Where exactly can statistics take you? There’s lots of options out there, and some of them might be right under your nose. Our Secret Statistician event, held virtually on 11
th October, showcased some less obvious sectors an early career statistician or data scientist may wish to explore.
Our first speaker was
Federico Andreis, Head of Statistical Methods and Quality Assurance at Nesta, a charitable organisation who design, test and scale new solutions to some of society’s biggest problems. Federico discussed how he originally explored academic careers and then found his home at Nesta. Federio’s work at Nesta has included identifying the drivers of inequality in school settings and investigating the use of heat pumps – alternatives to gas boilers – to reduce the carbon footprint of UK households.
Our next speaker was
Paul Sharkey, Senior Statistical Scientist at Cervest. After finishing his PhD, Ryan went to work in risk management and flood prediction, but then found pastures new with a data scientist role at the BBC. He then returned to environmental sciences and found his current role at Cervest, which strikes a balance of research level statistics with tangible impact. Cervest seek to classify the climate risk associated to businesses using state of the art tools such as julia, Stan and AWS.
We then heard from
Vasso Papatzitze. She is lead of Data Analytics and Sales Estimates at DCI, a digital commerce startup who specialise in Southeast Asian markets. Vasso originally trained as an economist and spent 7 years working in analytics for fashion brands including Calvin Klein and TOMS. She then returned to university to study for an MSc in Statistics & Data Science at Glasgow university, which lead to her role at DCI.
Our final speaker was
Ryan Jessop. Ryan’s career as a data scientist started at Carbon, an ad-tech startup who used natural language processing to improve online advertising. Ryan then moved to YOOX Net-A-Porter, a luxury fashion e-commerce group with thousands of employees. Ryan’s current role is the Data Science Team Lead at Muzz, the largest Muslim dating app in the world.
The Secret Statistician event was wrapped up with an engaging Q&A session. Despite working in a wide range of sectors, our secret statisticians gave remarkably similar advice for early career statisticians and data scientists: your first role probably won’t be perfect! Don’t be afraid to embrace the diverse options available to statisticians and data scientists, the ideal role is waiting for you.
Author
Jack Kennedy is a PhD student in Statistics at Newcastle University. His research focusses on the making decisions and handing uncertainty in offshore wind settings. He is also a committee member of the Young Statisticians Section.