Rafaq Abran

Finance Journal 001 - Lugano

Rafaq Abran - August 23, 2021

I thought that it would be a good idea to perhaps journal some of my time in Switzerland and the change in my career trajectory and goals for the future. As such, this will be the first in a multiple series of journal entries for my time at the università della svizzera italiana (USI) studying for a Master’s in finance here and my reflections and thoughts on my time here.

I believe the most important thing to start off with is what I’m hoping to achieve from this degree and look forward as opposed to start from my past and go forward. It’s a very typical thing where people start these types of discussions about what they have done and their history but I believe this implicitly and explicitly alters and taints one’s perception of the future. It alters it in the sense that the historical actions and experiences you have will, in some sense, attempt to justify the experiences you will have in the future which to me is a somewhat troubling notion. So, that being said, what do I hope to achieve? A simple job? A rewarding career? Large sums of money? Well, the way I am approaching my schooling, work, and life at the moment is that knowledge is good; one should do work that somewhat stimulates them for the largest remuneration and the lowest level of effort; and that rewards are realized socially (either through family, friends or society).

Now, that’s all well and good and a bit abstract, what about what I actually have experienced and what I feel about it? Starting from the town, Lugano. The location of it is spectacular, almost surrounded by mountains with a lake adjacent to it. The result of this is mild weather and stunning views. Not only that, it’s obvious from the fact that it is a European city that there is a large deal of history here which is evident from the architecture, monuments, plaques, and other implicit and explicit factors you see when going through the city. That in itself is quite unique to me as the locations I have lived have history no doubt, but nothing as enriching and far spanning as what I have experienced here. I will not discuss too much about city as there’s travel digests and vlogs that provide a more in depth look at these subjects.

Now the more important and difficult subject to discuss, the culture and the people. I can hardly discuss this as my interactions with people here has been limited due to my limited knowledge in italian, and quite frankly the exhausting nature of attempting to build connections and rapport with a large number of people. That being said, my experience with the culture has been difficult, the social norms here are a bit different than what I’m used to – saying hello and making small talk with strangers is unheard of and almost offensive to some people. Building relationships has not been to difficult, perhaps because I am in a University with similar aged people with somewhat similar ambitions and hopes for the future. But it is very interesting the large number of Italians I’ve met here (from Italy) have expressed some sort of disgust about Italy and their love for Switzerland. This is even more interesting to me because after discussing with some native Swiss-Germans they expressed the stereotype of the Ticino people (Italian-Switzerland) of being disorderly, and obnoxious. To me the Italian’s I’ve met who study with me are not disorderly, or even obnoxious. That being said, it is without a doubt more difficult for me to build friendships and have rapport with Italians/Ticino people as opposed to the German/Swiss-German people I have met thus far. I mention this to the few Italian friends I have and they tell me that this is unfortunately not unique, that the Italian people like to stay within their small groups. I mentioned that this does not bother me too much as it is true that I am a foreigner in their canton (province), I thought that building some Italian knowledge would assist in this matter but the reality is that I do not think it will make much a difference. Perhaps it comes down to comfort, that it’s just so much easier for them to discuss and talk with Italians in Italian than to try to have to translate consistently and interact with an outsider.

Finally, the most important topic, the quality of the education and my assessment of the opportunities that the degree or the university will open. Starting with the professors, I have been surprisingly impressed at the quality of the teaching (aside from 2 professors). This first semester is quite basic with the foundational concepts and although I am learning topics, it is much slower than what I wanted. Regardless, the next 2 semesters will provide me with the topics I have the most interest in. The big question for me right now is the specialization I will choose (Quantitative finance, banking, or fintech), at this point I am leaning toward quantitative finance. Not because of my engineering and heavy quantitative background but because of the fact that although banking and fintech can be easily taught on the job, without a solid foundation in quantitative techniques and statistics it is nearly impossible to train a quant on the job (without wasting multiple weeks/months). There is an event going on with a roundtable with a bank to discuss careers in banking which I do believe will be a good opportunity to finally meet some people practicing in the field.

That’s all I have for the first month of school and the short time I’ve spent in Lugano so far.