Sasha Matovic
MQM: Business Analytics
My Program Track:
Prior Education:
Management/International Business, 2019
Why I Chose Fuqua
The nature of the curriculum allows students to learn from the professors and each other. The sharing of culture, life experiences, success, and failure – those are all incredible tools that shape you and your viewpoints in ways that you do not expect. It allows you to learn how to navigate life in a way that not only lets you succeed but improves the collective success of everyone around you. The diversity, authenticity, and team spirit that Fuqua embodies were - and still are - the differentiating factors that made Fuqua the right fit for me.
Before Fuqua
I have prior experience in commodity trading, real estate financial analysis and risk management consulting. Across these diverse fields, I saw that the pressure to adopt analytics and quantitative modeling was more intense than ever before. I felt that pursuing an MQM degree would give me the foundation to contribute meaningfully in my future career in the finance industry.
After Fuqua
I hope to secure a job in the financial services industry. I am particularly interested in wealth management, hedge funds, and impact investing.
5 Tips for Maximizing Your Time at Fuqua
- Use the Career Management Center. Fuqua has an incredible career management team, and they are all there to help you succeed. Be proactive; go to events and book one-on-one coaching. It’ll be a huge help down the road!
- Ask questions. The faculty at Fuqua are incredible. Their academic contributions and consulting work attribute to their wealth of knowledge. Their advice can help you a lot in both your course work and future employment, so make sure to ask them as much as you can!
- Get social. The program will fly by, so make sure to participate in social events and extra-curricular activities. They are a great way to get to know your classmates and find new hobbies!
- Explore campus. Duke University has one of the most beautiful campuses in the country. Be sure to explore so you can scope out your favorite study spots or meeting places with friends.
- Attend a basketball game. Cameron Indoor Stadium. Coach K. Enough said.
My MQM Track
With the rapid shifts in the finance industry toward digital innovations and quantitative modeling, I wanted to learn how to apply rigorous analytical methods to the financial theory that I had learned in undergrad. The data science courses in our initial terms gave me the basis to operate in several programming languages. In later semesters and track-specific classes, we applied these skills to building financial models, which exceeded the complexity that I had expected to learn at the start.
