Aspirations and Goals: Finance, Risk Management and Regulation

This essay details a student's ambitious career goals within the finance industry, emphasizing their interest in risk management and financial regulation. The student, holding degrees in public affairs and insurance, aims to design financial regulatory systems, acknowledging both the benefits and insufficiencies of finance. They discuss their short-term goal of a career in risk management and their preparation, including CFA examinations, math coursework, and experience with actuarial modeling and risk solution tools at Standard & Poor's. The student's interest in statistics is highlighted as a bridge between social and natural sciences, providing tools for managing risks. They express a strong desire to contribute significantly to the management of risks, viewing the financial market as a platform for achieving their goals. Their experiences and dedication have shaped their determination, which they believe is their best quality to contribute to their career.

With a bachelor’s degree in public affairs and a master's degree in insurance, I
understand the significant benefits that a sustainable financial market can bring to the
society and the powerful tools that finance can utilize to restructure risks. However,
finance doesn't lack insufficiencies which are usually human related such as greed and
fear. With the belief that even the worst intention can benefit the society under proper
regulation and vice versa, my long-term goal is to become a professional in designing
financial regulatory systems. While the weakness of finance can also be attributed to
machines, such as crowded short, flash crash and ultrafast black swan events under
algorithmic trading, regulatory methods must evolve correspondingly with the
astounding technological advancement. Therefore, my short-term goal is to start a
professional career in risk management so as to observe the evolving risks and the
changing of regulatory methods.
To achieve these goals, I have done many things. First, I have passed two levels of
CFA examinations so as to acquire a methodical knowledge in finance. Intrigued by
how mathematics can safeguard the logical integral, I have accomplished as many
math courses as done by engineering students. Additionally, my unique undergraduate
program enables me to conduct Macro-based public policy simulation and analysis
utilizing quantitative methods.
In my senior thesis, I constructed an actuarial model to calculate deficit in Chinese
personal pension system. I found that though touted as a defined contribution pension;

the individual account operates as a defined benefit pension which is deviated from
actuarial balance with a deficit. This deficiency augments with the rise of the age of
retirement which on the other hand helps the entire system of pay-as-you-go pension.
Currently, I am continuing with my master’s degree in insurance based on a unique
perspective of insurance for risk engineering. I also joined Standard & Poor’s as an
intern and familiarized myself with various risk solution tools including risk-based
capital, key risk factors, scorecards and S&P rating methodology. This knowledge and
experience require financial practice, and I believe that the Mfin program can bring
the best out of me with the program’s emphasis on customized synergies.
I have noticed that most of the times, people who go to the gym for the first time
quickly shy away from pushing even a single bar when other individuals are pushing
heavy barbells. However, if one insists on working out without such distractions, he
or she will realize that everyone has a unique goal to fulfill in the gym, and each goal
is not supposed to be compared to other goals. I am constantly and actively motivated
to realize my own goal. With a sharp awareness of my interest in finance, the
satisfaction derived from this field overshadows questions from the crowd for a
student transferring from a seemingly irrelevant field. Also, I have managed to
compensate any of my weaknesses in finance with all of my efforts anchored on
perseverance and persistence. Pursuing finance and contributing to a better world
shapes my determination, which I believe is my best quality to contribute to the
school mission.

As a student majoring in social science, I noticed that there is a big gap between
social science and natural science. Differences between the two include a seemingly
impossibility to apply quantitative methodologies and strictly controlled and
replicable experiments in social science. This led me to hold an inherent pessimism
towards social science until I got introduced to statistics. Statistics is a perfect bridge
for linking social and natural sciences. Under certain assumptions, cross section, time
series or panel data serves as a substitute for lab experiments. Correlations substitute
the observed relationships in labs, and the probability of the observation of specific
events provides a criterion to judge the significance of these correlations. On the other
hand, natural science such as quantum mechanics also encounters the inaccuracy as a
result of uncertainty which demands the application of statistics. This forms the basis
of my primary interest in statistics.
Statistics provides excellent tools for managing risks. With my study and interest in
statistics, I look forward to contributing significantly to the management of risks in
the society. As Dodd-Frank law puts an enormous emphasis on the risk management
in finance; I view the financial market as a platform full of challenges to realize my
goal.