IIT Stuart Students Leverage Exclusive Career Resources to Land Some of Today’s Hottest Jobs: Xiao “Kristen” Yang

Xiao “Kristen” Yang

M.S. Finance ‘13
Financial Analyst, Sears Holdings Corporation

One of the great joys of completing a degree is the professional application of knowledge and concepts learned as a student, and that’s just what Xiao “Kristen” Yang does in her role as a Financial Analyst at Sears Holdings Corporation. “I deal with lots of number crunching, data processing as well as model building,” explains Yang.

And in the pursuit of her work, Yang relies on the academic rigor of her IIT Stuart education, easily citing specific examples, including Excel skills learned from MSF 503, a financial modeling course, as well as several accounting concepts learned from MSF 506. Yang adds, “Some important Excel functions were learned from MSF 501 Math with Financial Application course as well, taught by one of my favorite professors Greg Chaudoin. MSF 534 Corporate Finance is one of my favorite courses as well, taught by professor Yiwei Fang, who applies innovative quantitative approach on topics such as deciding a company's optimal capital structure, which has always been put in a traditional qualitative research way by most of the other business schools.”

Identified by Career Builder and Economic Modeling Specialists International as one of the hottest, fastest growing jobs, Financial Analysts require a broad range of skills. Yang offers solid advice to other IIT Stuart students who wish to pursue a career in this field. “Build a solid quantitative basis on financial modeling, as well as a strong background on financial statement analysis. Strong interpersonal skills and creative thinking are also needed for doing corporate finance, so I suggest current Stuart students take an active part in knowing people by doing on-campus jobs, internships, and volunteer work.”