The ‘Meet the Professionals’ careers event in the Spring term at the University of Warwick featured a range of exciting and varied roles across technology and data, with opportunities ranging from energy trading analysts, to digital marketing executives. The event featured small to medium size businesses who aim to solve unique client challenges with bespoke software solutions. It highlighted some novelty applications of technical concepts to industries which might not otherwise have been easy to find out about. Warwick Innovations also attended the event and gave some useful insights into the process of commercialising intellectual property (IP) in conjunction with the University – explaining why this would be important, and how students might be supported through this process. This post summarises the key takeaways from the event and what companies who are hiring might be looking for in a candidate.
Eon (one of the largest investor-owned electric utility providers).
A role as a trading energy analyst could involve anything from analysing large datasets and building models for forecasting, to data visualisation and tool development. Other responsibilities could include looking at UI and UX for dashboard creation, analysing demand side response and flexibility, and developing battery control and optimisation algorithms. Eon has a need for ‘middleware’ to make sense of their data as it is very complex. The speakers were keen to emphasise the variation in this role and the fact that ‘you get to do maths everyday – bound only by your imagination!’ For example, they talked about using game theory to produce trading strategies. This role would be perfect for someone looking to apply their creative problem solving and analytical thinking skills to a critical industry with wide reaching benefits across society.
Yellow Panther (a digital studio start-up which provides unique, immersive digital experiences for clients)
Based in Leamington Spa, this funky creative design studio focuses on web development, mobile apps, e-commerce platforms and digital marketing, as well as offering UI/ UX capabilities and cutting-edge technology services such as AR/ VR. They develop end-to-end solutions which showcase their clients’ work through content creation and story telling, with a high focus on design, aesthetics and functionality to drive engagement and improve brand visibility. A role here would provide an opportunity to gain experience in a digital product driven company, delivering software applications in an agile/ scrum environment and working across verticals. The speakers mentioned an eye for detail and design and experience with prototyping tools as key hiring criteria!
Ab Initio (an enterprise software company specialising in using automation to process high volumes of data to solve complex client problems)
Ab Initio develops bespoke software solutions for complex data processing challenges set by some of the largest companies in the world. They focus on high volume, parallel processing tasks, fuzzy matching and code parsing, and automated creation of processing pipelines. Their platform solves end-to-end computing challenges and is currently used by one of the three largest game developers in the world!
They pride themselves on their selling approach and their talented employees. They develop everything in-house in Boston, and sell through their field sales and consulting team in the UK. What is more, everything is sold by word of mouth! Their consultants also encourage customers to ‘try before you buy,’ running a full trial solution before deployment. A technology consultant here would need a strong Computer Science background, as technical excellence is recognised and valued.
JMan Group (a business management consultancy specialising in driving business growth through strategy, data and analytics).
JMan Group describes its people as having the ‘mindset of a management consultant but the skill set of a data scientist/ software engineer.’ This data-driven consultancy approach helps businesses create value through business strategy, analytics, predictive forecasting and ML. Being industry agnostic, this role provides the opportunity to work with a variety of companies from start ups to FTSE 100 listed firms and private equity firms to charities. They pride themselves on their people and invest heavily on developing skills in project management, consulting, data science, and full-stack engineering to create well-rounded, knowledgeable consultants!
RVS (a leading independent provider of transaction backed volatility pricing services for the Over The Counter (OTC) Global Derivative Market)
A small fintech start-up of around 20 people, which provides pricing services for large banks. Despite their size, they are a truly global company and collaborate with clients in the UK, USA, Australia and Asia. They are looking to expand their developer team in London and are looking for students with coding skills and an interest in finance. There were 3 Warwick students at the event who had all interned at RVS so evidently they have some excellent opportunities! Any experience in Python and SQL would be highly beneficial for these roles.
Decision Lab (an applied research and innovation think tank, aimed at improving decision making through practical decision intelligence).
An industry agnostic software-driven consultancy, which aims to solve complex client challenges with innovative solutions, generating transformational change through improved decision making. They achieve this through their Decision Lab intelligence platform which uses state-of-the-art technology and innovative research to enable companies to make decisions more effectively.
Vectric (a CNC software company focussing on creating bespoke software for unique customer projects).
A small, employee-owned company of around 30 people based in Ulster, with multi-million pounds worth of annual revenue and customers around the world. They focus on niche projects with very bespoke applications of CNC software for creative industries. This would be an exciting opportunity to try lots of different roles, learn new skills, and work on self-contained results. At a small company there are added benefits of getting more responsibility and knowing that the company is invested in your development and happiness. This role would feature a lot of maths and an interesting combination of programming with artistic skills!
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