Hello everyone, my name is Jingyi (Zoe) Jia. I graduated from the University of Exeter in MSc Business Analytics this January. Before that, in 2020, I graduated from University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Commerce. I have a lot of stories to share with you as an International student who studied in both Canada and the UK.
Being an International student means my life full of challenges and joy. As a Beijinger born and raised I am glad to experience different study and work experiences in diversified cultures.
I still remember how excited I was when I got my first job in Canada. It took a long time to find the job. After I wrote my CV, I revised it many times so that it was a good fit for the role. Researching the job description and preparing for the interviews, including mock interviews, were significant parts as well.
Big Data and Machine Learning will be a major trend in business as all industries are working on digital transformation.
My first full-time job was a logistics analyst in a packaging company at Vancouver, Canada. During that time, I was in charge of logistics procedures for all the orders. I discovered the extended possibilities of Big Data by using coding tools to predict the cost of logistics. Big Data and Machine Learning will be a major trend in business as all industries are working on digital transformation. Although I did not learn any technology in my Undergraduate, I made a decision to study in Business Analytics at Masters level.
In January 2021 I joined the University of Exeter to study MSc Business Analytics. At the end of the program, I received and accepted an offer of Management Consultant role in digital transformation at Ernst & Young in February 2022. This position is the first full-time job after graduating from the Master’s program, which is a career transformation for myself.
“The main duty of my job is designing models for financial clients (such as banks) to fulfil their need of digital transformation in marketing or management.”
My role is highly enjoyable. The main duty of my job is designing models for financial clients (such as banks) to fulfil their need of digital transformation in marketing or management. For example, if the client aims to expand their female market or improve the revenue from the female market, we will design the strategies, road map first and then help them achieve the goal by building prediction models. Through using technical models built by SQL and p
Python, the client can predict the AUM growth, the most relevant triggers that boost the sales, or even the best channel to promote currently.
I learnt about EY through the employer career session held at the University of Exeter, and applied this position through the EY website. The Career Zone provided me a great chance to talk with the HR from EY at the Career Fair. I learnt that EY provides a better work environment for women, something which is really important to me.
For me, working as a business consultant in digital transformation is a new start to improve my professional skills in both coding and consulting. I am so glad I can bring what I learnt from Exeter and keep learning the Business Analytics in the real practice.
“…a good consultant always learns and grows faster with strong logical and critical thinking.”
I would advise new graduates or current students who plan to start the career with consulting to gain more internship experience in project management or business analyst roles. Consulting is a good sector to start the career since a good consultant always learns and grows faster with strong logical and critical thinking. For students who are interested in business analyst or data analyst, I would suggest them to obtain the coding skills such as SQL, Python and R Studios.
Last but not the least, a good analyst should clearly know what can be predicted or recommended to the clients through the result shown by data. Unlike programmer or developer, business sense is also one of important parts of the duties for business analyst and data analyst.
“Career planning is a continuous thing. Every step at University such as choosing your major or applying an internship could affect your career in future.”
In the short term, I plan to work and keep learning in the same sector – digital transformation consulting. Currently, I am preparing PMP certificate to help myself work better on project management in the workplace. Being a professional consultant for technology needs the ability to work well with technology, but also need the ability to manage and solve the problems well by using these tools.
Career planning is a continuous thing. Every step at University such as choosing your major or applying an internship could affect your career in future. Don’t be panic about what to do, but aim for what you are interested in and aim towards it.
In the long term, I would see myself to chase the trend of emerging technology and management in different industries. Let’s see where I will be in ten years!