Arhum Anjum

I decided to study for a masters in Data Science because it’s a field that is applicable to a wide range of subject areas, and has a lot of untapped potential in electrical engineering – the subject of my bachelor’s degree.

The best thing about Surrey’s Data Science MSc was its module list. I was able to specialise in information security which I find very interesting and is crucial in the world of data. The most interesting module for me was Information Security for Business and Government, which was delivered by industry experts: this was something out of the ordinary and I learnt a lot from these experts’ lectures.

In addition, the Cloud Computing module enabled me to get hands-on experience of cloud technologies which is very beneficial for my future career.

A highlight of my masters was my year’s placement at Lloyds Banking Group where I worked as a Retail Data Analyst within the analytics and interaction team. One of my main tasks was to optimise the capabilities of the decisioning process used to send out customer communications by analysing custom interaction data. I also tried to generate value in the messages sent out using new machine learning model implementations, and analysed the overall performance of the process.

My greatest achievement on placement was developing a data science framework which enabled my team to document any data science task they were doing – a tool which was then used by other teams as well.

Being offered a job even before completing my placement was a great feeling. My permanent role at Lloyds Banking Group is machine learning engineer, and I’m responsible for end-to-end development and monitoring of any machine learning models in our team – which is an extension of the work I was doing on placement. I’m grateful to Surrey’s careers advisers who had a major role in getting me the placement by teaching me how to tailor my CV and be effective during interviews.

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