Last year, in the midst of the nationwide economic crisis, Omid Shakernia realized he had a passion for finance.
“The current economic crisis has made the subject (of finance) more topical,” he said.
In November 2008, he attended an information session for the Masters of Financial Engineering, a new program being offered through the Anderson School of Management.
Shakernia, who graduated from UC Berkeley in 2003 with a degree in electrical engineering, said his technical training in control design and math prepared him well for the skills required in quantitative finance.
“The program emphasizes intuitive and technical aspects of economics,” Shakernia said.
The Masters of Financial Engineering is a one-year program designed to prepare students in financial engineering, a highly quantitative aspect of buying, selling and managing securities and profiles, said Teri Geske, a lecturer and executive in residence at the Anderson School.
Shakernia, along with 39 other students, was accepted into the program’s first class.
The program was created as a result of the need in the financial industry for trained professionals with quantitative skills, said director Francesca Baugh.
“The program is designed to teach students to be practitioners rather than academics,” Shakernia said. He said this instructing style was one of the major reasons he decided to attend UCLA.
The first portion of the program, where students took classes taught by faculty and guest lecturers, was completed at the end of spring quarter. Students in the program are now completing mandatory summer internships in business, Baugh said.
Internships create an opportunity for students to apply coursework in a real-world setting, Shakernia said. The interview process for obtaining an internship, however, was no easy matter, he said.
To prepare for interviews, students had to be versed in statistics, probability, computer science and brain teasers, said Sandra Buchan, director of career services. Professionals from different financial fields were brought in as well, to answer questions and provide expertise.
The beginning of the term was a nervous time for everyone in the program as students aggressively looked for internships.
“One of the challenges of being part of a new program is that the networks between the program and the industry are still being laid,” Shakernia said.
However, the fact that 100 percent of the 2009 class was placed into internships this year is an impressive accomplishment, Geski said.
“Everything really came together during the last three weeks of spring quarter, and the tight market for internships ultimately cleared up,” Buchan said.
This summer, Shakernia is interning at Research Affiliates, an investment management firm. His job entails dating and forecasting business cycles and looking at historical data to optimize investments, he said.
The work he is doing now is a very specific area within the large financial landscape. He said he is interested in forecasting, but may look to branch into other areas when his job search begins in January.
Shakernia’s current data shows a high probability of continued recession; however, forecasting is very difficult for any period over three months, he said.
In the fall, Shakernia and the other MFE students will return to UCLA to complete the last leg of the program, which ends in December, Buchan said.
The program has been an intense learning experience, and come January, Shakernia said he would like to be with a firm completing quantitative research that will help get better financial returns.
In spite of the waning financial market and the increased competition for jobs, Shakernia said he realized employers are always searching for new talent. He said he believes he is learning the necessary skills to find a job after the finance program ends.
“The stock market has been hopeful recently, and the recession will not last forever,” he said, and added that the recovery period after recessions provides opportunities for high returns.