Florence Blake
Flo is a final year economics student at University of Warwick, Co-chair of Warwick Finance Societies and Incoming Legal and Compliance Analyst at BlackRock.
Why did you choose to study economics?
I chose to study Economics for a mix of reasons. Firstly, it is broad enough that I knew it was not going to narrow down me, cut me from any careers, and set me up well for a future career in finance and that's why I wanted to do it. Also, I wanted to study a subject in which all the knowledge is applicable to the real world and the markets.
How would you describe economics?
I would describe it, at Warwick, as very Maths based which make it difficult to understand if you are coming from A-levels Economics that is not so maths based. It is about generating models to fit real-world situations. For example, in microeconomics, you look for a model for households' behaviour; while in macro, you look for a model about how economics grows.
If you had a time machine and could meet your 16-year-old self, what advice would you give them?
If I advise my young 16-year-old self, although my reasons for studying economics are well motivated, I did not take a joint degree: Economics & German, because I was quite worried about my employability. I believed that a degree in pure economics was going to take me to the place I wanted to be. However, now I know that it would have made no difference to my employability. So, I should have followed my heart.
What is your favourite part of economics?
My favourite part of economics is that it seems like multiple subjects in one. Now, in my third year, I was able to take many modules I am very interested in. For example, last term, I took behavioural economics, and now I am taking Economic History in the 20th century; you can feel how economics is broad as behavioural economics combines economics and psychology.
Is there anything you would do differently if you had the chance?
Think more strategically about what I spend my time on, focus on what matters and on what I gain. During my first year, I tried to study in the evenings and that does not work for me; so, I changed and tried to adapt better to my routine. One thing I would have done differently is listening to myself more.