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The University of Southampton
Southampton Business School

Sylvia Ndikumasabo MSc Management Sciences and Finance, 2009

Head of Personal Loans at Nordnet Bank, Stockholm

Sylvia Ndikumasabo's Photo

My experience of studying at the University of Southampton wholly prepared me for my future employment by allowing me to get the right balance of skills and by exposing me to the professional world early on in my career.

Although I graduated in aerospace engineering, I decided I wanted to follow a career in finance. I chose the MSc Management Science and Finance as it married my already strong analytical skills with my interest in finance. As an international student I did not have many sources of funding available to me and as such the year was funded by my parents. I picked the University of Southampton due to its strong research background. I believed that the Business School would provide me with the research experience I needed to balance my analytical background.

In retrospect, I can say that the course fulfilled this requirement and much more. I got the opportunity to write and research many different topics, including my dissertation, and I was able to secure a full-time job at the end as a result of all the research work I had done throughout the year. For my dissertation I was fortunate enough to land a ‘live’ project with Barclaycard. I worked with real data ensuring my findings would have a direct impact on the company. On graduation I secured a place on the company’s Credit Risk Graduate Scheme.

Overall I can say that my experience of studying at the University of Southampton wholly prepared me for my future career by allowing me to get the right balance of skills and by exposing me to the professional world early on in my career. I would highly recommend doing a postgraduate degree, especially for those who wish to change career paths soon after their undergraduate degree. It is definitely worth the time, effort and money. Make sure that you do a sufficient amount of research on the wide range of degrees being offered to ensure that you are getting exactly what it is that you want and be prepared to work hard to achieve it.

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