This article is part of “Trends to Bet Your Career On,” a series about trending professional opportunities.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Christian Hollar, a recent graduate of Duke University’s Master of Engineering in Financial Technology program and an avionics software design engineer at Boeing. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Pursuing a master’s degree in finance technology, or fintech, engineering was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. My degree allowed me to build on my technical knowledge and gain a deeper understanding of how emerging technologies are transforming financial systems.
For undergrad, I studied mechanical engineering and mathematics at Lafayette College, where I was recruited to play football. During my time at Lafayette, I also participated in the International Collegiate Programming Contest and interned at NASA, Morgan Stanley, and a fintech startup called nCino. During the onboarding process for nCino, I met a technical recruiter who was also involved in recruiting for Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, and he told me about the different graduate programs.
I ended up pursuing a Master of Engineering degree in artificial intelligence at Duke University. While in that program, I took elective courses from the financial technology curriculum on topics such as the next evolution of the internet, known as Web3, and algorithmic trading systems. Because of my positive experiences in these courses and my continued curiosity about the space, I started a second Master of Engineering degree in financial technology.
Finance, as an industry, touches everyone, making it one of the most fertile grounds for innovation. This is becoming even more true with the rise of technologies like large language models and blockchain. In the near term, most innovation in fintech will focus on making current systems work more efficiently.
But, to implement those changes, companies will need people who understand finance, computer science, mathematics, and artificial intelligence — skills that define a fintech engineer.
It’s why I pursued this path, and it’s encouraging to see the broader world catching up to that vision.
One of the most challenging aspects of my fintech program was having to leave it. I genuinely enjoy learning, so transitioning out of an academic environment and focusing on application has been difficult.
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