My experience of attending Finance Fest

Our MSc Finance students, Belinda and Tatiana share their experience of attending Finance Fest, from gaining insider knowledge to learning more about the world of finance.

Belinda Heigl, MSc Finance 

As an MSc Finance student at WBS, attending Finance Fest should definitely be on your bucket list. When I first heard about Finance Fest I was a bit reluctant to sign up, as attending an event on a Saturday morning at 8.00 am seemed like quite a challenging time to show up at university to talk about careers in finance. In retrospect, I can tell you, getting up that early was completely worth it.

During the first half of the day, we were introduced to the different fields of finance by a well experienced financial professional who had switched jobs to become a career adviser. This more general session gave insight into the different jobs in the finance sector not only from a technical perspective but also from a perspective of what to expect from the lifestyle. For me personally the big difference in lifestyle between the different jobs was a key take away. It is such an important factor in job satisfaction which is often overlooked by students focusing only on the technical part of the work they are expecting to do in the future. After this session, the lunch break provided a great opportunity to network not only with the guest speakers but also with other students, as Finance Fest was not only accessible to current finance MSc students but also to other students at WBS including MBA students and other students across the University of Warwick.

The second half of the day was split into different sessions. Everyone could sign up for two of the sessions choosing from a wide variety. The speakers covered topics from insights into classical M&A deals to more recently developing topics like cryptocurrencies. One of my favourite sessions was the financial market briefing which delivered a crazy amount of up to date, interesting, and partly bizarre information about the financial markets, and gave me a completely new viewpoint on the connection between events and the reaction of the financial markets.

I was very happy when I found out that we would have the chance to participate in online financial market briefings in the form of webinars with the same speaker, throughout the whole term. This highly professional insight into the market will be hugely helpful for interviews in the future. After the afternoon sessions, there was some more time to network and interact. Overall the event was really well organised and provided me with lots of useful information about the different fields of finance. The combination of practical and technical information regarding the finance sector and the hands-on advice relating to jobs, applications and interviews was a great mix.

Tatiana Zhabinskaya, MSc Finance

Finance Fest is one of the most important financial events hosted by WBS, combining both students and guest speakers in one place at the same time. As a current MSc Finance student, I attended Finance Fest because it was a good opportunity for me to put aside my usual studies for one day and gain practical first-hand knowledge from professionals in the industry I am interested in. I have summarised Finance Fest in three main points.

First of all, Finance Fest is a great networking event which gathers people from various courses and fields, giving everyone the opportunity to share different views, experiences, insight and knowledge about the finance industry. It is an event where you can meet not only students from different cohorts but professionals who are able to give valuable first-hand experience and information to students.

Secondly, during Finance Fest there were lots of interactive sessions for students to participate in based on their interests and future career goals. These ranged from an M&A boot camp to an introduction to Private Wealth Management.  

Last but not least, many things were introduced to students with the aim of helping them to choose a future career path such as; an introduction to investment banking, an introduction to equity research, and an introduction to private wealth management. There were both lectures and case study practice sessions so that students could firstly learn about these industry areas and then apply their newly obtained knowledge in practice.

During Finance Fest I attended the financial market briefing and the introduction to Fintech sessions which were both very interactive, informative, and intriguing. During these sessions, we discussed current financial and economic news that affects markets on a daily basis, and we discussed cryptocurrencies which have become an integral part of today’s financial world.

As far as I am concerned, the greatest outcome of the whole event was that I learnt a lot of new things and I was able to network with lots of new people gaining valuable information. I would definitely recommend this event because it has widened my horizons and opened up a world of new opportunities for me. From my perspective, if students want to make the most of their studies at WBS, they should definitely make the most of this great opportunity.

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