Student Profile: Yale Courses

Tomer Cohen '11
Participant, International Exchange Program, Tsinghua University, Beijing Post-MBA Position: Goldman Sachs

I worked at Goldman Sachs, where I covered foreign exchange products, credit and fixed-income derivatives, and then mortgage products. I really wanted to get into the energy side of the business, but I wasn’t acquiring the broad set of skills I'd need.

Yale SOM has helped me acquire these skills. I've taken courses on macroeconomics, corporate financing, strategy, and energy markets. One of the things I love about the school is that if I come across any courses outside SOM I'm interested in, I can take them. There are energy courses at the Law School and the Forestry School that have helped me to approach the subject from new and interesting directions. I'm even taking a course at the Divinity School. And last fall, I studied abroad at Tsinghua University in China.

One of the things that surprised me the most here is how much you learn from your fellow students. There's this great energy that comes from being among so many impressive people, who bring such diversity of experiences. I’m a finance guy, and I've spent a lot of time thinking about finance. I look at things differently than an entrepreneur or someone from marketing or consulting or HR.

I did my summer internship at Goldman, in the Financial Institutions Group. It was a chance to come back and test what I'd learned at Yale. I could see day to day just how much I had broadened my horizons. SOM had taught me not just specific skills, but to approach problems in a truly holistic manner.

Interviewed on January 28, 2011.