After graduating from Windsor in 2009 with Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Mathematics, Brad Howell completed a Masters degree in Economics at the University of Western Ontario. Brad now works as a Senior Analyst in the Financial Institutions Division at the Bank of Canada.
Being hired by the Bank of Canada is no small feat. In his position which features a research component, Brad interacts with colleagues with credentials such as doctorate degrees from the world-leading London School of Economics. The Bank of Canada hiring process is a two-stage process with the first interview being fairly technical in nature, aimed at determining if the job candidate has the necessary knowledge and communication skills to do the job. The second stage takes the better part of a day and includes a written test to assess writing proficiency and panel interviews by each department interested in the job candidate.
About entering a graduate programme in Economics with an undergraduate background in Mathematics, Brad says, “What’s interesting about taking a Masters in Economics is that you are likely better prepared for it if you majored in something like mathematics or physics than in economics. At the graduate level, economics tends to have a significant amount of optimization, statistics and proofs. Generally speaking, students trained in mathematics outperformed those trained in economics in the coursework portion of their masters. Where those trained in mathematics had to catch up a bit was in being comfortable speaking about economic and financial topics outside of the classroom. This isn’t so bad as catching up just means following the news and going to the bar on Fridays to talk finance and current events.”
Brad says about his background in mathematics and his job at the Bank of Canada, “Realistically, I got my job because of my background in mathematics. At the time there was a large push to bring in people with strong technical backgrounds to help with modeling efforts in Financial Stability (this is still the case and many people with mathematical backgrounds get hired). So when I got hired the goal was really to put my mathematical skills to work in an economic setting. I’ve used mathematics in assessing bank risks via machine learning techniques such as self-organizing maps, binary trees and binary forests. I’ve used them while working on what I will loosely call ‘mathematical finance models’ such as: the Household Risk Assessment Model (HRAM) and the MacroFinancial Risk Assessment Framework(MFRAF).” More generally, Brad says that mathematical training “helps you look at the core of problems and communicate answers concisely and in a rigorous fashion. These are skills that are really appreciated in a work setting and are harder to find than you’d think.”
Brad describes his work at the Bank of Canada: “I’ve had the opportunity to work on many interesting things at the Bank. I’ve analyzed the debt sustainability of countries throughout the euro crisis, assessed the risks facing financial institutions in Canada, worked on household micro data using the Bank’s Household Risk Assessment Model (HRAM), and more recently, have jumped into bank stress testing. To date stress testing has been the most interesting. In stress testing, we assume a really nasty economic scenario and assess how this might affect banks. Impacts could be felt through: direct losses on their loan/securities portfolio, through runs from their creditors, information contagion (upon seeing one bank face financial difficulties creditors might infer that the situation is worse than they initially thought and may be less likely to extend funding), or through cascading defaults via the interbank network.”
Brad says about the University of Windsor, “The Outstanding Scholars program was probably the deciding factor for me in choosing Windsor over other universities. The guaranteed opportunity to work directly with faculty while covering most of my educational expenses was too good to pass up. I feel that this gave me the liberty to really immerse myself in the university experience which I think every student should do.”
Brad enjoyed the small community aspect of Windsor and how well he got to know fellow students and professors given the small size of upper year classes. “I personally knew all of my professors which made it easy to ask them questions not only related to course work but also about mathematics as a field or more generally about life. In turn I think this gave my professors the opportunity to better challenge me and to push me further towards my potential.” Brad says that the small community atmosphere of Windsor “is really what sets it apart from other universities. Being an upper year undergrad in mathematics at Windsor is comparable in experience to being a graduate student at other schools (smaller class sizes, tight knit group, etc).”
Brad’s advice for prospective high school students: “I loved my time in Windsor! It’s a great school where you won’t be ‘just another student’, where the faculty is extremely approachable, the people are down to earth and where teaching is a priority. I can genuinely say that the faculty looked out for my well-being and wanted what was best for me in my time there. Aside from the school, I think the area is perfect for students. The West End has great ethnic restaurants, cheap places for students to live that are close to campus, and even daily pickup soccer games. The city itself has a good night life, and with Detroit just a few minutes away, access to all the amenities you’d want in a larger city: concerts, sports franchises (NBA, MLB, NHL, NFL), shopping, etc.” Finally, living in Ottawa, Brad now better appreciates Windsor Winters.
Brad offers the following three pieces of advice for students in mathematics programmes:
“Take courses in a secondary field and don’t assume you’ll end up doing what you plan to do when you first get into university. From a hiring perspective, mathematics students with experience in a second field really stand out and having the liberty to easily move to between different fields is really nice in the future.
Try to take some coding courses as they are extremely helpful when you hit the job market.
Work on your softer skills like communication, presentation, etc. These skills are extremely important in not only landing a job but also in moving up.”
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