FinTech Q&A w/ Dr. Jimmie Lenz

Hello and thank you for joining us today for our live. Q&A with doctor Jimmy Lynn's I'm Susan Brown and I'm here with Doctor Lins right now. Jimmy would you like to reduce yourself to us of course, by the way happy new year. Thank you happy new year to you too. Thank you Chinese New Year will be coming up soon so looking forward to looking forward to that. I'm the academic director of the financial technology. Fintech graduate program here at the Pratt School and my history is.

Inventec, but we didn't have that cool name. When I was coming up been in the industry for about 25 years and came up as a trader trading equities and derivatives and moved into algorithmic trading and then later doing more in the invention field and Predictive Analytics. And things like that, so fintech is very near and dear to my heart.

Great excellent what we have, we have students who are here live and you guys are free to post questions in the chat box. JD has just posted a message where you see this message below. You can type your message and press enter to send and will address your questions. But we also have some questions that were submitted ahead of time, so great, we ready yes. Let's go so a couple of these are application type questions. So let's address. Those first we've introduced a new segment to our application.

A video introduction and you know the question the 1st question is always the same? Why are you interested in this program and the 2nd question varies basically you know like tell us about a time when you criticize you worked on team? What are you worried about starting the program? What are you excited about that kind of stuff but these fintech students want to know Jimmy? What are you seeking in that that video introduction? Yeah, that's a great question and by the way everybody out there is using tik T.O.K now so.

Video should not be a big deal. It's a great way to write it. So it's the same thing. I think that we wanted to know when you're doing this on paper, but now you have a chance to express yourself in a little bit different way. And so the same things that you would have told me on paper, but now you can elaborate a little bit more. You can tell maybe some more stories and nothing illustrates your answers better than some sort of antidote that you can relay either about something that you do have.

Personally, or something you've done in school or for those of you that have had some opportunities to work or do practice comes or internships. I love those kind of stories. Those are great because they tell us so much about you. Anne this is a perfect opportunity to do it on video absolutely and I have viewed quite a few of those videos from other applicants and other programs and it's just a delightful opportunity to meet students where they are, and really see kind of their personality. Oh absolutely I love doing that because.

You do get.

Sense of the personality and a little bit more about the person then can just be read in a 2 dimensional form exactly.

Another person asked this question about the application. If I submitted the application before the end of 2019 would I get in a result earlier than other students who submitted before the January 15th deadline. Are you working on reviewing applications. Jim White, possibly we are definitely working on reviewing applications. We've seen quite a few and we've received quite a few just to remind everybody. The cut off date is January 15th first cut off date is January, 15th so you still have a couple of days left.

But we are going through those right now, so very possibly people will receive a response back prior to the official date. That's out there excellent excellent someone asked about the expected diversity profile for students. The percentage of international students and domestic students that you expect in the program. You know, I love this question because I've spoken with a lot of perspective students. Anna received emails and traded emails with a lot of folks an this question comes up.

A lot more often than I would have expected but I think it's a great question. And so yes, the we do expect a pretty diverse group of students an honestly that was one of the things that I was very, very oriented towards when we were putting this program together, so not only are we expecting diversity as far as domestic an non domestic students, but also among gender were expecting a pretty good diversity pole.

And one thing that people sometimes ask about is people coming from undergrad versus people in school I expect that we will have a number of students that have several years of experience actually in the workplace as well as students coming directly from undergraduate so I fully expect that this will be diverse in a number of different categories. Not just domestic versus non domestic absolutely and I think another area where you might find diversity is in backgrounds.

Those where the engineering backgrounds versus those with economic backgrounds. Can you talk a little bit about that? Absolutely. As we're literally going through applications right now and among the people that I've had a chance to interact with, we're seeing a lot of students with engineering backgrounds as you would expect we are in engineering school, but we're also seeing a large number that are coming with economics degrees with math physics, an econometrics. But we've also seen finance.

I've seen some with computer science backgrounds and so it really is a quite a large gamut of students most that have some either math or programming skills things like that that they've done in undergraduate or in the workplace. So those kinds of skills are something that we are definitely very cognizant of and again. I think keeping a very diverse population will help out the class. The cohorts in a number of different ways.

Great a student specifically wants to know as a business background who has a business background student who lacks programming skills. What programs should I know they listed maybe Python or R? What do you have to say about that so we are so one you're not alone. There are there are other students out there. They don't have a lot of programming skills. Typically, we are looking at C plus and Python.

