"Previous Background is What Matters Least”: ICEF Open Day Welcomes Prospective Master’s Students

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At MSc Financial Economics Open Day, prospective applicants were able to learn more about how the programme sets itself apart from its counterparts, how to enroll, and what level of math and language training it expects from applicants. Invited to speak were also programme graduates. They spoke about things that help kick-start careers in banking and consulting.

Opening the event was ICEF’s MSc Programme Academic Supervisor Maxim Nikitin. His presentation introduced the audience to ICEF, its history, mission and master’s degree programme. “ICEF’s MSc degree is more than just a programme. Its main advantage lies in being a launch pad to careers and professional development in a variety of fields,” emphasized Maxim Nikitin.

ICEF’s Master of Financial Economics Programme ranks among the QS Top 100 Finance degrees. Its success rests on flexibility in choosing individual learning paths: the core curriculum is advantageously complemented with course units on corporate finance, quantitative finance, risk management and more. ICEF lays a lot of focus on programming and data management skills training. Courses such as big data and machine learning have been a big success with students, and negotiations are in progress with large companies to deliver more joint IT courses. They are a good way for students to gain hands-on IT skills for jobs in economics and finance.

Prospective students learned also about entry pathways. ICEF offers an early admission plan, under which students can apply and get a decision early through a competitive process that competes in 2023 on the 27th of March.

Victoria Pralich, who is in charge of ICEF Career Services, spoke about the tasks before her team. These include, among others, providing students and graduates with as many useful contacts with employers as possible. According to Victoria, there is a keen demand for candidates with MSc degree from ICEF at all major banks, consulting firms and IT companies, particularly Yandex. “I tell our master’s students, “You’ll be bombarded with job offers. Employers will be competing for you, but stay humble. My task is to prepare you for being highly in demand,” said Victoria.

In 2023, MSc Financial Economics offers a new optional course – Investment Analysis, initiated by Maria Petrova, who holds her master’s from ICEF and is currently in charge of Financial Markets Analysis Department at Sovcombank. In her presentation, which also gave an overview of Russia’s banking sector, Maria focused on the role of analysts and the career opportunities available to ICEF students and alumni at her bank. Cited as growing trends was the use of IT, the increasing role of big data in the work of banking analysts, and the rapid growth of M&A teams, the latter needing specialists with master’s level training. “Hires with bachelor’s level training often lack the life experience. They enter the workplace with minimally required skills and knowledge, while those with master’s level training can bring to the job professional expertise, life awareness and soft skills. Their ability to demonstrate them at the interview makes them more preferred job candidates,” concluded Maria.

Next to welcome the audience was Stepan Labudin, member of the class of 2022 who now serves as a strategy consultant at Yakov and Partners (ex-McKinsey). Stepan spoke about consulting and why it can be a good starting career.

The prospective students were able to ask more questions to the graduates and exchange contacts after presentations.

The presentation of ICEF’s MSc Financial Economics can be viewed here: MSc Financial Economics presentation.

Stepan Labudin, member of the master’s degree class of 2022, consultant at Yakov and Partners

While ICEF’s MSc Programme is a common choice among those with mathematical or economic background, I personally think that previous background is what matters least. Mine is that of an Olympic sport. I've been doing Taekwondo since I was six, won my first championship at 16 and was invited to the Olympic team. I hold my bachelor’s from Bauman Moscow State Technical University, where I was a regular, by-the-book student. When I was 22 I realized an athlete’s career was, by design, fleeting and maybe I should do a degree in something else. I was quite good at English and mathematics, so I thought I might qualify for ICEF’s MSc programme. The first thing I did to prepare myself was read the books on recommended reading list.

Next 

ICEF opened a whole new world for me. I knew absolutely nothing about consulting, IB, hedge funds, risk management, etc. before I enrolled. While preparing for the workplace, I benefitted greatly from ICEF Career Services, especially in terms of resume writing and doing interviews. ICEF’s MSc programme is designed in a way that allows it to nurture economic intellect right from the start – it wasn’t long before I started to understand the processes occurring in the world. Course units build on real-life cases giving a thorough understanding of the business processes and making students better prepared for the workplace. No less important asset is learning environment. At ICEF, students have full chance to network and build their own expert networks before graduating. Three guys from my class have joined McKinsey and two VTB; two more have moved to Dubai to work with crypto investments. At a certain stage in your career, your master’s degree will certainly bear fruit.

By the end of my first year at ICEF, I did an interview and got job offer from McKinsey, currently known under the name Yakov and Partners. My eighteen months there have given me diverse experience – I have been able to contribute to designing innovative development strategy for a large European country; insurance and pension schemes for a country in Southeast Asia; and a restart plan for Russia’s motor vehicle industry. For those at the start of their careers, consulting might be a good launch pad. It puts you to a diversity of projects and turns you into excellent negotiator.  The tasks of a consultant are only getting more diverse and engaging – more so after Western companies’ departure from the Russian market. As a consultant, you will meet various industries and build useful connections within and outside your workplace. You’ll find yourself amid smart, ambitious people. You will be able to grow fast and adopt a more targeted approach to further growth – or maybe you will want a career change and in that case you will leave consulting with a portfolio showcasing many valuable skills. Things are in fact easier than you think. There’s no need to worry. You can easily succeed in making academic progress and career-wise, if you put some effort. That would be my most important message to all perspective students.

Watch Open Day video