Alexander Bergmüller
I’m Alexander Bergmüller and I was born in Vienna and raised in Luxembourg. I’m currently a Dual Degree student—I recently completed the Master in Management and am now studying the Master in Finance. Before coming to IE Business School, I did a Bachelor’s in International Business Administration at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) and I was fortunate enough to also spend an exchange semester at the University of Hong Kong. Between my bachelor’s and master’s, I completed two internships in the finance industry, first at Deutsche Bank in Luxembourg and then UniCredit in Vienna. Now, I’m looking forward to joining Goldman Sachs in London as a full-time analyst upon graduation.
"In the Master, I gained valuable skills such as leadership, teamwork, communication and presentation skills, as well as a deeper understanding of how businesses and the economy work."
Alexander Bergmüller knows the skills of tomorrow—and won’t stop until he has them
Alexander Bergmüller is the type of person who knows what he wants and how to make it happen. When looking for a master’s program, he identified the two main characteristics he needed in a degree: a combination of management and finance, and a program that would help him develop a unique profile and a strong and diversified skill set. He saw that the Master in Management at IE Business School focuses on the development of leadership, business and soft skills, which he finds to be imperative in today’s job market. On the other hand, the Master in Finance sharpens the analytical, financial and hard skills needed to navigate financial markets, which is where his career aspirations lie.
So the choice was simple.
Alexander has already finished the Master in Management and is now in the Master in Finance, which he says has been challenging but rewarding. He enjoys the fantastic elective options—he was pleasantly surprised by Persuasive Public Speaking—and the impressive faculty. In fact, he’s already gained great insights beyond academic theory from his professors who are active in their fields.
Looking back on the Master in Management, Alexander is pleased with how he was able to gain valuable management skills such as leadership, teamwork, communication and presentation skills, as well as a deeper understanding of how businesses and the economy as a whole operate. While all his classes were useful, he cites Investments and Portfolio Analysis as his all-time favorite, as it covered the importance of strategic and tactical asset allocation and how it can be implemented with active and passive strategies.
“Having a unique profile is really essential during times where the labor demand is down and the labour supply higher than ever before.”
Now, in the Master in Finance, Alexander feels certain that he made the right decision. While he only started in September, he explains he “can already foresee that it not only expands my financial and analytical skills, but also teaches me the basics of financial programming with Python or MatLab, for instance.” This ambitious Austrian student understands that having these skills, paired with a broader knowledge of the management world, will equip him to confidently dive into the professional world.
That’s not to say it’s been a walk in the park, though. Alexander has struggled with learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the campus having closed for a few months and the city of Madrid operating in a totally different way. He’s thankful, however, that IE University was able to quickly adapt and implement the Liquid Learning format for his classes this semester.
And don’t think for a second that the global crisis has dampened his ambition. With the help of IE’s Talent & Careers team, Alexander has already secured a full-time analyst position at Goldman Sachs in London.
Alexander’s advice to future students? To be adaptable and able to communicate across languages and cultures. He explains that as a student at IE University, you will meet and work with many different kinds of people and it can be challenging, so you’ll need to be able to quickly come up with innovative solutions to problems.
