Year of graduation: 2012
Course: BSc (Hons) Business Information Management Systems
Employer: Hitachi Solutions Europe
Job title: Technical Solution Architect (Data and Analytics)
Location: UK
Choosing Plymouth
“Plymouth was a good choice because of the reputation of the University and the specific nature of the course combined with the ability of doing a placement year. My favourite memory of studying at Plymouth is how it started to kindle my knowledge and interest in databases and how information is handled and flows through a business.”
Life after graduation
Working in consulting was interesting and diverse so I decided to take the next step and move to a larger specialist practice, Hitachi Solutions Europe, where I am a Technical Solution Architect (Data and Analytics).
The support I needed
“
Studying at Plymouth gave me the base knowledge to develop upon in the working world – the course I undertook had the experience aspect built into it with a third year placement.
In my first year I came in for a proper learning difficulties assessment and was assigned someone to help. We met once a month and I was helped to apply to get software that would assist me such as Dragon/ClaroRead, a dictaphone etc. which was a massive help in studying.
In my previous schooling I was deemed to have too high grades to be put into an assessment so it was awesome after years of struggling to actually get the support I needed.”
Challenges along the way
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For me I think getting the courage up to apply and obtain a graduate job was probably the most difficult thing, closely followed by moving to a foreign country.
Because of my learning difficulties I have always had problems with change and adjusting to new environments and people.
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Taking a chance
“
Whilst working at Devonport I was able to work with another team member to prepare and install a data warehouse into the Canadian office. Through this opportunity I was able to visit Canada for the first time and display my skills.
This trip later gave me the courage to take a chance on moving to Canada when a great job opportunity came up at the site.
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My advice – complete a placement
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Work hard and put all the effort you can into becoming knowledgeable about the area – it is really important to complete a placement as part of your degree plan to get the relevant business experience.
The placement I undertook was a mix of office, finance, IT and admin ... it reaffirmed that I wanted to work in that area.
It actually gave me a lot of great experience with business and people that I would later need whilst talking to users of our systems etc.
In the short term the placement opened a few opportunities for work straight after university and throughout the final year. I was offered a couple of extensions to the placement, which I accepted, and eventually it ran into a part time data analyst role for the facilities manager at the time.
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