However, there other if you have skills in other programming. It will be a little bit easier to add to pick these up one of the things we're doing. That's a little bit different because and I will say this from the outside. I'm going to just kind of pre empt. Everything we want every student to be successful. Absolutely, it's like when I'm teaching a course. I want every student to make an AI want the Dean to ask me is it really every one of your students made today. Yes, everyone made it everyone. Everyone got it, yeah, and so this is kind of the same thing? What we're doing is we're trying to make sure that students have.

A really high probability of success in this program and not just graduating are graduating with a good GPA but graduating with the skills being able to go out there and start working right away and being additive to accompany or did themselves and so along those lines. What we're doing is we're providing students in the summer with an assessment of the students will take this regardless of what your major was going to take an assessment of your programming skills.

And depending on the outcome of that assessment by the way. Nobody can fail. But once once we have the outcome of that. We can suggest courses that you can take to increase your skill level, so that at the beginning of the fall. Everybody's on the same as the same. At least base plane. That's great. Yeah, it's I think it's a little bit different than what people have seen in the past. But we really do want to make sure that everybody is successful right. These are not weed out courses will absolutely not.

Great excellent someone asked are there specific sponsors and companies involved with specifically the capstone course. Yes, another really good question. and I think anybody who is looking at a program like this should be thinking about that? What how these programs being formed are they just being done in an academic setting as I mentioned I come from industry. Although I've been teaching for several years. I came from industry and we are still very much connected with industry.

People when we put our courses together when we do our syllabi. We have a lot of speakers from industry. I have 3 or 4 lined up for my blockchain class? This semester just to give you some sort of perspective and so yes, with our capstone projects. We definitely have companies lined up companies that are interested. In doing a couple of different kinds of programs. But we do take a lot of input from companies in what we're doing.

And a lot of our faculty have experience in industry as well as in academia, so they can bring some of that industry. Some of their learnings and things like that as well as speakers and things along those lines back into the classroom. So you get not only a perspective on what has been an industry but also what's going on right now?

And what about intern ships. There's an internship required for this program. What kind of resources will students have for obtaining those internships. They have they have quite a few resources one of the things that we like to leverage and this is something that may not have been asked is our career services. The graduate program in the Pratt School of engineering has its own career services group. This isn't one person. This isn't somebody who's doing it for.

Every college within the University this is a group that is doing nothing but this and so we leverage again. Our program Contacts within industry. But we can also leverage career services, which is a fantastic group of people who do this for a living so having the opportunity to have different kinds of companies in here to interact with different kinds of companies is something that we kind of pride ourselves on and I continue to do that myself. I actually sit on the board of 2 companies.

And we have different companies in here all the time as I said, we have people from 4 different times 3 or 4 different companies that are going to just one of my classes this semester. That's exciting and I've just posted a link to our career services overview on our website, prattduke.edu, so check out our career services. We have a wonderful team full of people who can help with resume review with mock interviewing we have someone who works on employee employer relations, so getting out there and meeting companies and bringing them back to campus.

Excellent well, we would love it. If you would post your questions right now via the chat. JD is moderating moderating those for us Jimmy.

What what kind of what do you want applicants to know when they're applying to this program? Yeah, I think that there are several things that applicants should have in mind about the program, one from what I've seen so far and from the number of you that I've had a chance to talk to people are doing great research on the program and they're looking kind of across the board at different schools, which I encourage I think Duke has the best program. There is and we are one of only 2.

Engineering schools in the United States, offering a fintech graduate degree so we're pretty exclusive. There are some other schools offering certificates and there are a couple of Business Schools offering things but ours is quite unique. So it's great for people to see, there is a real difference in what happens in a Business School and what happens in an engineering school. I've taught him both and so I I've seen a big difference.

And so I think the skills that students come out with are very different and so they should be doing that research. I encourage people to kind of look around and make sure this is a good fit for them because of the last thing you want is for people to come in an not have not have that not have done kind of that research. But they should look around and have a good idea of what we're providing so I think that's something that I would really like students to do is to have that the other thing.

Is have an idea of you know if if you want to work in fintech or if you're just interested have some idea about what you'd like to do when you get out and you know your idea will probably change right. But I think that as far as we have 2 different tracks right. We have the management track on the technical track. If you have some kind of an idea of what really interests. You that will that will kind of help you decide maybe because people ask me all the time wow. How do I decide between the 2 tracks and by the way you can always take courses in both tracks?

You can mix and match. A little bit, but have an idea of what you want to do.

This degree once you get out. Hey, I want to work at one of the big banks or maybe. Hey, I want to work at one of the big syntax companies right. But I would be very disappointed. If we don't have a couple of students to say. Hey, I want to start my own company absolutely. I have this idea. An icy those all the time I get to work with students and I worked with a couple of accelerator's one of the companies. I work with early stage company in seeing those ideas come to fruition is just amazing, so I think students should think about kind of all those things but.

