Si Chen, MFE class of 2012, interned at Morgan Stanley in New York during her year in the program. She now works full-time with the firm leading a small team trading dollar rates options.

“It was the natural choice,” said Si in regards to joining the Berkeley MFE in 2011. “The Berkeley program offers the best possible path to both buy side and sell side jobs.”

Before joining the Berkeley MFE, Si received her bachelor’s degree in industrial and systems engineering from the National University of Singapore and her master’s degree in computation for design and optimization from MIT. She then worked in product sales at Merrill Lynch in the Wealth Management department in Singapore but wanted to further strengthen her quantitative finance skills.

While at Berkeley, Si was able to diversify her view of the market and form her own trading philosophy through financial practice seminars and faculty, many of whom are industry veterans or leading researchers. “I managed to achieve great academics results, meeting amazing colleagues and friends, and landing a job that I absolutely love.”

According to Si, the Berkeley MFE program is a place where you not only make friends and challenge yourself, but completely rebuild your understanding of the market and see where you fit best in the industry.

“The friendships and connections I have established through the program will continue to last and affect me and my career for a long time. These connections spread across a wide-variety of areas of the industry. Some connections have become clients, some colleagues, and others are competitors. It is this shared experience that makes it so easy for us to connect and create a close circle.”

Learn more about the Berkeley MFE Program and how we can help you launch your career by going to our website or by joining an information session.