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Financial Engineering
Finance, as a field, had always fascinated me right from my undergraduate
college days. I believe my penchant for this field stems from the fact that
Finance runs in my family. My father is a chartered accountant and my mother
is a banker. During my days at Engineering College I used to go to my
father's office and help him manage his portfolio of equities and other
financial instruments. This was the time I learnt the first lesson of
finance from my father i.e. risk and return are proportionate. In 1994 when
I was in the second year the Indian stock market crashed. But fortunately,
my father had a well-diversified portfolio because of which our returns were
protected from the downside risk. This was when I learnt the second
principle of finance from my father i.e. diversification reduces risk. While
I understood these two principles intuitively, it produced in me a strong
urge to learn and understand the complex theory behind the working of
Finance. This, I believe, was a turning point in my career. I made up my
mind to pursue a career in Finance and hence decided to do a Masters program
in Business Administration.
Hence I took admission in Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration
(PGDBA) at AB Institute of Management Studies (ABIMS), New Delhi,
which is one of the prominent Business schools in India. During PGDBA, I
developed a strong penchant for quantitative-oriented subjects like
Portfolio theory, Derivatives and International Finance.
During the first year of PGDBA I learnt how Derivatives can play an
important role in optimizing a Portfolio's performance and in managing risk.
This exposure left me wanting for more knowledge in the area of Risk
Management. Because of my penchant for the rigor in Derivatives and Risk
Management I took my summer internship at LTCM-securities, one of the
leading investment banks in India. During my project I learnt about various
risks associated with Infrastructure Projects and how they were mitigated
using different risk models and structured finance products. It was at this
time that I realized the importance of mathematics and programming as
invaluable tools in Finance. I had always felt that applying my technical
knowledge to the field of Finance would be highly satisfying. This
internship, thus, helped me crystallize my goals as I decided to make a
career in Risk Management.
In India with the onset of liberalization since 1991 and deregulation of the
interest rates, the Indian corporations and financial institutions are
exposed to various kinds of risks. The Government and the Reserve Bank of
India have initiated appropriate reforms to develop derivatives markets and
financial markets on the whole. This has suddenly increased the demand for
professionals who can not only understand but also develop new financial
instruments to evaluate and hedge the risk. I believe that in order to use
financial engineering pro-actively and dynamically for optimum hedging a
finance professional should be well versed with the mathematics that
underlie the financial theory.
In the future I see myself, as a Finance professional, designing structured
financial products by incorporating cutting edge methodologies and
sophisticated tools in order to cater to the above mentioned requirements.
To achieve this I would like to gain exposure to the latest practices
adopted in the field of Financial Engineering and Risk Management. To this
end I would want to work with a leading investment bank or in the treasury
of a commercial bank, which would enable me to help corporations manage
their risks. I would like to bring this acquired expertise back to India and
use it to help companies thrive in a dynamic environment.
I believe that my educational background has instilled in me the qualities
required to meet the rigor of this demanding profession. Graduation in
Engineering has provided a strong foundation in Mathematics and Computer
Programming. Mathematics was one subject in which I had always excelled
right from my school days. During the course of my Engineering education I
took up a project with MH Electronics, a firm which is a vendor of
Indian Ocean Research Organisation (IORO). This was because the project,
which I was offered, required extensive use of C programming language and
MATLAB. This project of developing the software for a video-processing card
(Frame Grabber) for the first time gave me a real world experience of
programming. This association helped a lot in consolidating my programming
skills, especially in C-language. Thus, it inculcated in me problem solving
and analytical abilities.
Thereafter the two-year program in Business Administration has not only
given me a sound and firm grounding in finance but also taught me the
invaluable skills to manage, lead and collaborate effectively with people.
It also developed in me the ability to analyse problems from a business
perspective keeping in mind the constraints and limitations of the real
world.
I strongly feel that M.Eng in Financial Engineering program at Kingston
University is a highly structured program because it provides the right
balance between theory and practice. The annual workshops at the Centre for
Applied Probability and Computational Optimization Research Centre would
give me ample of opportunities to apply my knowledge to real world problems.
I bring along a strong grasp of fundamentals in Finance and Engineering, an
insider's experience of an emerging financial market, a penchant for
teamwork and leadership and a zest for challenges. I would like to take with
me in addition to the knowledge of the latest theory and practices in the
field of Financial Engineering, a network of strong and lasting
relationships with my teachers and fellow-students.
I hope my background and qualifications are found suitable for admission to
M.Eng in Financial Engineering program at Kingston University, USA.
