Statement of Purpose MSc Finance

So this is my SOP for MSc Finance for JMSB.

1. I need to project myself as a student interested and capable of doing research with an analytical and critical mindset. 

2. There are question marks after certain words, they are meant to indicate and ask whether I have used the correct word before the question mark.

You may have heard this from many hopefuls such as I but I really need your help guys and I would immensely appreciate the help. I'd like your help to fulfil those 2 criterion and also with formatting of the SOP as I overshot the 1000 word limit. I hope to hear from you soon as the deadline is nearly upon me. Thanks in advance!

My desire to extend my knowledge about the world of finance, coupled with my past accomplishments make me confident that pursuing Master’s in Finance is the best and most important step that I can take. I know that with my degree in economics and my drive/penchant for learning make me an ideal candidate for the rigours of this program and subsequently, the profession that follows it. I bring with me my drive? to work hard, leadership quality and analytical mind-set that I have cultivated throughout my school, college and later, while working.

My curiosity about the world was what led me to choose economics as my major in college. Before the crisis of 2008-09, economics was not a major part of my daily concerns, instead whether I will win the 100m sprint for my school was. However, it was only after 2008, as the world economy began to slow down and my father’s business suffered as a result, did I become increasingly interested in the field of economics. I was in awe how economists tackled insistent problems that the world faces such as poverty, health and environmental degradation and came up with ingenious solutions to these problems by employing theories and models, and it certainly was the best decision of my life to study economics in college.

As a student of economics, I developed a critical and analytical mind-set along with the ability to think profoundly about problems and find solutions. I began to take more interest towards the economics society of my college, of which I became an executive member, and also began to actively participate in events of other societies, especially the commerce society with whom I organised an Investor Awareness Programme organised by The institute of Company Secretaries of India, and it was this time around that I developed a fascination for finance. I took such active participation because I believed that engaging myself in extra-curricular activities would further help in holistic development of my personality and I believe that my involvement in these events did have a lasting impact on me by making me more confident and immeasurably improving my interpersonal skills. Towards the end of second year, I realised that I had to perform better academically than what I had done till then and due to my continued hard work, I was awarded with the certificate of merit for academic excellence.

In the final year of college, due to my interest in finance, I opted to study ‘Money and Financial Markets’ elective and scored the highest marks in that subject in the college (have no proof of it). Opting for this course allowed me to study the basic workings of each type of financial market and instruments, further stimulating the fire of learning finance in me. Recognising my talent and my immense contribution, I was elected as the President of the Economics Society of my college, and I realised that this was an opportunity to demonstrate my leadership, management and organisational ability. I organised several events at both inter and intra college level, both for the students of my college and the local community. It was a chance for me to showcase how classroom learning and can be applied to everyone’s benefit. I invited the local community to directly invest funds into the society and where the society in turn, hosted educational seminars and speeches by distinguished professors and experts, leading to improved quality of events hosted and more funds for the society at the same time. One of the major experiences as President, was my research under the esteemed professor Dr. R.S. Sharma of Delhi University on environmental degradation and how financial innovation can tackle pollution in India, where I proposed the idea of a mutual fund comprising stocks of companies fighting pollution which can be similar to ‘green mutual funds’ but the only difference being that this mutual fund would raise money for companies reducing the total amount of pollution in the environment instead of companies being just pollution minimising in their production policy, so that the efficiency of financial markets can directly benefit the environment.

After completing my college and securing first division, I interned at one of Asia’s largest education company in their business development department intending to further polish my inter-personal, teamwork and research skills. As an executive, I not only enrolled students bringing in about Rs. 210,000 as registration alone, but my market research involving innovative selling methods improved profitability by 17% for my branch office. After completing my internship I wanted to gain more work experience because I wanted to work with real world business problems and hence, I decided to join my father’s garment export business where I worked throughout the entire production process and was also involved in financing orders and shipments. Working in this business led me to become a better problem solver, and a focused and critical thinker and I also learned Mysql and Tableau Desktop on my own as a side project. Though I gained an invaluable experience and continue to learn more about this business, I still hadn’t satisfied my hunger? for a career in finance and research.

I wish to continue with my education and develop expertise in finance, a subject for which I have had a fascination for a long time and last August I completed an online foundation Financial Trading Program . My wish is to research towards ways of using financial markets to tackle environmental degradation, as green finance is not only essential for economic development, but will also counter the effects that environmental degradation will have on profits in the near future, however, I aim to keep an open mind towards my final thesis topic and one of major reasons for choosing this two-year Program(correct capital?) is because it gives ample time to explore the various fields in finance for the first nine months. I particularly look forward to meet Professor Dr. Harjeet S. Bhabra as he has prior experience and expertise in supervising graduate research projects in areas such as corporate social responsibility and capital structure in emerging markets as these are the areas I am particularly interested in, and it would be a privilege to work under him. I aim to further polish my critical reasoning and analysis skills through this program and to also further my knowledge on finance and financial research. My initial goal immediately after the course is to obtain a rigorous, demanding and rewarding position in this profession and I intend to use the Career Management Services of JMSB which provides a link between industry professionals, alumni and students(ok to use short form of the business school?) to the fullest and further my cause of learning about the finance industry. To this end, I am especially interested in Corporate Governance & Executive Compensation, Mergers, Restructuring, and Corporate Control and Investment Management seminars and look forward to presenting my research in the Annual Graduate Research Exposition (AGRE), giving me an opportunity to not only showcase my research directly to business managers, providing me the valuable experience of presenting findings to managers, but to also build connections with them.

I sincerely hope that I qualify all the requirements for this Graduate Program and hope to continue my pursuit of knowledge and as a casual reader of philosophy I quote Socrates who once said, “An unexamined life is not worth living”.