Tomislav Nikolić

After a year of experience at a hedge fund, Tomislav was motivated to pursue a career within the Financial Services industry and he decided that an MSc in Investment & Wealth Management would suit his interests and career goals.

Your time at Imperial College Business School

Why did you choose to study your programme and why specifically at Imperial College Business School?  

Imperial College Business School is renowned for its reputation and exceptional standard of faculty members including highly esteemed professors and a brilliant Careers service. Furthermore, it has a vast alumni network in London, and across the globe, that proves extremely valuable for anyone starting a career. 

What advice would you give to a prospective student considering studying the same programme as you?

Utilise the incredible support you are given from the entire faculty and the Careers service in the Business School. There is no such thing as a stupid question and everyone is more than happy to spare the extra time to help you understand and develop yourself, take advantage of it. You will not regret choosing this programme!

What was the most surprising thing about the programme?

The programme took students to New York for a week for a quantitative finance course and provided lectures with some incredibly interesting and successful people in the industry, culminating with a visit to Goldman Sachs headquarters and a talk with their ex CFO.

Tell us about your current job

How was your career transformed following your programme?

As soon as I finished the programme I was able to find an internship and subsequently a job I aspired to. The modules prepared me extremely well for the everyday challenges of my role and the programming skills acquired made me differentiate myself from my peers and make an impact within the first couple of weeks on the job. Being able to utilise the practical knowledge from my programme has been a fantastic advantage.

How do you plan to use the skills and knowledge you gained during the programme within your career going forward?

Develop applications for the risk team and the trading desks that make everyday tasks more efficient and aid in the analysis of positions, market risk and performance across different portfolios.

What do you enjoy most about your current work and what are the main challenges that you face?

The continuously changing market environment and the challenge of understanding how to manage the risk of various positions within these environments. The opportunity to discus various strategies with different trading desks and the challenge to manage the risk of such strategies. The challenge of understanding the behaviour of different asset classes and how to be positioned in the market given future expectations. 

What is your proudest achievement in the job so far?

Building two applications that are now widely used by the risk team and the trading desk and provide significant value in making everyday trading decisions. All enabled by learning python during my modules at Imperial.

Alumni community

In what way is remaining connected to your alumni network important to you?

Having a multitude of contacts within the financial industry and maintaining great relationships with fellow alumni provides for invaluable business opportunities and the sharing of knowledge which otherwise might be unattainable.