What do I want to do at the end of the day with this degree? I think having that a good sense of that in mind will help you need help. I think it will help out a little bit and I think the internship requirement is actually a great benefit to students because it's almost like you're trying out an area to absolutely if you love your internship great you made a good choice. If maybe not. It's time to reconsider so think about it. It's funny. I've had the opportunity to work with students doing internships practicums, which is.

Similar kind of thing and a couple of different and I had a student. This is just last semester. And this is a real story. I had a student who was doing a rather intense practicum. It was, it was very hard to get into he went through it. He was he Excel. He was one of the Top performers an when I asked everybody in the practicum at the end of the semester, so do you think this is what you would like to do for a living? He was the one person to raise his hand and said no absolutely not. He said, I don't like this.

He said, I said, what she did such a good job. He said, I'm always going to do a good job. But I didn't enjoy this year as much as I thought I was going to, he didn't like the process. He didn't. He just he didn't like the whole. I mean, it just his expectation was one thing and once he got inside a company and started working, he said. This is not what I expected. An it was not for him and that's OK. I'm ready to learn that it's much better to learn it now. Then, after you accept the job offer when you're 45. Yeah, that's Great Alright. So someone asked someone says thank you for spending time with us, we enjoy spending time with absolutely.

Yeah, we do, we do they ask? Which aspect of the candidate you focus?

Uh you know we do a really holistic look and I know you probably hear that in other places I know I know people always ask me Oh what are the what score do I need to get don't focus too much on that in fact when people ask me that question I sent him back a link to our entrance kind of the the averages and the distribution the Bell curve distribution an but remind people that Hey 25% or below this 25% or above this so you all you're seeing is.

Is that second standard deviation of the mean?

But.

I think that we really do look at the holistic view of a student because we want people with as I said before diverse backgrounds were really looking for that as an that adds to the kind of the learning experience for everybody, so I would say, and this is a chance in your interview are when you do your statements and things like that to kind of expressed that. A little bit. You know what makes you a little bit different. You know, honestly, there's a huge amount of self selection that goes into place.

The people who apply to this, have an interest in this they have already worked towards it a little bit. These are they generally score in a fairly narrow range on exams and things like that, so tell us a little bit about yourself tell us why maybe you're a little bit different. Uh give you have time for me. I'll give a brief antidote absolutely so when I was at Price Waterhouse Coopers, I was a direct are there in the banking capital markets practice. This is almost 10 years ago and I was asked to assess students for a new office. We're opening we're opening.

Opening a really large office that was not in the United States was offshore.

And I was assessing students when I say that I was assessing candidates thinking too much about students assessing candidates for a senior management. Senior manager position so the managing a few other people and they're going to be running projects and things like that. And so and this was in the banking area and so there was one person one candidate who had gone to great schools. Stellar grades had worked for one of the big investment banks for 2 years.

And on internships and that kind of thing and then there was another person who already going to good schools. Maybe not quite as good grades were pretty much up there, but not quite what the first candidates were interned at 2 different companies and actually only intern at one company. The other summer. He spent playing bass in a rock band and they were traveling around the country and variance in and of itself. It is and so when it came down to picking one of the two candidates.

I picked the bass player and everybody asks me, but this other candidate, has all this investment banking experience and I said, Yeah, but remember these are customer facing roles and the guy who is the bass player can probably talk about a lot more than the other person who had just done investment banking kind of for the last 10 years. Basically, I think that's a good point you can always use a good bass player, you can always use a good bass player. But you know, but that that person also put that out there and let me know.

That Hey this is an interesting thing to me, it means to me to have it on my resume for you put it up put it on the resume and so I think having having that diversity is a big deal. But we do look at the holistic student so we do look at undergraduate grades. We look at the exams. Your exam grades. We standardized test grades. We look at your references. We look at all of those things we look at your statement and we look at that really closely that you either weather.

Video or whether it's written all those things we look at kind of across the board excellent follow-up question that is in my essay should focus on my academic research internship or leadership. Yes, all of them any of them. I think I think a little bit of all I mean. You don't have to go into great detail but if you're doing academic research. Great tell us a little bit about that and you know what don't just tell me about it? Tell me why? Why does that interest you if your internship? What did you love about it?

Watch it. Maybe not like as much about or or maybe? What did you discover about it, you didn't expect yeah as far as leadership and things like that. That is that is something that you can certainly add in an ad why that was interesting to you, or why it wasn't that is, you know all those things are very different elements of your personality. So tell us why don't just tell us about it tell us why? Why is really important and what did you get out of it? What did you clean out of all those things.

