Daniel Shvartsman, B.S. 2007

Director Content Strategy, Seeking Alpha (based in Israel, works remotely from Spain)

2007 Major: Economics and History

How has being an Economics graduate from Duke helped shape your professional success?

"I work in financial media/tech, so the econ background is helpful. It's not often that I literally use information from my work. I recall Professor Fullenkamp's class from time to time, and he was my favorite professor in the department, but beyond looking at financial statements I don't remember much of the specifics. So it makes me conversant in the topic, but most of the industry level knowledge came later."

What advice would you give students in Economics?

"I think I could have gone deeper in my study of the field as a whole. I'm conversant, and I enjoyed for example Professor Goodwin's class on the Uses of Economics, but I don't think I applied myself enough to achieve mastery. While I think it's relevant to have econometrics and some fluency in statistical analysis, I think the theoretical aspects are more important. It's possible to learn the mathematical applications (for example how to analyze a balance sheet, how to value a firm) after college. I would have liked to study more behavioral economics. I had a nagging sense about the presumption of rationality being a little flawed, but an academic framework to study that would have been helpful."

Daniel Shvartsman