BI talents headed to NBIM
27 June 2022Four students share how studies at BI led to career opportunities at the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund.
“Even though this is my dream job, at first I didn’t think of applying. I thought NBIM mainly looked for A4 finance students, and my specialization was international relations before starting my MSc in Finance last year. When Nicolai Tangen visited BI he emphasized that NBIM looks for diversity also when it comes to academic background, and that convinced me to apply,” says Julie Fusdahl, MSc student in Sustainable Finance at BI.
This summer, she has an internship at NBIM where she will spend eight weeks at the fund’s headquarter in Oslo and get a unique insight into its operations. She applied after a guest lecture at BI with the Fund’s CEO Nicolai Tangen.
Finance lecturer Giovanni Pagliardi invited both Tangen and the fund’s HR department to one of his classes and encouraged his students to ask questions and apply.
Pagliardi’s advice is clear:
“Focus on learning and development. Grades are important but consider them a natural consequence of hard work and engagement and not a goal in and of themselves. It is essential that we as lecturers invite the best employers into our classes so that the students get a chance to meet them,” he says.
Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) manages over $ 1400 billion of Norway’s pension savings for future generations, equal to about $ 250 000 for each Norwegian citizen. On average, the fund holds 1.3 percent of all the world’s listed companies, consisting of small stakes in more than 9000 companies, including well-known brands like Apple, Microsoft, Tesla and Samsung.
“Our aim is to be the first choice of every student in the country, and BI is no exception! We have many skilled employees in the fund with their education from BI, and we look forward to hiring more," says CEO of NBIM, Nicolai Tangen.
"We are looking for curious, hardworking people who can handle adversity. We are also looking for people who have done things out of the ordinary, so my advice is to not only focus on your studies, but to explore the world and learn about other subjects.”
Three BI students to NBIM’s graduate programme
In 2022, students from BI captured 3 of the 17 places on the fund’s graduate programme. The programme is designed to give the best young talents in finance the opportunity to gain experience and training as a global leaders in financial management. On completing the programme, the students can also look forward to a permanent position at Norges Bank Investment Management.
“During the two years of the graduate programme I will work in three separate departments at NBIM, and get to try my hand at everything from technology and investment management to corporate governance,” says Valentina Barbosa, an MSc in Finance student at BI who will start her graduate programme this summer.
NBIM is known to hire the very best talents and is one of Norway’s most attractive employers.
“I have big expectations for the programme. The most important one is the opportunity to collaborate with skilled and engaged colleagues who can be mentors in my early career," says Elise Melsom, who also studies for her MSc in Applied Economics at BI.
She applied for the program through BI’s career portal, and after a long application process, she received the offer from NBIM.
Robel Tadesse, the third BI student headed to NBIM for the graduate programme, has just finished his bachelor’s degree in business administration and is looking to make an impact at the investment fund.
“My expectations are that I will be challenged in many areas both professionally and personally, and that I can contribute positively to the fund’s mandate,” he says.