Advice from alumni: Kristian Diskerud

Norway’s Kristian Diskerud was one of the first students at EF Academy Oxford and graduated from the school with A-Level qualifications in 2011. He completed an undergraduate degree in Law at the University College London but decided to pursue business and finance instead. He is now studying a Global Masters in Management with a focus on Asia at the London Business School and Fudan University in Shanghai. His dream is to have a strategic impact on the financial services industry and he is already on his way through internships at well-reputed banks such as Barclays and HSBC. He was recently invited back to EF Academy Oxford to share his experience. Read more below to get to know him better.

How did you hear about EF Academy and why did you decide to attend?

I went on a language course with EF when I was 15 years old and spent three weeks in Torbay. I came back and started to think about what I wanted to do with my life. I realized that I wanted to do something more exciting than studying at an ordinary high school in Norway and that is when I found EF Academy, where I was fortunate enough to be given the Founder’s Scholarship. That was how I ended up being a part of the second year of students at EF Academy Oxford. Our class consisted of only 30 students at the time.

Looking back, it was a very exciting experience because it was my first experience of living abroad. We were one of the the first classes at EF Academy Oxford and even then we were very international as illustrated by the fact that the school’s football team was made up of a distinct nationality for each position on the field.  We experienced and learned a lot together. This pushed me tremendously and I gained confidence to aspire to have a career with a global focus.

What university did you go to afterwards? What did you study and why?

After EF Academy, I went on to study Law with Advanced Studies with a focus on financial regulations at the University College London. I choose law because I had a strong interest in the subject and was excited by the challenge that it would offer me. However, given my ancillary interest in finance and economics, I knew all along that I may not end up pursuing a career in the field. That being said, the skills I have acquired in my degree are invaluable and I have never regretted studying it.

Since I gained some illuminating insights though my work experience and always had an interest for business and economics, I went on to study my Global Masters in Management, which is a double-degree program jointly delivered by the London Business School (LBS) and the Fudan University in Shanghai. To get in, I had to complete an examination, in addition to some application essays and an interview. The work I had to put in was definitely worth it, especially considering LBS’ reputation as one of the world’s leading business schools, and Fudan as one of China’s forefront academic institutions, which is reflected in the great network and overall quality of teaching. I was especially drawn by the fact that the Masters focuses on enabling business between the east and the west, as this is something I would like to facilitate in my long-term career. It is a very practical and applicable course and I enjoy the fact that it is multi-disciplinary, yet with a demanding level of depth. Since I really like data and financial analysis, I am happy that I get to dig a bit deeper into those areas as well.

What do you want to do after?

I would love to work with strategy and financial strategy. I have worked with a private equity firm, leading a project looking to find investment opportunities relating to hazardous materials, such as nuclear, radiation and asbestos. I have also worked for a start-up within financial services. My dream role would be to drive strategy for a large financial services firm. Thus, I am focusing on gaining experience within banking in the short-term. For example, I have previous experience from Barclays and this summer, I will work for HSBC within their corporate and global banking division.

Tips for current students that want to study what you study?

Be prepared to be average. You are coming into an environment where your peers are used to being top performers in class, and this can sometimes be a bit daunting. So you definitely need to be prepared and willing to work harder than what you have done leading up to university. At least with the right expectations everything just gets easier.

Think about what career path that you want to take. This makes it easier to try to connect with the companies that you are interested in. While at LBS, I have really started to appreciate how important networking is.

Make sure to collect experiences that prove that you are willing to work hard!

Do you keep in touch with your EF Academy classmates?

I do keep in touch with many of them and we try to meet up when they are around. We have also taken a lot of different paths: for instance, Valeria Moreira Russo is pursuing Tropical Sciences and Medicines while Petro Tyurin did Computer Sciences at Bristol.

What’s your favorite memory from EF Academy?

One of them was when we were practicing for our Cambridge English Proficiency Certificate and we ended up watching British Comedy as a group. It was so much fun and it was a great way to improve our English. Another great memory was when we went to to Morocco with our sociology teacher Patrick.

What is one thing that you learned from EF Academy that you found valuable for university? For work life? For your personal life?

Just being in the UK by myself and being able to talk to people from so many different backgrounds to get an insight into their points of view was amazing. I realized that there is always going to be a bubble in Norway and going to EF Academy helped me pop that bubble.

The experience at EF Academy gave me a lot of confidence and a good understanding of people’s differences.

Any advice for fellow alumni at universities or who are starting their careers?

Try to get ahead of your game. For law, only 5-10 percent gets the 1st year schemes for instance. So if you do it, you will be ahead. However, don’t let the experiences and internships lock you down to one path. Use them as a way for you to really find out whether or not you want to go down that career route.

 

Short questions:

Name: Kristian Diskerud

Age: 22

Nationality: Norway (tiny village of 900 people)

How many languages do you speak? Norwegian, English, Mandarin

EF Academy campus: Oxford

Graduation years: 2011

Program:  A-Levels

Residence or host family: Residence

Favorite subject: Economics, because of the subject nature. I also really enjoyed philosophy.

Favorite teacher:

Rob Murphy – Philosophy teacher

Peter Traynor – English teacher

Patrick Alexander – Sociology teacher

Favorite club / society:

I helped initiate the Football Club and Economics Club

Who to interview next:

Pepijn van Eck from the Netherlands, a very clever guy

Shouts outs to:

Shazmin Ali – Personal tutor my first year at EF Academy, she gave me a lot of good advice

Tobey Blundell – Personal tutor in my second year who helped a lot with university applications