Maxim Shirshov, Member of the ICEF Master’s Class of 2024, About ICEF: “Here You Can Feel the Spirit of Time-Honored Tradition”
Maxim Shirshov graduated from the ICEF Master of Financial Economics Programme in 2024. His portfolio features winning places in multiple academic contests and the undergraduate degree from HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences. Here’s what Maxim thinks about his student years and where he sees himself professionally.
Maxim, opportunities don’t happen, you create them. What motivated your choice of ICEF?
ICEF won me over with its reputation and high academic standards. Its faculty maintain vibrant international ties, and many of its members are hired from abroad. But perhaps my most decisive factor was ICEF placing a strong emphasis on mathematical methods in its economic and financial courses.
Expectations sometimes fail to materialize… Did your expectations of ICEF match reality?
Everything turned out to be the way I expected. It took some effort to adjust to the rigors of revising economic theory in year one—the macroeconomic models require special treatment. But nothing is impossible with a little more effort and patience.
Here, the academic week is two to three days long, with lectures taking place on weekdays and course seminars on Saturdays. All classes take place in the building on Pokrovsky Boulevard. As for home assignments, these are given always in advance so that students could have sufficient time to do them.
I personally like to stick around the library after classes. It’s a nice place to soak up the atmosphere of the university and to immerse yourself into the study material in the company of friends. I like co-working, it makes learning more productive.
Which courses did you like to study most and why?
The courses on financial derivatives and big data, and Game Theory unit of the Microeconomics course. I liked them best because of their engaging topics and how they were presented.
It’s hard to pick one teacher I liked most, all of them are true professionals and top experts in their field. They would even stay after class to tell us more on the subject. It’s very much in the spirit of the universities with time-honoured traditions.
After several years as a college student, exams ceased to be a challenge for me. I now see them as a normal part of learning process. Still, the exam sessions at ICEF may involve too many tests, but I eventually learned how to allocate my time and effort studying for them.
Also, I was very happy to resume learning Italian. ICEF teaches it as an optional course.
Do you already know where you want to be professionally?
I think I want a career in AI for finance. I’ve recently started a job as a Quantitative Researcher at a company that specializes in algorithmic trading. This role involves financial data analysis and ML-based forecasting—I chose the latter to be the topic of my graduation paper.
What advice would you give to the future students of ICEF?
I would advise them not to forget that student life is not only about studying.
No less important than career planning are your favourite pastimes and human connection. The latter can be best experienced and built during joint travel. Last year I and my classmates travelled to some ten Russian regions from Tula to Krasnoyarsk.