I had the occasion of visiting the WiMa Kongress at the University of Ulm, Germany this weekend with some friends who are current or former students. The event is a combination of a job fair, graduation ceremony for the Mathematical Finance students, and a conference on multiple topics related to Finance and Insurance. As for the job fair, nearly all of the top employers in the German market were present. The list of companies reads like a who-is-who of German Consultancies, Investment Banks, and Re-insurers: Deutsche Bank, Accenture, McKinsey, Roland Berger, Deloitte, Boston Consulting Group, KPMG, Ernst and Young etc.. Very interesting indeed! A Yale student's dream in little old Ulm Germany! I say that with a touch of sarcasm of course...

The quality of the companies really reflects the quality of the program at Ulm. It really is a bastion for German WiMa's (German abbreviation for someone who studies Mathematical Finance or Actuarial Sciences). As I sat in on the naming of the Master's Candidates and the title of their theses (about 60/40 written in English/German) I couldn't help but notice the global reach of the topics and candidates. While the vast majority of the candidates were Germans, the topics ranged from the derivatives market in Austria to predicting the insurance claims from Hurricanes in the Atlantic. I did however notice many papers on commodities and financial engineering topics. Logical I suppose. I sort of feel sorry for the dean though, who really gave it his best trying to read through the all the thesis titles. Not easy when some of the words are 10 syllables long and can be in German or English. His closing remarks brought this to a humorous end, "And now ladies and gentlemen I finally have one more degree to to add to my repertoire, the Master of Science in diploma thesis pronunciation."

All in all it was a great weekend with great friends, great festivities and of course lots of great German beer as well :)