economics, finance or computing knowledge in one way or another to deal with real-life problems,” says Koh, a graduate of Nanyang Business School’s master of science in financial engineering degree programme.

“The ability to use quantitative skills in a practical manner in the finance industry was something that I was really drawn to.”

Today, Koh is a graduate analyst at Deutsche Bank’s global transaction banking department, a position which she says she had not expected to be in when she began her studies in the MFE programme.

For her, the master’s programme was a readily available option because of the university’s offer of an integrated bachelor’s degree and master’s degree programme on a fast-track schedule of four years.

Koh’s undergraduate studies in mathematics and economics bolstered her interest in the MFE course, as she wanted to pursue a multidisciplinary programme that combined finance, mathematics and computing.

Given the rapid pace in which the finance industry was being melded with the technology sector, “I felt that this was a very relevant programme to prepare myself for the future of the finance world”, says Koh.

And compared with financial engineering programmes at other universities, Koh says Nanyang’s MFE course was known to be more focused on quantitative and computing skills – an important competitive advantage for jobs in finance. Koh says she was also swayed by the MFE programme’s partnership with Carnegie Mellon University.

During her undergraduate studies, Koh made the Dean’s List three years in a row. That made her consider further studies abroad, but she stayed in Singapore because she felt she needed more work experience to make better informed decisions about her career in the future. 

“Doing the MFE programme in Singapore – especially in NBS where the classes were held in the evenings and on weekends – would allow me to take on more internship opportunities concurrently, which I eventually did when I interned with Cargill during the first few terms of my MFE programme.” Koh says.

Of her experience at the MFE programme, Koh says that was not the easiest journey. “It was a very steep learning curve. And with each term being just seven weeks, we were expected to pick up complex content in a very short time,” she says.

“Nevertheless, my batch of MFE classmates were very willing to support one another, so it really helped that everyone was in this rigorous programme together.”

The academic challenges aside, the last term of studies spent at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, where Koh earned a certificate in computational finance, was the most memorable part of the MFE course, she says. 

“Being able to take classes at such a prestigious university was definitely an eye-opener, as the modules equipped us with a lot of hands-on experience working with real-life corporate cases,” Koh says.

“Living under the same roof with some of my classmates for more than two months was also one of the best experiences, and we still keep in close contact even after we have all started working.”

Having joined the world of finance, where does Koh see her career unfold over the next five to 10 years?

“While I would usually consider myself as quite a planner, over the years, I have come to realise that a lot of the time, progression comes in the form of unexpected opportunities,” she says.

“Especially in the finance industry, it is impossible to predict what might happen next as institutions could come and go. Lehman Brothers collapsed just 10 years ago.

“I believe the best thing I can do right now to plan for my future career progression is to always be open and driven to learn and expand my network, in order to gain as much skills and exposure as I can, so that when the right opportunity presents itself, I would be adequately equipped and ready to seize the opportunity.”