Master in Finance

I chose IÉSEG’s Master in Finance because I was looking for a School that would allow me to develop both my technical and soft skills, and I felt in line with IÉSEG’s mission – to become a manager who inspires his colleagues and promotes creative and innovative solutions for its company.

On top of that, as a foreign student, I was excited to study in a cosmopolitan city like Paris, and in a School of Management with an excellent reputation, an international environment with classmates from different countries and fully accredited.

I decided to study a Master in Finance because the course structure has specific compulsory units that were suitable for the skills I wanted to develop for my career. In addition, many modules of the course contributed to the CFA preparation, which represented a remarkable opportunity to acquire a professional qualification that is required in all the most important financial institutions. This allowed me to be more competitive within the sector.

After my studies at IÉSEG in Finance, I began to gain experience in the finance world. My first job was working as an accounting analyst for intercompany cash and goods operations at IBM’s European Shared Services Centre, located in Bratislava, Slovakia.

After one and a half years at IBM, I moved from accounting to consulting by getting a job in advisory with Ernst & Young in Newcastle, England. I have now been with EY for almost 1.5 years as a project analyst working on financial transformation projects, which consist of major legal reconstructing projects (mainly mergers and acquisitions) from an accounting systems perspective.

The international dimension of my current job is extremely important, since most of the clients I work with are from multinational companies. IÉSEG gave me the international business perspective, as well as the financial acumen I needed to succeed in the working world.

I had always wanted to continue my studies in France as I found the country to be beautiful and full of opportunities. I had three main motivations for choosing IÉSEG as my top school: it closely followed the CFA curriculum (IÉSEG helped me pass the CFA Level 1 exam, as the two curriculums are truly similar); it delivered the Master in Finance program in English, which was non-negotiable for me as I couldn’t speak French at the time; and finally, IÉSEG offered significant merit-based scholarships.

During my studies, I met many professors who taught their courses with a contagious passion. For example, I had never taken a specific liking to financial accounting as I found it quite dull. However, my Financial Accounting professor changed my mind completely, thanks to his enthusiasm and sense of humor.

In addition to the professors who showed a genuine passion for their subjects, there were also professors who demonstrated an authentic concern for our growth and success after IÉSEG and supported us by any means possible. For example, one of them sent the whole class e-mails, months after graduation, letting us know about internship opportunities she had come across.

When choosing a management school, my number one concern was about the program content. The Master in Finance incorporates largely the CFA level I and II program, providing participants with strong fundamentals in corporate finance and in financial markets. It also provides elective courses to gain a better understanding of specific topics in Finance. In my case, with the orientation and support of professors at IÉSEG, I was lucky enough to be awarded the merit-based scholarship from the CFA Institute that reduced the exam fee.

Finding an internship and a job after my Master in Finance was quite easy since recruiters truly appreciate the program content and the CFA certification. Besides, IÉSEG is one of the members of the Conférence des Grandes Écoles (CGE) and I believe this helped me a lot in the job seeking process. Furthermore, IÉSEG has two campuses – one in Lille and one in Paris-La Défense- enabling me to choose between two big cities with a rich culture and full of job opportunities.

I really enjoyed discussing financial topics with my professors and my international friends at IÉSEG. Each course required us to work in groups, giving us a chance to know more about economics in different parts of the world, for instance in Columbia, Argentina, Lebanon, European countries, Japan etc. I particularly like the Firm valuation and Corporate Finance subjects. While following these two courses, we had the opportunity to do a hands-on job to assess the financial situation of some existing companies and provide our analysis.

Taking the Master in Finance at IÉSEG was a valuable investment for me. In addition to broadening my financial knowledge, it enhanced my critical thinking, and presentation skills via the case studies, individual and group project papers, class discussions and presentations. I also really appreciated the opportunity to develop relationships with my international classmates and the School’s multicultural environment.

The campus is situated in the financial district of Paris which also enabled me to participate in many corporate talks, mostly organized by IÉSEG for students. Overall, this has been an amazing experience.

After completing the program, I have managed to land a job in a dynamic and growing European asset management company.