There are a huge variety of jobs within investment banks, says derivatives platform manager and current Exec MBA student Nicholas Syme of UBS. While an MBA isn't crucial to get into an investment bank, you'll be more competitive for at least some of the roles.

Nicholas has worked at UBS for over 7 years in a variety of operational, business analytics and project management roles. He started in 2004 in a temporary role as an OTC (Over The Counter) Derivatives settlements analyst, which became a permanent position after 3 months.

"I am a project manager responsible for defining, building and implementing a Credit Checking solution for OTC derivatives, which helps UBS manage its counterparty exposure to clients and other institutions", Nicholas explains.

"Day to day this means working with Risk officers, OTC sales and trading managers to establish the requirements and uses for the credit checking system. I then work with IT leads to help them design the software and integrate it with other trade management applications... I work with stakeholders to resolve issues and mitigate risks as they arise."

Nicholas thinks the MBA has already proved useful in his job and it will continue to be in the future.

"In particular, the Operations Management module has been very helpful in requirements design and process architecture. I am also beginning work on my dissertation which will investigate how counterparty risk tolerance is determined and what impact this has on the performance of the Credit checking system we have designed and implemented", he explains.