As an undergraduate, I studied naval engineering at the Escola Politécnica da USP (Polytechnic School of USP) in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I always liked math and physics, so I enjoyed studying engineering. As I was progressing in college, I realized that finance also uses a lot of math, and it can be a very technical field as well. After getting my degree, I did an internship on the equities and derivatives prop desk at Itaú BBA, the largest bank in Brazil that does both retail and investment banking. When I graduated, I joined the equity trading desk there, first as a trainee and then as a trader. In this period, I was exposed to people who were trading options and many related products. I noticed that a lot of people there had many different professional certificates. So, I decided to find a rigorous, technical curriculum that could take me further in my career.
 

At about the same time, I moved to JP Morgan in Sao Paulo and continued my work as an equity derivatives trader and analyst. For a while, I just focused on my new job, but after about two years, I started thinking about my education again. I looked at the Certificate in Quantitative Finance (CQF) and read up on the faculty and the course curriculum. In fact, I was already reading some of the books for the course and I was familiar with several lecturers and their work. So, I decided to join the CQF program. 

One of the things that was most valuable to me was the programming component of the course. I used to do some work in Python for my engineering courses in college, but the CQF helps people learn Python very quickly by taking on practical problems in finance. I spent many hours studying and debugging code, and I knew it was going to be useful for me. 
 

Since I was working with options, I was quite attracted to mastering the concepts that are important to delta hedging and options trading in general. Before going into the CQF program, I had been working mostly on vanilla options. After completing the program, I became even more interested in exotic options. This topic draws on several books and lectures from the program and also requires critical independent thinking and analysis. I worked hard on my final project and was very pleased to win the CQF Institute Award; I am really grateful for the CQF program because it has opened opportunities for me in this area of finance.
 

When I think about people who are just starting the CQF, the first thing I would say is, “Don't miss out on the primers.” The program is designed to help level the playing field for everyone and it's very difficult to keep up with all of the math and programming later on, if you don't make good use of the primers at the beginning. On a philosophical level, I would recommend finding and exploring the areas that are most interesting to you. What classes are the most intriguing to you? What do you want to do for your final project? What skills and knowledge do you need for your career? It’s good to reflect on these questions deeply because it allows you to focus and helps you plan for the next steps in the program and in your professional life. Finally, I would strongly advise to give it your best because you will get out from the CQF the amount you put into it. The people who will learn the most will commit substantial time to the studies every day. This is a place where you need to put in 100%, but the rewards are worth the effort.