Did you clean something as I said unique about the research did something? Did you find something you didn't expect I always love that right. Ha ha moment if you will from internship same thing. It's kind of like the story. I just mentioned about the person who was great at their internship, but realized they hated it and didn't want to do that for the rest of their life and that's a great thing. Tell me about those kinds of things as far as leadership and things like that. Yeah, I would say you know just just give different aspects of that? Why did you enjoy it? Why didn't you enjoy it?

Do you want to do more of one of those things those are those are the great things to to understand and to hear about but it's more, the why jump just recite all the stuff I can read that on your CV, yeah, exactly don't don't make it a cover letter for receiving yeah? Why is important person? Asked if I if I don't this is not on the screen, but someone asked me what if I don't do well in the video portion is that a make or break no of course, not, in.

And what is doing well? Yeah. What does it mean to do well in a video I think that sometimes people are much more critical maybe of themselves than they need to be. I think actually young people are much more critical than their elders are but you know record of our of our well. That's not least video record. The This is a very different. I think in that respect is that we have this opportunity.

We can, we can kind of look at the video, but it's just a chance for us to kind of take a look at it get to know you a little bit. I wouldn't stress over it in anyway, but but be kind of comfortable like you're talking to us. If you if you don't feel like you did. Well, that's not a make it or break it now. Of course, you do have 2 opportunities. You can record it once and then give it another try. But one thing that I enjoy when I'm watching. One of those videos is I love it when it's more conversational in tone.

Then a monologue Oh absolutely absolutely. I saw a cool one. And this wasn't like this was actually a business thing that I was doing and we were it was a number of people from around the world when we're trying to cut back on travel and things like that. And so we were doing videos from different places and people were literally all over the world and so there were several people that were doing a man from home because it was nighttime an this guy has a little kid.

Run run run up and jump in his lap and it was like nobody's going to get that. Nobody nobody's going to forget that it was great. You know those. I'm not saying have little kids were running jump on you, or have your puppy there or anything like that. But those unexpected things. Those conversational things I agree with. You 100% much more like a conversation than just reading off a list of.

Right and sometimes in a video you can see on screen when someone something Sparks and absolutely. I love that absolutely.

Great well, we don't have any other questions for now, but we've been talking for almost 1/2 hour will wait for a couple of minutes to see if anything comes in. But I know you're excited to be reviewing all these applications. How's it going? It is absolutely fantastic. I am reviewing along with a couple of other folks the applications. It's going really well. It's great to see so many people this interested in the.

In the program and I think their their experiences are so different. I love seeing. That hearing about different things and kind of seeing different things that people are in putting the number of individuals with the work experience was a little surprising. I'm glad to see people with work experience applying for putting applications in for the program. It's always good to have that perspective. I think in the classroom of.

Real things that are going on vacation this and and yeah, and I know how this so I think that not that work experience is required or any idea because I think that the other side of that coin is people coming directly from undergrad are going to have a learnings that the people who have been out for 5 years don't have absolutely so both add a very different perspective to the equation at the end of the day and the classes that much better for it? Absolutely.

The one thing about our classes all over my hands on right and so people are actually doing stuff and building stuff, but they're very interactive. I like to teach that way. I like to have a lot of interaction with students. I hate to just go up and lecture. In fact, I almost refuse to do it. An I will force students to talk and to ask questions and things like that in a couple of different ways. And usually it works out really well, but because of that. You have a lot more interaction with students students are asking different kinds of questions from different perspectives.

And a lot of times people either you know they bring that perspective with them and they ask questions that nobody else would have thought of but they would have maybe thought of 6 months down the road and this. I give them an opportunity to us like Oh yeah, I would have thought about that. I would have asked that question. I love that kind of thing that happens an that's what happens when you get a diverse student body if everybody is coming from the same couple of undergraduate schools and they're about the same age and they have the same major network experienced a major.

They tend to be kind of boring classes or shouldn't say it too. Loud should I but they tend to be the same kind. I don't think you get that. And Remember Fintech. This is one of the most dynamic industries. There is I mean, things are changing every day, the business models that are being affected by Fantac I mean, it's amazing to see how fast things are falling right and we're talking about those that are happening around the world, not just in the United States and that's kind of a cool thing to say. I am extremely excited to see the kind of cohort that we build.

Yeah, yeah, it'll be fun. It will be it will be alright well. I think that's it. If you have other questions. Please email us. The address on your screen. Pratt underscore Masters at Duke.edu Jimmy. Thank you for your time. Thank you. It's always a pleasure always a pleasure. This has been our fintech, Q&A with doctor Jimmy Landes. Thank you.