My Experience of Working in a Bank - Personal Statement Example

January ..., Please accurately Letter of Intent: In Support of Application: Master of Science in Statistics Admissions Office: of Toronto Please insert the address of the university To the Office of Admissions: As a valuator and developer of statistical Credit Risk models at HSBC, Mexico, I have come to recognize the limitations and challenges facing statisticians in my country. In Mexico, the field of statistical analysis has only recently started its development. In support of my claim, I can offer some personal experience: For example, in my current job, my employer, the bank, in 2008, had five years of historical and accurately recorded statistical data available. According to the Basel model of Credit Risk, five years of historical data is the minimum amount necessary to begin analysis. It concerns me that a bank was only able to reach this minimum requirement as late as the year 2008. Most banks in Mexico are in similar positions as my employer, since the historical information required for statistical analysis has only recently started to be recorded. While this is a real challenge to Credit Risk departments, the same lack of historical information is a problem throughout the banking system. I have observed similar difficulties in many industries in Mexico and am convinced that Statistics, as a subject, is not well developed or utilized in the country, generally. My aim is to become an internationally marketable statistician and to qualify myself as an expert particularly in the areas of Data Mining and Risk. While I am gaining some valuable practical experience, through my job, even this is limited by the attitudes to statistical information in industry. It has not been recorded with care or for a long time in many areas. Thus I want to complete a graduate degree in my field at an institution that is internationally recognized and which will provide me with a quality of knowledge and skills I am unable, unfortunately, to obtain in Mexico at present. I completed my undergraduate studies in Actuarial Science at ITAM, where the course covered subjects such as finance, statistics, mathematics and insurance. In finding employment, I focused more closely on the field of statistics as I realized that this was the area I enjoyed most. I considered a number of possibilities and in the end, banking seemed to be the ideal industry. I believed that banks would have vast amounts of information requiring statistical analysis and my skills and knowledge could be applied in many fields within banking. I began my working career as a Trainee for Consumer Banking in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) department. My duties centered on data mining techniques, and after six months I was promoted to the position of Analyst within the same department. During this time I decided to begin a thesis on the subject of data mining, making use of the experience and knowledge I was gaining in my everyday work. The thesis suggests the use of data mining techniques on logistical regressions and CHAID decision trees to develop propensity models for customers of insurance companies. The challenge of the proposal is not only the statistical theory. The application of the theory is a further difficulty: very few programs have the capability to use decision trees. When I was promoted at work to the Risk department, I recognized the potential of the SAS program, as it was used in the Risk department, and realized that I could us this program for my model. So the experience my job was giving me was proving valuable in my theoretical interests, too. After being offered a position as Advisor in the Risk department, I became part of a team developing statistical models to find the probability of default for the Wholesale Portfolio. My role in the team was to validate the models being developed. In order to perform this task effectively, I studied both the development and validation of models. Some of the validation techniques I applied to the tasks were: hold out; k-fold; Gini Index; Kolmogorov-Smirnov; and some common techniques for development of models, ranging from lineal regressions to beta distributions. Again, the experience I gained here has extended my enjoyment of statistics. I also learned much from my reading and research into the development and validation of models. The head of my Department at work, currently, is a mathematician who achieved a Master’s at the University of Toronto. One of the texts I read as part of my preparations for my thesis is “The Element of Statistical Learning: Data Mining, Inference and Prediction” by Hastie, T., Tibshirani, R. and Friedman, J. This text was valuable in my exploration of various data mining techniques while I was writing my thesis. I noticed that one of the writers, J. Tibshirani, had also completed a Master’s in Statistics at the University of Toronto. In May, 2009, I completed a six-month Diploma course in Financial Risk Management at ITESM. At least half of the study material for this course was related to John Hull texts. He also has close connections to the University of Toronto. Three people who had helped me to progress in my chosen field of study and whose writing and guidance had helped me, were graduates of your institution. These academics and experts in their fields have inspired me to believe that the University of Toronto is my preferred choice of university at which to complete my Master’s degree in Statistics. This is a field I love and Toronto graduates have played such an important part in developing the field, and in influencing my career and studies. Further, the reputation of the university has impressed me. An added attraction for me is the variety of financial support options available at the University of Toronto, for graduate degree students. Another area in which I have learned much has been as a volunteer teacher and a paid Tutor. I volunteered at ITAM, teaching analytic geometry and algebra to adult high school students. Part of my studies was financed by private tutoring of high school students, helping them to excel in mathematics. So I would be particularly interested in a Teaching Assistant position at your university, as I very much enjoy teaching, and have valuable experience in the field. An opportunity to teach and contribute to your university while having the privilege of studying would be highly appreciated. My goal is to have a solid theoretical foundation in statistics so that I could offer a competitive knowledge base and skills set to any prospective employer anywhere in the world. Thus far, I have gained a lot of work based, practical knowledge. My experience in the field must be consolidated by such a theoretical base. I would like to be able to offer value to any financial institution, anywhere in the world, especially in the areas of Risk or Data Mining. A Master of Science in Statistics qualification would exactly suit my needs. And the University of Toronto, with its reputation for excellence in this field, is to me the ideal university at which to obtain this qualification. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, …. Name; address; contact number, reference numbers (if you have them from previous correspondence with the university) Read More