Oxford MSc in Financial Economics Essay-1:

How do you hope to see your career developing over the next five years? How will the MSC in Financial Economics assist you in the development of these ambitions? Maximum 1,000 words

By receiving the first-tier finance training through Oxford MFE, I will be perfectly equipped to achieve a most rewarding career over the next five years as an analyst at a leading investment bank.

I am determined to enter investment bank not only because my four-year undergraduate programme has cultivated in me a strong commitment to the financial industry, with comprehensive knowledge in finance and sound quantitative skills, but also because I have done valuable internships at two major financial institutions in China. Those internships have exposed me to how to analyze China’s stock and securities market and how to perform forex trading. Those internships have coincided with the global financial crisis and convinced me how intensely challenging it is to be an investment bank analyst who needs to focus, drive and excel by being a fast and smart learner, capable of handling complicated and rapid changes. In addition, investment bankers play a positive social role in helping direct capital to companies with great ideas that make people better off. A career at investment bank is a necessary step for me to become a high-flying financial specialist and the more challenging and dynamic the career is, the greater of my potential could be brought out.

Over the next five years, I would see myself working as an equity research analyst, as a member of industry and sector team to analyze macro, sector and company fundamentals utilizing differentiated research and a range of proprietary tools to identify investment ideas and opportunities around the securities and stocks and communicate them to the investing clients. With training from senior analysts, associates and other team members, I will focus on a particular range of industries, achieving penetrating perspectives and working constructively in analyzing companies, running models, synthesizing data and interacting with the sales and trading force, clients and companies. I hope to make my unique contributions in both idea generation and marketing.

As I become increasingly proficient in analyzing companies, I will proceed onto an in-depth understanding of a particular industry, and then a particular sector. I hope to accomplish this goal within the first two years, acquiring the skills to follow the markets, maintain company models and forecasts, create assumptions on stock performance, and convey investment ideas with great potential return to clients and assist in their decision-making process. The accumulation of professional experience at this stage of my career will equip me for research and analysis of companies within specific industries or industry segments, develop true expertise in specific industries and become a real specialist on those industries.

In the next three years, I will consciously expand my global horizon and, within the Global Investment Research, I will focus on the emerging markets, whose research will be as exciting as it is challenging. It is challenging because such research is seriously insufficient and analysts who specialize in such research are very limited both in number and in the quality of the research they produce. It is exciting because such markets are highly volatile but investors, with keen interests in such markets, have great investment needs. With my strong educational and cultural backgrounds as a Chinese, I am sure I will accomplish pioneering research achievements in studying China, the world’s largest emerging market.

The greatest investment problem in the emerging market of China, as I diagnose it based on my research, is that corporate investors have shown alarming uniformity in their investment options, dictated by the credit ratings of a limited number of international agencies. However, I believe that emerging markets should demonstrate region-specific environment dependency, that is, innovations in different regions and countries should be determined by their own distinctive financial developments. My goal would be to develop new models that generate truly systematic and convincing research findings that will help create innovative financial products specifically geared to the investment demands of this emerging market and contribute to valuable investment diversity.

The objectives as I have outlined are definitely ambitious and are achievable only through the first-tier Oxford MSc in Financial Economics. According to Aristotle, man is a goal-seeking creature; and in seeking to enter the Oxford MFE, I wish to develop perspectives and visions that will enable me to see deeper and further. This will be possible for me by interacting with three outstanding groups. Your outstanding faculty will impart to me critical financial and economic knowledge through four core courses; your five electives that will allow me to tailor your programme to my own needs by developing my individual skills and specializations. The knowledge and three key intellectual skills—analytical and research skills, quantitative skills, and qualitative skills are essential to my proposed equity research.

Another group would be the great minds from the industry. The MFE will run practitioner lecture series in finance to provide students with insights into how the financial services sector is being shaped. In this lecture series will definitely be speakers on equity research who will sensitize me to the challenges in the field and the pitfalls to avoid. Their industrial experiences will help me understand real-world practices and shed invaluable light on my past internships and future career development.

Finally, I will be interacting with a cohort of the brightest students in the world, with whom I can exchange and share ideas and meet intellectual challenges. The diversity of this student community will promote my cross-cultural communication skills and future global networking. In classroom environment, I can learn from a supportive peer group whose outstanding members will spur me to maximize my potential. I will hone skills in achieving group objectives through effective and productive teamwork, thus preparing me as a proactive member in the future equity research team.

Oxford MFE promises to enable me seek full self-actualization by exploiting my talents and potentials. I will know how to make meaningful choices in my life, how to challenge my limitations, and aspire to new heights throughout my life. The most valuable quality it will cultivate in me will be something intangible--the originality and innovative thinking. In the rapidly changing capital market, this quality will have lifelong implications for me and putting me forever on the cutting-edge of the industry.