MSC FINANCIAL ENGINEERING

Engineering a New Career in High-Tech Finance with NTU’s MSc Financial Engineering

Manav Mehra, an alumnus of MSc in Financial Engineering, shares how he picked up crucial skills at Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU) Nanyang Business School to make a career transition from engineering to the financial industry as a professional quant analyst.

“Every day at work, I engineer automated strategies that will help my clients maximise their financial performance. My usual day at work as a trader involves running and managing automated strategies using time series analysis and models to try and come up with new investment portfolio strategies,” says Manav Mehra, a Junior Derivatives Trader at Ingensoma Trading Group Ltd. Manav is an alumnus of the MSc in Financial Engineering (MFE) programme at Nanyang Business School (NBS).

This specialisation of engineering is different from the one Manav had set out to do when he studied Electrical Engineering as an undergraduate at NTU.  “I had never considered finance as a career since I was geared towards engineering from the time I was in school,” he confided. But during his time at NTU, he became more interested in financial engineering after taking some courses in Business and Finance Minors that he enjoyed immensely.  

As he was reaching the end of his Bachelor’s programme, he decided to pursue a career in Quantitative Finance. “I chose the MFE programme after careful consideration as I felt that it would open up a new career path for me in the world of high-technology finance. I had researched on multiple programmes and felt the curriculum at NBS was more holistic.  Also, having already spent four years at NTU, I was assured of the quality of the curriculum and faculty,” he added.

“I chose the MFE programme after careful consideration as I felt that it would open up a new career path for me in the world of high-technology finance.”

Unique course content

The exceptional course content of the MFE programme was the most critical draw for Manav. “The curriculum was unique as it offered a wider range of courses than other programmes I had explored, in addition to the opportunity of doing four modules at the Carnegie Melon University (CMU). The mathematics and programming modules were the most helpful for me to achieve my goal of becoming a successful quant analyst and trader,” he explained.

Some of the courses in the MFE programme that Manav found extremely helpful for his current job were Risk Management, Financial Mathematics, and several programming modules. However, another high point for him was his last term at CMU. “It was an amazing experience that allowed me to study under the same faculty that teaches the top financial mathematics course in the world,” Manav shared enthusiastically.

“The courses at CMU were more programming-intensive, with one of them being an advanced C++ course and another requiring the use of Python for the whole course,” he added. For him, the experience was quite intense as it included projects and assignments that had to be completed in a very short time.

“I think the good thing about the courses at CMU was that they were practical, since we were already nearing the end of the course and had all the theoretical knowledge. One of the courses included a project to create a Trading Strategy and run it on mock data in teams to see who would come up with the most successful strategy. That was one of the projects I enjoyed the most, and it also provided me with the most relevant practical experience for my current job,” he shared.

Fitting into today’s financial industry

Manav believes that the MFE curriculum gave him a hands-on opportunity to work on real-life work problems. His job requires an understanding of complex mathematical concepts and the programming courses prepared him for this, along with the training to work on algorithmic trading strategies and execution logic. “In my job, I come up with models and new strategy ideas by using Python to test out these ideas on the market data. I definitely use my Python knowledge from the course on a daily basis,” he explains.

According to Manav, one of the most essential keys to succeeding in the MFE programme is to have a strong foundation in mathematics and some background in finance.

“I can definitely say that the programme has helped me achieve my goal of starting a career in quantitative finance after graduating as an engineer.”

“If you are looking to start a career in quantitative finance, the NTU MFE is an excellent option to give you the head-start you need,” he advises.

To find out more about the MFE programme, arrange a consultation with us today.

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