Get Ahead of the Competition

"I knew I wanted to go to grad school, and I wanted to find a program that is as eclectic and multi-interested as I am. After researching a number of schools, I found the INI program at Carnegie Mellon offered by far, the best opportunity for me to build an elective curriculum for myself that allowed me to go into the business side of my industry. The INI's elective course options allowed me to put several consecutive courses together in specific areas to build the depth I needed to really know what I was talking about in an interview.

The bottom line with the INI program is that we can pursue interests when other programs do not let you. If I had not been able to take some of those classes, I would not have been able to get my ideal job. I was interviewing alongside MBA and MSCF students, and what I brought to the position was strength in both computer science and business; what they didn't have was the depth of computer science offered in the INI core. As a result, I was able to get a job on Wall Street as a financial analyst, using both my engineering and computational finance skills, to build systems for pricing financial instruments."

Preston Mesick graduated from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln with a bachelor's degree in computer engineering in 2006. After graduating with a master's degree in Information Security Technology Management from Carnegie Mellon's Information Networking Institute, Preston is currently an analyst in the Quantitative Trade and Analysis Program with Citigroup, Inc.