On Saturday I accompanied a group of MFin students to see the belated “Wall Street” sequel. This was strictly for entertainment – not part of the syllabus. The consensus was it was pretty average. Moderately entertaining, with some good attention … Continued
Another year begins… While most people think of a year as starting in January, the cycle in Cambridge gets going in September (when the new MFin and MBA students arrive) and fully in October (when official term starts and the … Continued
I try to write clearly and have always encouraged my students, and my former analyst colleagues, to do the same. This is because: i) it’s polite to make things easy for your reader (whom you should think of as a … Continued
Somewhere about the middle of the Easter term, the students start to realise that there are only a few weeks left, their course is nearly over and the world of work beckons. This leads to an upsurge of socialising, including … Continued
One reason we reject some candidates before interview is because they recently did another masters degree, including an MBA. On occasions the applicants are doing one masters while applying for another. This might seem as if we’re rejecting people with … Continued
I often get asked about whether being the MFin director is a full time job. Well, sometimes it feels like it, but it’s supposed to be only a small part of my overall responsibilities. As the last week has been … Continued
We are making some small changes to the curriculum and structure of the Master of Finance degree. It’s still quite early days for the course so we continue to watch and learn how it’s going. The content is to remain … Continued
Is the Cambridge Master of Finance a course for quants? In short, no, but it’s worth commenting a bit more on this. Finance has become a lot more quantitative over the years so that the entry level requirements for some … Continued
The approach of the annual group consulting project (GCP) on the MFin prompts me to think what the differences are between financial analysts who work in investment banks and those who work in consulting firms. There are many shared skills … Continued
Cambridge University’s Judge Business School has a strong collaborative ethos. So for example students are not “incentivised” by being told their grades relative to each other. We tell them the actual mark, the class mean and standard deviation but no … Continued
The work experience requirement is central to the MFin. But what counts as “relevant”? There are three criteria. One, did it provide the candidate with some real finance learning opportunity, even if it was in only one specific area? Two, … Continued
There is a bit of mystique about interviews at the University of Cambridge, most of it total nonsense. There was a time, many decades ago, when the cult of the amateur reigned at some colleges and eccentric dons would put … Continued
This week makes me acutely aware of the workload we put on the students. Yesterday they gave their Equity Research presentations to our invited panel of practitioner experts, which is a very stressful experience – though I think students learn … Continued