Tell us about your career path since graduating from the VGSF.
I started my career as an Assistant Professor in Finance in September 2020 at the Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen. I am also affiliated with the Danish Finance Institute, an initiative of all leading Danish universities to foster world-class research in Finance.
Why did you apply to the VGSF PhD program?
My background was initially in mathematical finance and econometrics. I aimed to work on questions pertaining to the use of high-frequency data for portfolio choice together with Nikolaus Hautsch, a faculty member of the VGSF. The program offered many exciting courses, close interaction with the faculty, and excellent research resources (such as travel budgets, access to large computing facilities, and plenty of data sources). The VGSF seemed like an excellent place to start as a PhD student, and Vienna is an amazing city
Looking back, how did the program prepare you for your career?
In retrospect, I am extremely grateful for the support of the VGSF and the entire faculty. Via the VGSF, I got the opportunity to meet many renowned researchers visiting our department for seminars and, even better, giving courses for PhD students. I still collaborate with some of these professors, and such fruitful connections would have been very hard to establish without the help of the VGSF. Also, I received a lot of opportunities to present my research within the VGSF, and the faculty and peers made substantial efforts to provide me with feedback – I guess there sportsbetis nothing that prepared me better for the job market than all these opportunities to interact with each other.
In your opinion, what is specific to the VGSF program compared to other PhD programs?
The VGSF provides a stimulating environment for research: the number of accomplished scholars among both the local and visiting faculty is impressive and the courses were outstanding. The generous travel budget allowed me to participate in many conferences and to visit, among others, Northwestern University, an outstanding US institution. I enjoyed the close contact with all the faculty members and sincerely miss all the great interactions with my fellow PhD students in Vienna.
What was student life like?
The topmost priority was research. Thanks to the generous funding of the VGSF, I did not have to teach, which gave me plenty of time to work on publishing my research projects. The courses were amazing, albeit time-consuming, but I am extremely grateful for all these opportunities: We had the chance to participate in many, many seminars with outstanding speakers and to discuss their work during internal meetings. We, the VGSF students, presented our work internally, gave feedback, and supported each other. Of course, it helped that Vienna is such a great place to live and that the WU campus provides an outstanding atmosphere. Within these years, my colleagues became close friends, and I’ll never forget many of the fun events that took place during or after working hours 🙂
Thank you for your time!