Fudan Elite Master of Finance (EMF) as a non-chinese speaker
Hey everyone, i’m currently heading into my final year of study at a british semi-target university and have received admission and a full-ride scholarship at Fudan University in their Elite Master of Finance (EMF) program for 2025.
I’m keen on this program for a variety of reasons, but have some questions as to the job prospects post-graduation, particularly as someone who currently does not speak chinese. I’m a european who would be very interested in staying in the APAC region long term for personal reasons/family ties and am curious as to what opportunities a program like this would potentially yield me in HK/Mainland/Singapore etc.
I have a few decent but no name IB, PE and HF internships in UK/EU, so it’s not like i’m coming from a place of no experience (but also don’t have BB/EB on my CV). Don’t know if this matters at all but i’m white and speak some european languages but, again, no chinese as of now.
I know Fudan supposedly recruits well into HK, but how does this fare for a) Msf recruiting and b) as an international with no local language skills?
Should I target roles that may require less chinese speaking ability (ie. S&T in HK)?
What roles would be available for me in the Mainland?
What is Fudan’s (and by extension, the EMF program as a whole) reputation?
To be honest, i’m open to any finance/finance adjacent roles across IB/PE/HF/AM/ER/Consulting etc, I genuinely enjoy all of the work i’ve done so far in my prior internships and don’t have a preference. Again HK/mainland would be an ideal landing spot at a personal level.
Would love some opinions if anyone has any insight
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Very unlikely tbh. There’s a couple of threads on this site covering hk recruiting and career.
I can't opine on this EMF program (googled it and looks like it's a new one), but I did double degree with their MiM many years ago. By way of context, after graduation I did a few years in IB and now I'm in PE here in London.
Things may have changed since I was at Fudan, but back then the school was providing zero support to internationals in the MiM (i.e. all of us from LBS / Bocconi / Luiss) in terms of recruiting, in a stark contrast to local Chinese who ended up at the likes of MBB, Tencent / other big tech, buyside roles, etc.
If I were you, I would ask them to confirm international placement in SH and HK after graduation, both for EMF as well as MiM and any other similar master programs across the schools of management and finance. Just realised the EMF is ran by a new Finance School which wasn't a thing when I was there, and is in People's Square instead of the SoM just off Wujiaochang.
If they can't provide any data, I would assume that the above still is the case, so be warned that you'll be kinda on your own with finding a job.
Fudan is uber-elite in Mainland / HK so it will definitely open doors, but as far as M&A / PE goes, you can forget about finding a junior role in the top shops there without being Chinese. I'd even argue the same still applies if you were an European / American with Chinese roots, as you'd still be very different culturally and they'd be wary of that.
You will have a shot in smaller shops with a cross-border angle with Europe or the US - I recall a couple of people over the years decided to do that. I'd only warn that comp will be a fraction of what you can make in London, if it matters at all to you. I really can't speak to S&T.
Be mindful that the Fudan brand carries little weight in APAC excl. China (e.g. Singapore, Japan) and zero in Europe. This is true of any asian school so not a red flag per se, but keep it in mind if you ever want to come back.
These are just my 2 cents. I hope this is helpful and does not sound too bleak, but I wanted to be honest on what you can get out of the school as a European. Living in SH was an amazing experience, made me grow a lot and the city will always be home for me.
WSO is very US- and EU-centric, so it may take some time to find people with first-hand knowledge. Suggest to also reach out on LinkedIn.
Not OP but can you expand on some of the smaller shops that have a cross border angle that you mentioned? Were they mainland shops or HK based? Also are we talking IB or PE, or something else (VC/GE etc)? Sounds intriguing
IB in Shanghai. Think about these as M&A shops assisting small- and mid-cap European businesses that wanted to expand into China via acquisitions or JVs, or alternatively advising Chinese companies that wanted to buy these. Very often they also did a mixture of other strategy (e.g. business plan, market entry, etc) and / or accounting work too, so not necessarily pure play M&A. Most of these had been founded by expats who had been living in the country for a long time in industrial roles, and realised in the early 2000s that there was money to be made. Varying level of sophistication as you can imagine and a very relationship driven job as opposed to the more analytical nature of M&A at blue chip shops.
I know some of these were also doing some investments, I guess more often than not in partnership with some Chinese asset manager or strategic. So essentially operating as a GP to a single or very small number of Chinese LPs, providing the i) execution capabilities and ii) a team with (some) western people.
To be fair, I'm not in sure how these have been faring in the past few years as I haven't kept much in touch with my contacts there. Presumably the market got tougher after the Party Congress in Autumn 2017, given the subsequent cool down on outbound M&A from China, which was further exacerbated by Covid and the deteriorating political landscape between China and the US / EU.
BB in HK have been hiring a lot of expats recently so chances are ok if you get past technicals in the first round, super day is all fit
what kind of roles? S&T? IB? consulting?
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I can’t speak to the EMF, but I was a language student at Fudan and I absolutely absolutely loved my experience. Best time of my life.
How was the learning experience learning Mandarin? Did you get up to businesses proficiency in a year or two? I'm not expecting to ever be near native level but am curious how long it takes being immersed to be able to communicate somewhat effectively in a business manner
Business proficiency in a year or two? You gotta be joking. I've been speaking Mandarin Chinese my entire life (at home, to my family)and I will never ever EVER reach business proficiency.
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