How A Master In Finance Will Help You Become A Responsible Leader

Graduates from Master in Finance programs land some of the highest-paying finance jobs at top financial firms such as Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas or Societe Generale. Yet, you can also find Master in Finance grads leading fintech startups or working for top consulting firms.

When you think of a Master in Finance, the first thing that comes to mind is the in-depth analytical skills and financial knowledge you will gain. 

Beyond those technical skills, Masters in Finance programs can help broaden students’ soft skills and sustainable finance knowledge, allowing grads to become well-rounded, responsible business leaders.

Find out how a Master in Finance can help you become a modern business leader. 

You’ll learn how to combine finance with ESG measures

Learning about ESG (environmental, social, and governmental) factors is more important than ever to business school students. In fact, 42% of respondents in the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) Prospective Students Survey view sustainability as curricular must-haves.

The MSc in Finance at emlyon business school integrates ESG and sustainable finance topics into almost every course.

emlyon—located in Lyon, France—boasts a curriculum that develops students’ understanding of societal and environmental issues, providing a responsible vision of finance. 

This allows students to develop innovative financial-driven solutions that address the issues companies, investors, and financial markets face in the financial world.

Muhammed Khan, an emlyon graduate from the US, started the MSc in Finance with a goal to go into investment finance. 

“ESG was incorporated into almost every single aspect of the program, from something as granular as the assignments and the exams being digital to experiential lessons within a course,” he says. 

emlyon invites professional guest speakers with experience in responsible finance and sustainable investing to lead certain classes. 

“We had private equity experts come in that were working in sustainable private equity, we had sell-side bankers that had experience in sustainable investing, and CEOs of city banks with experience in implementing ESG into their companies.”

You’ll gain entrepreneurial experiential opportunities 

One of the advantages of business school is learning both theory and practice. This is a priority at emlyon, which invites students to forge a link between thought and action, with their motto as: "doing to learn, learning to do".

During the MSc in Finance, students acquire the necessary skills to take different certificates: Autorité Des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) 1 and 2, Bloomberg Certification. However, the program also provides students with experience in other sectors, such as innovation and entrepreneurship.   

“Even if it’s not a real-world project, there's a lot of simulation,” says Muhammed.

“Every project is in the framework of a client. Whether it’s an investor client or consulting client, it’s client facing.”

A highlight of his time during the emlyon MSc in Finance was the Strategic Consulting class, where he was able to work with startups towards the end of the program. 

“You were actually helping  startups, businesses, and entrepreneurs with real problems,” he says. 

You’ll enhance your soft skills and access an international network

The career opportunities and top salaries of Master in Finance graduates means it’s a popular choice of program. It’s the third most popular business master’s degree after one- and two-year full-time MBAs, according to the GMAC Prospective Students Survey. 

This means that Master in Finance programs are often comprised of an array of students from different nationalities and backgrounds. 

emlyon business school has 41,700 alumni in 130 countries.

“I had Lebanese, German, Italian, and North African friends in the cohort. So you're seeing in real time how we look at the same things differently,” Muhammed says.  

The MSc in Finance at emlyon prioritizes teamwork with multicultural differences to help students develop the soft skills to improve their self-knowledge, self-presentation, and communication skills.  

“The places we come from have a big effect on how we view things. When someone’s cultural mindset or opinion would come out, we’d go down that rabbit hole and pick their brain about it. I learned so much about the world by doing that,” Muhammed says.   

Evidently, learning among a diverse cohort in an experiential learning environment strengthens students’ career prospects. In fact, 99% of emlyon MSc in Finance grads are employed within six months of completing the degree. 

Muhammed is currently undertaking an internship in equity research at European financial services firm Kepler. He’s studying publicly traded companies and doing research to aid their investment decisions. 

“It’s a great place to learn especially going back to the beginning of my story, where I wanted to pursue investing,” he explains. 

His MSc in Finance from emlyon stood out to Kepler’s hiring committee and allowed him to demonstrate to the interviewer what an asset he would be. 

“emlyon is a respected brand in France. I applied and got the opportunity to interview because of the renowned school. I was then good enough to be selected for an internship because of the training and experienced I gained from my degree,” he concludes.