Employability Fair

Session 1
Date: 13^th January 2022
Time: 1pm
Click Here to Register

——

Session 2
Date: 14^th January 2022
Time: 11am
Click Here to Register

In order to take part in these virtual networking sessions you will need to:

1. Click on the link to Register on selected dates
2. Register for the event
3. To access the event:
   1. A registration confirmation e-mail will contain a zoom link and meeting ID/password at the bottom of the email under ‘Additional Information section’
   2. Or alternatively you can click on the orange  ‘View the event’ button at the top of the email and it will open the joining instructions displayed on Eventbrite.

In the E1 region at Hilti there are two analytical teams. The first is the Financial controlling team who are responsible for all reporting across the region. The reports are primarily created using SQL, Access & PowerBI. The second team is the Platform & Data Insights team that are based in Strategic Marketing. They are responsible for all adhoc analysis, Machine Learning projects & automation across the region. The Data Insights managers specialise in SQL, Python & PowerBI. They have access to an Azure Data Lake & will soon have access to an AWS platform.

I joined Hilti in April 2021 as a Data Insight Manager. I spent the first 5 months creating reports for Marketing Managers across the region whilst I familiarised myself with the business. I also used this time to create strong working relationships with our Global data science team based in Paris & Schaan and exploring possible Machine Learning use cases in the region. I’ve spent the last 4 months working on our first ML use case ‘Churn prediction of Engaged customers’. 

My background is slightly unusual. My undergraduate degree was a BSc in Optometry. I worked as an Optometrist across the UK for 4 years before deciding to go back to university to complete an MSc in Business Analytics. From there I began working at Cisco IT as a Data Analyst specialising in SQL & Tableau. I decided to go back to university to further my skills & completed my MSc in Data Science at Birkbeck. I have not found that having this unconventional background has limited my success in my career. If you have a strong team of Data Engineers to support you, it is possible to learn these further technical skills ‘on the job’. 

A large part of being a Data Scientist is being able to work effectively with business stakeholders. This means translating business problems into clear cut Machine Learning projects. It requires excellent communication skills & the ability to translate complex algorithm results into a story that the business can digest & act upon. I’ve found as a manager that candidates fail in interviews far more often due to a lack of these soft skills rather than a lack of technical ability.

Currently Hilti head office employees in GB are all based at home full time unless they have a specific reason to need to be in the office in person (specialist equipment etc.). The plan going forward is for employees to be in the office 3 days per week as a minimum. The other 2 days can be home based. This can be negotiated with their line manager. Hilti use flexitime fairly extensively & employees are permitted to start & end their day as suits their personal needs. Employees are expected to be available for meetings between 9.30-4.00 pm if needed.

When in the office there are plenty of tea/coffee stations available with free fruit throughout the day. There is also a canteen with multiple lunch options or Oxford road is on the doorstep with plenty of different lunch spots to choose from. Every desk in the office is a standing desk and has two screens plus a wireless keyboard & mouse as standard. Every employee has a locker where they can store any personal items. There are also many shared relaxing spaces with sofas & whiteboards that are ideal for brainstorming sessions. There are various meeting & focus rooms for calls on both floors. The dress code is fairly relaxed as business casual.

Hilti staff have the option to purchase an additional 5 days of holiday on top of the standard 25 days & can take an additional 2 on top of this for volunteer work plus bank holidays. 

Microsoft Teams is the platform where meetings are held when virtual. Teams is widely used in projects too for document sharing & chatting on streams

Address
No.1 Circle Square,  3 Symphony Park, Manchester, M1 7FS

Home page: https://www.hilti.co.uk/

Careers: https://careers.hilti.co.uk/en-gb

Session 1
Date: 19^th January 2022
Time: 3pm
Click Here to Register

——

Session 2
Date: 26^th January 2022
Time: 2pm
Click Here to Register

In order to take part in these virtual networking sessions you will need to:

1. Click on the link to Register on selected dates
2. Register for the event
3. To access the event:
   1. A registration confirmation e-mail will contain a zoom link and meeting ID/password at the bottom of the email under ‘Additional Information section’
   2. Or alternatively you can click on the orange  ‘View the event’ button at the top of the email and it will open the joining instructions displayed on Eventbrite.

Candidates are selected based on their experience, skills and interest for one of three business functions – Consulting, Engineering and Project Management. Within each function there are a number different of roles grouped in to capabilities and communities. If a candidate interests sits with the data space, they will most likely join the Consulting function and within that, the Data & Digital (D&D) professional community.

Once placed within D&D, a graduate would start as a Data Consultant. They would remain a Data Consultant for the full 18 months of the graduate scheme, with the view that upon its completion, they would specialise in one of the 4 data capability streams: Data Engineering, Data Advisory, Data Science, Data Architecture.  

When we recruit graduates we are doing so with a role(s) in mind. Our customers value the knowledge and skills our graduates can bring to their projects and therefore our graduates start on customer work very early on. Graduates are aligned to projects based on their skills and interests and they are encouraged and supported to rotate through a number of different roles throughout the 18 months on the scheme. Those who are unsure on the direction they want to take are encouraged to change projects frequently, to give them the opportunity to try out different roles. Those who are more focussed (e.g. in data science) will be able to use the time to embed and extend their existing skills as well as develop a number of new ones. They will work on some of the most difficult and cutting edge data science problems our customers have, supplemented by additional internal and external training and support.  

