I believe my personality and learning style would fit in extremely well in the community atmosphere of the Rotman MFin program. First of all, I am an extremely gregarious and outgoing individual; I find it extremely easy to make friends and find common ground with which to relate to others. I have a great many stories to share with others, and always enjoy learning new ones from exciting, diverse groups of people. This will make it quite effortless to ingratiate myself with my peers and become part of their learning experience. I fully anticipate making many great new friends in the program, which can foster an environment of inclusiveness and comfort and make it even easier for us to learn.
Another thing I believe the community would value is my willingness to learn from others, no matter who they are. My attitude toward the MFin program would be one of collaboration – not just learning from instructors and faculty, but from my fellow classmates and MFin colleagues. Not all of us come from the same places or financial backgrounds, and so every student comes in with their own histories and experiences that can inform others as to how to approach their own problems and coursework. I love learning about others’ stories and histories, and sharing my own, which I believe to be a tremendous resource we can all draw from when learning more about how to apply finance to both private and public contexts. I do not want to simply look at things from my own perspective, but to see how the same concepts affect others, and gain the knowledge of a variety of viewpoints. The result would be a communal learning experience in which everyone benefits from each others’ expertise, making us all better financiers and students in the long run.
One more thing I believe the MFin community would value is my pluralistic outlook on the finance community. While I know of others who may see the world of finance (and the job market on the whole) as a competitive place where your classmates are your professional rivals, I see it a bit differently. Instead of looking at my colleagues as enemies vying for my clients or job positions, I wish to see them as potential resources for both emotional encouragement and practical educational advice. It is my belief that we are all in the financial game together, with the overall goal being to serve our respective clients as best we can. Financiers, whether private or public, are hardly in opposition or competition with each other in the real world, at least once their clients are selected; we all just want to know how best to do our jobs. By actively learning with and from each other, we can all help each other serve our clients best by pooling our collective experiences into a knowledge base that is comprehensive and yields positive effects.
With that in mind, the MFin community’s close-knit nature will allow me to share my thoughts and insights with others freely, in the hope that others respect and return that community spirit. Given what I have seen of the program thus far, this appears to be the case. From my friendliness and receptiveness to new ideas, to my perspective of financiers as a fraternity instead of a gladiatorial arena, I believe I will fit in well in Rotman’s MFin program.
