Vital Stats
HOMETOWN: I am from the mountains in Grenoble, in the southeast of France.
Master's Program:University of California at Berkeley (Haas School of Business), Master in Financial Engineering
Additional Graduate work:Master of Science from Ecole Internationale des Sciences du Traitment de l'information (EISTI) in 2002
Undergraduate Degree:Lycee Champollion (Grenoble, France) in 1999
Internships: I had a six-month internship at CCF-HSBC (now HSBC) in Paris that started in May 2002 and turned into a full-time job. I was working in risk management, mainly on interest-rate derivative products. I was in charge of specifying the upgrade of the risk systems necessary to deal with complex exotic products. I am starting an internship in October at Citi in FX structuring.
Work Experience: In addition to CCF-HSBC, in 2006 I moved to ABN AMRO in London where I was assistant director and market risk manager.
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- Qualifications and Background
- Aspirations
- Beyond the Numbers
Advanced Trading: Why did you choose the University of California at Berkeley's Master in Financial Engineering program?
Brunet: For the education itself and the fact that it has leading teachers, such as Professor of finance Mark Rubinstein and Professor Francis Longstaff. It's also ranked very highly in North America. This, of course, makes it more appealing. And definitely the content, as well as the network that you build in such programs.
AT: Did you have professional experience prior to entering the M.F.E. program?
Brunet: I worked for a few years first in CCF-HSBC in Paris where I did my internship and then was hired in the risk field, handling market and model risk for interest-rate derivative products. Then in 2006 I moved to ABN AMRO in London where I was assistant director and market risk manager for FX exotic products, inflation and interest rate exotic, and structured notes.
AT: What is your math background? Do you have any programming experience?
Brunet: I did a lot of math in my two years of preparatory school before engineering school, and once I was in engineering school I did a lot of computer programming -- C++ and C, mainly. I also gained math experience in my internship at CCF-HSBC. When I worked for ABN AMRO, I used mainly my financial skills; my programming skills were just VBA and Excel. It wasn't heavy on programming.
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AT: What classes are you taking that will be essential to helping you be more prepared for a job on Wall Street?
Brunet: There are definitely some core disciplines that we are learning here and that are necessary to be efficient on the Street. You could divide them into three tranches. The first tranche is pure math; we're doing a lot of stochastic calculus. The second tranche is quantitative methods. We're learning how to implement algorithms using Monte Carlo simulations, for instance. And the third tranche is finance. Basically, I'm taking fixed-income classes and derivatives classes that are giving me the tools to understand how finance works. I should also talk about market risk management -- our teacher, Philippe Jorion, has been teaching us market and credit risk in the current term.
We also have informal discussions with the faculty or with people who come to present their firms at the business school. We've had a lot of discussions with faculty on the credit risk turmoil and all the consequences it's having on our economy and what steps could be taken to get out of this situation.
AT: What first interested you in Wall Street?
Brunet: When I was a student in my engineering school, I was really attracted by this industry that was creating new products all the time, and [was interested in] how to create new structures. I was excited by that innovation challenge, and that is probably why I really want to move to structuring.
AT: Discuss your training in statistics and your ability to analyze data.
Brunet: Statistics is something you're required to know when you join the M.F.E. program. We do a lot of econometrics in the program, but this requires pre-knowledge of statistics. I had exposure to statistics in my engineering school. This is something that we do here at the M.F.E. -- we are working on data. This is something I did as a market risk manager [at ABN AMRO], because we worked with time series.
AT: How would you rate your knowledge of the business of financial services, on a scale of 1 to 10?
Brunet: I have a very good understanding of how a trading floor works and how people interact inside the floor and with clients and with the rest of the bank. I have a very good understanding of how an investment bank works within a commercial bank.
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AT: Why did you choose to pursue a career on Wall Street?
Brunet: I've always been interested in finance and all the subjects surrounding finance; that's the first part. To be good and efficient, not only do you have to have the technical skills and technical background, but you also need to have a good understanding of what is going on in the world and how it can impact the finance industry. Working in finance and working on the trading floor is really exciting because you get to know everything happening in the world. You really have to get aAM better understanding of events and how events can impact the economy, and that's something I've always found exciting.
The other part is interacting with people. When you work at a bank you get a very diverse mix of people. You get to work with people who are highly qualified in mathematics, you get to work with people who are highly qualified in computing, and you get to work with people who are highly qualified in managing the relationship with a client in a very concentrated environment, and that is really, really exciting.
AT: In what type of role would you like to start?
Brunet: To be honest with you, exactly the one I'm going to do at Citi. I want to move to a structuring role. This is exactly why I resigned from ABN AMRO and came to the M.F.E. program. Basically, you design products. You need to understand clients, big corporations -- you need to understand their needs, you need to understand what kind of payoffs need to be structured with the bank's tools, and you need to understand how you can promote those payoffs. This is why I came here and what I hope I will be doing in the next few years.
AT: What do you see yourself doing in two years? In 10 years?
Brunet: In two years, probably still structuring. Two years is very short. I guess I'll be happy to do structuring in the next five years. After five years, it's difficult to predict. I'd like to be in a more managerial role. But 10 to 15 years from now, why not private banking as well, or complex structures for wealthy clients? That could be interesting as well.
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AT: Name three firms you'd like to work for.
Brunet: I could say large investment banks. When I say investment branches of banks, such as in Citi or much smaller private banks -- that's a second road that can really be interesting. And then you have small hedge fund boutiques -- that could be challenging as well, but that's on the buy side.
AT: What sets you apart from other quant candidates?
Brunet: I already have experience in finance. I've been traveling a lot. I worked in Paris, in London. I studied in San Francisco. I'll be working in New York. This is a job where you work with people from all over the world. My ability to work with very different people, and my education -- the main difference is probably being able to interact because of international experience. My ability to interact with people that have very different types of skill sets really enables me to be efficient on a floor.
AT: What three questions would you ask a prospective employer?
Brunet: What are the parameters of the role itself? What is the career evolution I could have within the company structure? And, how do people work together within the team? Do they work independently? Do people go to the pub together on Friday evening?
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AT: Do you trade at all? Have you ever built any algorithmic models for trading?
Brunet: I've never worked as a trader for a bank. No, I haven't built any algorithmic models for trading. It's not something we've done in the program.
AT: What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Brunet: A lot of skiing, tennis and swimming, so a lot of sports. Skiing is No. 1. That was really easy when I was in Grenoble or Paris, but not in Berkeley. I also like theater and classical music. I spend a lot of time going to concerts. Here in San Francisco I spend a lot of time at the symphony hall. In New York that will be amazing. I look forward to spending time at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.
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AT: Name one thing you did this summer for fun.
Brunet: I went to Alaska. That was absolutely amazing. I flew with a friend from the M.F.E. program -- we only had a week. We went on a road trip around Alaska. We got to see bears, whales. It was impressive -- there are glaciers everywhere. It was just a great week off. I would recommend it.
AT: Describe a personal goal beyond a career on Wall Street.
Brunet: To start learning how to play the piano again. That was something I stopped when I was in my teens, and that is definitely something I would like to start.
AT: Choose one word to describe yourself.
Brunet: Open-minded.
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