Once the scheme is complete the employee makes a decision on their specialism and job role. For example, a graduate previously known as a Data Consultant, may become a Data Scientist and will follow the career pathway aligned to that discipline. A career pathway is defined for all roles in the company and this explains what is expected at each level of the company, with increasing responsibility and skills as you move up the career levels. Within the consulting function we have 5 defined career levels, starting at C1 and moving upward to C5. 

Employees are encouraged to progress through the career levels and are supported in doing so. Employees set yearly as well as project objectives, aligned to the appropriate role development pathway, to help ensure their career goals are understood and continually worked towards.

 Most of our graduates work on client projects. The work may be based in one of our offices (Guildford, London, Gloucester, Manchester or Leeds), at home with hybrid working, or in many cases you will be working alongside our clients on their site. This means that not only do you have to demonstrate great technical skills but also the consultancy skills required to understand what the client wants, and to discuss your work with them. Working on projects means that there are normally well defined outputs to be achieved and end points to the project – it also means you can be filling different roles on each different project.

A typical day as a data specialist could be very varied. You will typically work in a team, which is generally multi-skilled (so not just data specialists, but also business analysts, project managers, software developers and solution designers). The team will get together daily to discuss progress with your project manager, and to collaboratively solve problems. Although you may start as the most junior team member you will still have responsibility for a part of the work – for deciding on the best approach to solving a problem. We have a huge variety of projects covering the lifecycle of data solutions – so you may be doing one of the following:

• writing Python code to process data for ingest into an analytical solution
• exploring deep learning algorithms, and recommending the best options for image analysis to the customer
• designing a schema for storing data in a graph database
• building a proof of concept solution for a data factory on AWS, using native AWS services
• presenting analytical results to the client in PowerBI, describing their significance, and understanding what analysis to do next
• gathering the client’s analytical requirements and working with them to prioritise the research and development work
• building and monitoring operational data pipelines
• trying to discover what datasets the client has, the meaning of their fields, and the quality of the data

Address
Waterside House, 170 Priestley Road, Surrey Research Park, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7RQ

Home page: https://www.baesystems.com/en/cybersecurity/home

Careers: https://www.baesystems.com/en/cybersecurity/careers

Graduate brochure (QR link):

Session 1
Date: 8th February 2022
Time: 3pm
Click Here to Register

——

Session 2
Date: 14th February 2022
Time: 3pm
Click Here to Register

In order to take part in these virtual networking sessions you will need to:

1. Click on the link to Register on selected dates
2. Register for the event
3. To access the event:
   1. A registration confirmation e-mail will contain a zoom link and meeting ID/password at the bottom of the email under ‘Additional Information section’
   2. Or alternatively you can click on the orange  ‘View the event’ button at the top of the email and it will open the joining instructions displayed on Eventbrite.

  Auto Trader has an analytics team of around 20 people that work will almost every area of the business. We have three distinct roles within analytics: digital analysts, data analysts and data scientists. Each of these roles works with a variety of data sources, but broadly speaking digital analysts focus on the consumer side of the business and are principally interested in understanding on-site consumer behaviour, while data analysts work closely with our product teams to make sure we are measuring the right things in the right way in order to drive product development.

The products themselves are very varied, ranging from to new ways to advertise vehicles on the website to new tools consumers can use to search the >500,000 stock items we currently list. Data scientists are involved in longer term machine learning and mathematical modelling projects, which often have an element of research involved as we bring in new methodologies or develop our own as needed.

While all of these roles are technical, they require a variety of skills, especially the digital and data analyst roles which work with a wide variety of stakeholders from many different backgrounds. In that sense, we value problem solving, communication and collaborative skills very highly, as without these it is difficult to make an impact within the business and it is often exactly these skills that candidates from non traditional do well at. For example, while in depth knowledge of particular machine learning models or coding techniques is important, arguably more important is to be able to focus our resources on the most critical pieces of work. Deciding what not to do, and in particular avoiding doing things just because we are able and not stopping to ask why we would even do a piece of work or follow some approach in the first place, is therefore a key mechanism for delivering value to the business yet as a skill is easy to overlook in favour of more easily identifiable technical knowledge.

We currently have a blended approach to coming into the office; it is important to work collaboratively and be around others, but the environment is flexible and adaptable. Auto Trader values its people, and the work environment provides you with support throughout your career, a balance between maintaining stability and challenging assumptions crucial to our growth. We are regularly kept in the loop with effective communication among colleagues, as well as prompt updates between leaders and teams.

Analytics consistently presents itself with opportunities to use expertise or gain knowledge. Whether you enjoy getting immediate results or prioritise attention to detail, there is something for everyone. Analysts are vital across the business, and they work in various areas to ensure a data driven approach to all we do.

There is a variety of projects you could work on – you may help determine the best website parameters to enhance the consumer experience, assist other teams in delivering results for customers with analytic insight or spend some time researching a scientific problem which can improve our approach. Thus, the reporting rhythm can vary from exciting and fast-paced to calculated and thorough. We value working with each other as well as independence, so we pair on analytics tasks as well as give ourselves space to explore and analyse.

Address
Auto Trader Plc, 1 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester, M15 4FN

Home page: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/

Careers: https://careers.autotrader.co.uk/jobs/technology