Takeaways From My Journey
When I thought about pursuing a Masters in Finance for the first time, I was working for a family-owned business in a regional role, responsible for the finance and administrative departments of different countries. Before that, I was working in Corporate roles at headquarters of German family-owned global players with different shorter stays abroad in different countries over the years, always with a focus on Accounting and Controlling.
I found out about the INSEAD Executive Master in Finance (EMFin) programme after having completed my MBA, where I met a Finance Professor who told us about Corporate Structure and M&As.
This was really interesting and I felt like I needed to know more about what those were.
So I actively started looking for programmes that would not only focus on Corporate Finance topics, but would also allow me to pursue my career at the same time.
The last point about studying while working was one of my major concerns in pursuing further education.
But when I first got in contact with the recruitment team at INSEAD, I felt that this would be a great match. From the beginning I could see that the community at INSEAD was exactly what I was looking for —very international with multi-cultural backgrounds and experiences.
With the programme's focus on Corporate Finance and Capital markets, I could finally learn more about Strategic Finance, and afterwards change to a more senior and strategic role at a bigger stock-listed corporation. This is what I did shortly after my graduation.
Another reason I considered the programme was that over the years, I have had the chance to collaborate with many different countries and cultures but was falling short on exchanges with Asian cultures.
The EMFin, being a modular programme with modules over two consecutive weeks, would allow me to disconnect from work while attending classes and to focus only on the programme. Back at the office and during the modules I could focus on work and use my leisure time to prepare for classes.
Speaking of classes, —my favorite were the Corporate Finance classes with Massimo Massa where one could name any topic and he would give a real-life example explaining the theoretical basis.
I especially liked the way he explained the motives of investor decisions behind big market moves and developments.
During any class we would handle case studies, first in small groups and later on, the professor would walk us through the case study and the solutions which fostered enriching class discussions.
Class participants were from all around the world of different age and background. Meeting these very nice, open-minded and international people was one of the things I appreciated the most at INSEAD. Many of them became very good friends of mine. People are very helfpul and when travelling, I would always get in contact with any INSEAD alumni based where I was going to travel to. The INSEAD community is very helpful and you will always find interesting sparing partners.
