Victoria Pralich, Head of ICEF Career Services, talks about where the class of 2023 have found jobs and pursue further studies.
In 2023, ICEF graduates continue to enjoy consistently high employability rates. Within a month after graduation, 93% of members of this year’s class of ICEF International Bachelor’s Program in Economics and Finance confirmed to ICEF Career Services that they had landed jobs or accepted further study offers from master’s and PhD programmes in Russia and abroad. Responses from the remaining 7% are still pending. As one of our 2023 graduates responded to the survey designed to measure the consistency between our graduates’ skills and the job market needs, “The market offers plenty of jobs, we don’t need to worry about their shortage. We are more concerned with making sure we don’t miss the best of offers and are able to meet deadlines.” Ensuring that our students never miss the best of offers is exactly the task with ICEF Career Services team. There has been a 15% increase in pay enjoyed by our finance majors, indicating their being consistently in demand.
Of the 153 bachelor’s graduates of 2023, 47% found jobs in leading domestic and international companies, 28% chose to continue their studies abroad, and 25% pursue master’s degrees in Russia (97% chose HSE and 39% of them study at ICEF).
This year, the majority of job offers came from finance sector (42%, which is somewhat higher than in previous year), followed by real economy and IT (25% vs. 14% last year). We see the competition for our grads increase among the country’s leading banks including VTB, Sberbank, Raiffeisenbank (Russian Office) and Alfa-Bank. ICEF graduates are now the preferred candidates also with the Credit Bank of Moscow, Rosbank, and the Bank of Russia. Importantly, our students have the opportunity to meet and learn from top field experts with decades of experience – Philipp Gabunia, Director at the Bank of Russia Collective Investment and Trust Management Department, Alexander Zayonts, Hoff co-owner, A.N. Shokhin, President of the Russian Association of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, HSE President, to name a few.
For those who opt to continue their studies, the trend over the past two years has been to go to Asia and Australia, alongside schools in Russia, Europe and the USA. The overseas schools alone have provided 110+ offers, which is 20% more than in previous year. Our sincere congratulations to those who got admitted to Yale (PhD), MIT, Oxford, LSE, top business schools and universities in Europe, UAE, and China. Traditionally, our graduates pursue further studies in financial analysis, quantitative finance, business analytics, and data management.
As is customary, some 30 members of every graduating class choose to do their master’s and PhD degrees at the Russian universities. Almost all of them enroll in HSE, which offers an impressive range of recently developed international master’s degrees. This year, ICEF MSc Programme welcomed eleven students who did their bachelor’s at ICEF in 2023 and three who did it earlier.
With many of our grads now translating their experience as teachers and by contributing to ICEF’s research programme and Laboratory of Financial Economics, we are witnessing the emergence of a good tradition where our every class enriches our faculty with young talents.
We never miss the chance to tell our students about career paths being pursued by grads in Russia and abroad, in business and academia. For us, their success stories are a clear proof of ICEF BSc programme guaranteeing a strong competitive edge in almost any country. More importantly, many of our graduates return to Russia to put to use the knowledge and experience they gained abroad. “I’ve always known I’d leave London one day. My purpose was to gain some useful skills and international experience and bring them home,” says member of the class of 2012 who holds the post of CFO at one of the largest Russian companies and was previously an executive at Goldman Sachs London.
As of today, the number of ICEF graduates totals around 2,800. They found success in 40+ countries, an indication of high quality of training available in Moscow at HSE ICEF.
It is my firm belief that for those willing to challenge themselves and step out of their comfort zone and into the community of aspiring professionals, ICEF is just the right place to be.
