Dimitri Bianco earned a Masters in Applied Economics (MAE) in 2014. He initially came to UM for the Masters of Financial Engineering (MFE) program. While attending, MFE stopped admitting new students, he took this opportunity to switch to MAE. He has been a vocal advocate of the program ever since. Not only did the program provide what Dimitri was looking for academically, it also facilitated a welcoming environment that created a sense of community for the students involved, regardless of the length of time within the program. “If you want to go into industry, I would definitely recommend an MAE. With the MAE program, it was nice to have that camaraderie where everyone has the same goal. We are all working towards the same end and working together to get jobs. It also provided a great deal of flexibility in the courses available that I did not have with the MFE,” he explains.

Since graduating, Dimitri has worked for multiple organizations. Increasingly beneficial opportunities continue to arise due to the high demand for risk management professionals. He currently works as a Risk Officer II at Santander Bank in New York City. They are one of the largest banks in the world and are based out of Spain. To future MAE students, Dimitri has two important pieces of advice. He recommends, “taking courses in time series analysis if possible. It’s a rare skill and really having students understand it well makes it quite valuable in risk management. Also, focus your time taking math or statistics, public policy or data information science courses. You can gain a wider set of skills than most other programs by taking the MAE. By having that flexibility across multiple programs, you can develop a skillset that most employers are looking for. The advantage that Michigan has is that all the other graduate programs around economics are also very well ranked with great teachers.”

Fostering connections between alumni, current MAE students and potential MAE students is extremely important to Dimitri. If you have any questions for him, feel free to email him or connect with him on LinkedIn! He also has a YouTube page featuring career advice!

For more information on our MAE program, visit the MAE section of our website, connect with out MAE program page on LinkedIn or contact out MAE Coordinator, Lisa Rogers at Econ-MAEProgram@umich.edu!