Atiba Jackson

About you

What work experience/internships did you have before beginning with Imperial College Business School?

I spent four years and nine months as a credit underwriter back in Jamaica.

Why did you decide to study an MSc Investment & Wealth Management at Imperial College Business School?  

My interest in finance and how the finance market works. I wanted to get exposure to that side of finance. The programme is focused on the buy-side industry plus the London pull and the ranking of Imperial.

Programme

What aspects of the programme do you most enjoy, and find most rewarding?

All of it to be honest The Student Investment FundI helped create was the major highlight. The overall experience was good too, meeting people from all over the world and collaborating with them was great experience.

Which has been your favourite module so far and why?

Asset Allocation and Investment Strategies. It gave us a good understanding of investment strategies used by banks and hedge funds. It mixed a bit of practical and theory too as we were replicating these strategies ourselves. Topics in Fintech Innovation also as it was a real eye opener to the fintech space in London and introduced us to key figure in fintech and their businesses.

What has been the most challenging part of the programme? 

Balancing the work with job applications. Applying for jobs is like an additional programme and was way more time consuming than I thought it would be.

People

How would you describe your cohort at Imperial?

Diverse and smart. Imperial is really an international school. Sometimes it didn’t feel like I was in London as I was surrounded by people from everywhere and everyone is really smart and ambitious.

Did you have a favourite professor/lecturer and why?

Quite a few were extremely good but I have to note Amit Goyal, he’s a legend.

Imperial places a large emphasis on group work; what did you like the most about working in this type of environment?

It required you to develop your interpersonal and team working skills right from the onset. With a diverse cohort you are in teams with people from various backgrounds culturally and educationally too. Therefore, you it required you to be able to work out each other’s’ strength and weaknesses to get the work done and it was quite a lot of work especially from September to December.

Opportunities

What has been the greatest opportunity you have had at Imperial?

To create the Student Investment Fund!

What clubs, societies or other activities have you been involved in at Imperial? Do you hold a student leadership position?

Quite a few as I’m Co-founder and Chief Risk Officer of The Student Investment Fund, Student Ambassador of the MSc Investment & Wealth Management programme and I played for the Imperial first football team.

Career

What are your future career goals and how have they been realised since being at Imperial?

Developing my career in finance in London. Imperial has been an introduction to that and I’ve since gone on to secure a permanent position in London, so I’m on track to achieving my goals.

Have you received any job offers since commencing your programme?

Corporate Banking Relationship Officer at the National Bank of Kuwait.

How did the services from Careers help in your professional development/securing employment?

The Career Consultants helped by doing CV reviews and by giving me job hunting tips such as the importance of networking, which seems to be the best way to get a job in London.

London location

Do you think studying in a central location such as London is beneficial for networking and career opportunities? 

Yes definitely. Being in the heart of the city allows for easy access to industry professionals in terms of meeting up for coffee or them coming to the campus for a guest lecture, event etc.

Where do you live in London and why did you choose to live there?

Kensal Green, I lived with my brother.

If you had to move to London for the programme, what have been the benefits and challenges of moving to London? What advice would you give to someone in a similar position?

I did move to London however my brother lives here so it made settling here very easy. I was also very familiar with the city and how to get around so it was much more of a difficulty to get settled here in terms of culture etc.

Tips

Looking back to when you were applying for the programme, did you attend any online webinars or on-campus information sessions?

I didn’t attend any but I would highly recommend students to attend them. Past students helped me to decide on what electives to do and if I had made use of these events and opportunities before I would have gotten a better idea of what to expect from the programme in terms of workloads and contents of each module.

What advice would you give someone who is thinking about applying for the programme?

Try to focus on what you plan to get out of the programme and how it relates to your career ambitions. What makes you unique and stand out, and how do you think you would make an impact at Imperial? Also, Imperial and London is very diverse so highlight how the cosmopolitan nature of the school and city appeals to you.