I have been quite vocal about how much I loved the MSc Behavioural and Economic Science. I have written multiple articles, recommending it, reviewing it, explaining my journey. I have even written articles about the broader perspective such as what is behavioural economics? But even if I tell you what it is, does that really explain what you can do with it? You might have figured out what I have been up to after the MSc, but that is hardly the only path out there. I thought it would give a much better and wider view, if I let you know what my cohort (2016-2017) is up to!*
I am not exactly the only one in a PhD. Not even the only one to stay in Warwick! Joined with me are two others, of which one is in the Warwick Business School with me, studying fluctuations in the stock market. The other is here also, but focusing on cooperation, trying to integrate psychological and philosophical approaches of studying this, in the philosophy department. All of us have another 2 years to go, so feel free to come and say hi!
From Warwick to the always popular and exciting London! The location of Decision Technology, a company with Warwick's own, Nick Chater in the board of directors. He is hardly the only Warwickian there, joined by one of the cohorts finest, DecTechs team continues to grow. DecTech is keen on hiring from the MSc, as it also hired from the 2017-2018 cohort, so if you are doing the MSc BES now, keep this in mind! Within DecTech, this specific job entails building experiments with a few thousand people and collect data on customer behaviour to plug into statistical models that try to predict preferences and decision making. If this sounds cool to you, you can check out DecTech here: https://www.dectech.co.uk/#/home
There is more to London than its consulting sector. Of course not all people who got into the MSc were still wet behind the ears like me. No, there were puppies and there were professionals. As such, the MSc can do very different things for different levels of experience. It propelled one gem into being the Head of Department Business, Law and Society at St Mary’s University in Twickenham. How's that for a job straight out of an MSc?!
Tired of the UK? There is no real need to stay. Quite a few of the MSc'ers went back to their own countries, picking up their old jobs with more skills and one hell of an experience, or started new adventures. One is currently back in Mexico, as a senior financial analyst at HP Inc. Another is back in Singapore, implementing behavioural science solutions for their incredibly efficient government. India was represented in our cohort as well, and they went back home to learn the ropes in the family business. Another is working for Tokopedia in Indonesia, as a UX Researcher. UX stands for user experience, and as such they study the users' behaviour to improve their experience on the platform and give suggestions about features and services. This is a really interesting up-and-coming field that applies Behavioural Science throughout. Indonesia was a hot location in our cohort anyway, as we had two beautiful people from there. The second is back as well, working as Community Manager at Quora, whilst still pursuing many of their previous career paths, such as writing, as well!
If you are both tired of the UK and of your home country, do not worry, you can go beyond! One continued their academic journey far beyond, studying the effects of word-of-mouth doing a PhD in Marketing, in beautiful Sydney. They were not the only one to go down under. They joined another ambitious descendant of the MSc who is making Warwick proud at the Commonwealth Bank Sydney. Not the only Warwickians there either, as they joined a team that did the MSc BES as well, but in earlier cohorts. Now they are applying behavioural science to Australia's financial sector.
No need to go all the way to Australia though, we will settle for Dubai or Uganda as well. Down in Uganda, we got ourselves a project manager for the Global Credit Team of Fenix International. They are a clean energy (mainly solar) company, making sure our planet might have a future! A bit higher, we find ourselves in Dubai, where another is a strategy consultant and manager of a fitness company, making use of EMS machines. And their role is to find ways of franchising the UAE and the US.
So, PhDs, consultants, department heads, strategists, analysts and more! As this article has shown you, the world is your oyster. Behavioural Science is spreading and becoming a global phenomenon, way beyond the realm of economics and finance. If you want more specific information of some of the MSc BES alumni, check out the LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12188173/
*I will not mention names and will avoid mentioning specifics that would make it too obvious as to who I am referring to. I am trying to guarantee anonymity to some extent, although I do have permission to mention all of this information. Moreover, all people mentioned (except for 2) are specifically from the Science track, rather than the Economics track of the MSc BES.
