Alumni Perspectives

Working with skill and market intuition

My position at Citadel blends technology and business. A true partnership exists between quantitative developers and traders. In addition, I appreciate being able to apply my coding skills to real world financial problems. The nature of the markets allows me to get near real-time feedback on the impact of my work.

When I worked at GIC, my job was all coding. At Citadel, I get to develop and leverage a deep understanding of markets. My Berkeley MFE rounded out my skills and knowledge so I can code and provide tangible commercial value.

Seeking and finding the right fit for my career

Being in the Bay Area gave me the opportunity to explore different ways to use my MFE. My internship at Uber was an opportunity to apply my data analytics skills in a startup environment. Ultimately, I chose a position at Citadel because it is more in line with my previous experience in finance.

The startup culture at Uber was completely new to me—from the lack of a dress code to the flexible office hours. Citadel’s culture, focused on cultivating the best investment team in the world, is quite different and more comfortable for me.

Practical, industry-focused curriculum

Even though I had worked in finance as a system developer, I lacked a formal, structured approach to the topic and all of its nuances. My Berkeley MFE filled in the gaps and helped me change my career direction.

The class in fixed income markets applies directly to what I do at Citadel. The content is practical and industry-focused. I am confident I learned the best practices being used today.

For my Applied Finance Project my team used an agent-based model to simulate the bitcoin market. Before this, I had known little about bitcoin. The project was a good exercise in an innovative, real-world product and the blockchain technology that underlies cyber-currencies. While I have doubts about cyber-currencies, I am confident that blockchain and dedicated ledgers will play a big role in the future of finance.

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