Why Hire from the Master of Financial Insurance Program!
If you are looking for a versatile employee to join your team, look no further. Students and Graduates from the Master of Financial Insurance (MFI) professional graduate program have completed graduate level training in a unique blend of financial mathematics, insurance modelling, and data science and we produce actuaries, data scientists, risk managers, developers, and everything in between! The MFI Program is highly competitive, only admitting around 30 students per annual cohort. These students are handpicked to ensure not only their exceptional academic ability but also effective communication skills. With an MFI Student or Grad, you will be getting the whole package!
Internships
The 12-month Master of Financial Insurance Program comprises of a summer 16-week internship, which is a formal academic requirement therefore international students are issued with a work permit enabling them to work full-time for a Canadian organization.
Furthermore, the internship component is the concluding requirement to complete the MFI program. This is a huge benefit to employers as they come into the internship academically prepared from successfully completing all their graduate level courses, and once the internship is complete, employers can easily transition the graduating student into a longer term or full-time position. This even applies if the student is not a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, as international students move onto a post-graduation work permit (PGWP). Therefore, our industry partners do not have to worry about work permits during or after the internship.
Moreover, because of this timeline, many of our students have been offered full-time or rotational positions from the outset of their work term which can be leveraged as their 16-week work term component. This is highly attractive to many employers as the time invested in training and onboarding can be used to its greatest advantage with a “try before you buy!” This is an excellent way to connect with emerging high achieving professionals and bring new thinking and strategy to your organization.
Timelines
We have found that hiring timelines for summer positions can be wide-ranging and the MFI Program can be flexible to accommodate your organization’s time constraints. Although the Student Profiles are launched in October at the MFI Fall Reception beginning the official recruitment drive for the following summer, students are receiving offers as early as September in some cases depending on the company’s hiring timeline.
New Grads & MFI Alumni
If you are looking to fill a more senior role, we can promote your job postings to recent graduates and alumni. If you are interested, we can also coordinate an information session to promote your organization to recent graduates, alumni, and current students.
Other Ways to Participate in the MFI Program
We value the knowledge and experience of professionals in the industry to add value to the MFI student experience. We invite you to be involved and participate through:
- Mock interviews
- Panel discussions
- Networking events
- Field trips to your organization
- Coffee chats
- Guest seminars
This can also provide your organization with a platform to promote future opportunities.
What Employers have to say about MFI Students
“Thank you, team MFI at the University of Toronto, for creating an amazing program with bright, well rounded, hard-working students with amazing knowledge and technical skills, ready to contribute to today’s data driven world. Your program is directed by a group of amazing people who are a true pleasure to deal with and make it simple to communicate.
Our MFI intern (Jiayan Yang) was ready to contribute from day one. In her role, Jiayan was involved in creating multiple strategic predictive models and heavily engaged in automating a reporting package... Her technical skills are exactly what today’s analytical world requires. Jiayan surely exceeds my expectation and that’s why she was offered a second work term with our organization. Thank you Jiayan and team MFI!”
- Artur Liwski, BMO
“Working with the MFI students was a real delight. I saw no shortage of creativity, curiosity, and teamwork. I was also very touched when some of my students reached out to me after this course and told me that they’ve gotten amazing positions and benefited from the course and program. I also had the great opportunity to take one of my best students, Kevin, as an intern for my company, who helped me on both internal and external, client-paying projects, contributing to the company’s bottom-line and brand. For anyone who wishes to develop a very strong foundation of financial mathematics and insurance and gain the skills to apply them in the real-world, I strongly recommend UT’s MFI program!”
- Basil Singer, CEO, Modellicity Inc.
“Very impressed by the superb technical skill, creativity, and professionalism shown by the MFI student we hired for the summer internship. The work exceeded my expectations.”
-Emile Elefteriadis, Swiss Reinsurance
“The MFI program is supported by a highly experienced and dedicated group of people, some of which I have known for well over a decade. I also had the great pleasure of meeting and working with some very bright and unique talents among MFI students. For example, one of our top performing interns was from the MFI program.”
-Ted Xiao Guo, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan
MFI Fast Facts
The MFI Program is a 12-month professional graduate program built on the three pillars of mathematical finance, data science and insurance modelling.
MFI students must apply through the School of Graduate Studies. The student applications are carefully assessed by the MFI Admissions Committee and all shortlisted applicants are interviewed by at least one member of the panel.
The MFI Program admits around 30 students per year which equates to less than 10% of the applicant pool.
MFI Students are ready to start their internships in May during the summer term, however, can continue into the fall or accept full-time or longer fixed term roles from May as they are not required to return to study after their internship.
The MFI Program recognizes that the finance and insurance industry need to increase diversity and pleased that every year, apart from the first cohort in 2016, has been female admitting at least 60% women. The MFI Program aims to be highly proactive in increasing diversity and recently introduced the MFI Equity Award to financially assist potential students from underrepresented groups with individual awards of S10-40k CAD. To date, four students have benefitted from this award since its introduction in 2020.
Absolutely! MFI Students have practical experience with Python, MATLAB, R, and SQL.
The first two semesters comprise of rigorous graduate level courses totaling 4.0 full academic credits. Students proceed through the program as a single cohort, following a common course of study which is fully integrated and computer-laboratory intensive. Course projects and assignments are designed to integrate the material from multiple courses and their application in a real-world practical context, and excellence in communication and presentation skills is emphasized throughout in both the oral and written components. Students will also attend a series of guest seminars by high-ranking industry professionals who deliver talks on current topics of the day related to the finance, insurance, or fintech industries.
On the contrary, students entering the program come from heavily quantitative fields including actuarial science, but also mathematics, statistics, engineering, economics, computer science and even life sciences with approximately 43% having an actuarial background. Many students have double undergraduate majors. MFI graduates are versatile and have successfully secured employment in banking, risk management, hedge funds, pensions, regulation, model validation, insurance, data science and fintech.
MFI Students are graduate level therefore the pay rate is typically higher than an undergraduate intern although compensation is only part of the package and there can be additional incentives to attract a student. Recent salaries for the 16-week term have averaged $19-20k with some lower and some significantly higher.