Rajat Agarwal came to the Berkeley MFE after receiving his Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and then working as a senior analyst in the fixed income group at Deutsche Bank in Mumbai.
A deep curiosity about the quantitative aspects of financial markets drove Rajat to begin learning about finance on his own, both through taking coursework in subjects such as financial mathematics and through preparing for and taking the CFA level 1 and level 2 exams. He then realized that he wanted to continue to develop his skillset and saw the Berkeley MFE as a natural way to leverage his education and the experience he had gained at Deutsche to take the next step in his learning and professional growth. The program's intensive curriculum, which focuses on rate and equity derivatives, corporate financing, structured products, and macroeconomics, and the highly-renowned placement program prepared Rajat well for his next step: a career at Goldman Sachs in New York City.
Since graduating in 2011, Rajat has worked at Goldman Sachs, where he is now a Vice President in the Investment Banking group. He credits the MFE program at Berkeley for giving him the knowledge and connections he needed to take his career to the next level.
"What I knew about finance I mostly studied on my own and learned on the job at Deutsche Bank in Mumbai. While I had strong math and analytical skills, I knew I needed more expertise in finance to take my career to the next level. Friends and colleagues recommended the Berkeley MFE program. They were right — it was the perfect fit." -- Rajat Agarwal, MFE class of 2011
