I am originally from Madrid, Spain and my academic background is as an Industrial Engineer. At the time I enrolled on the CQF in 2011, I was working for a Strategy Consultancy, specialized in pharma companies, but I was intellectually interested by the world of quant finance. I managed to do my MSc Thesis on CDOs valuation, even though this was a very unorthodox topic for my university back then. After that, I decided I wanted to try and work in the field of quant finance so I moved to London to enroll on the CQF.

What attracted me to the CQF was the fact that it had the content of an MSc in Quantitative Finance, but condensed in 6 months, and with an orientation to practical applications. Also, it had the brand name of Paul Wilmott, whom I kept reading about while researching for my CDOs valuation thesis.

My expectations about the CQF were fully fulfilled and joining the course enabled me to opt in to jobs in the finance industry that I simply could not have landed before. The CQF taught me the basics needed to understand quantitative finance from the ground-up and continue developing my knowledge from there. I would say that is one of the strengths on the CQF: the way the content is delivered and lectures presented is done in a way that makes you develop a first-principles understanding of how models and markets work. This first-principles approach gives you the tools and grounding to understand any further models or complexities later in your work life.

I also enjoyed greatly the fact that the course is very practically oriented, with implementation of models being a big part of the assignments. This is key since I believe helps cement the understanding you have of the concepts.

In summary, undergoing the CQF was a success story for me, since it enabled me to start my career in the finance world and I would recommend it to anyone trying to do the same.