‘One of my biggest responsibilities at the moment is ownership of reporting monthly performance of an online B2B learning platform for Samsung, working to automate and optimise this process’
Chloe Francis, Data Analyst at Iris Worldwide studied BSc Mathematics with a Year in Industry (2019) and MRes Statistics (2021) at Kent. In this interview, Chloe talks about progressing from an undergraduate degree to her Master’s, and the importance of finding the right career.
How do you feel your time at Kent prepared you for working in the industry?
The University has bags of opportunities, events and people which helped me prepare for working in industry – the people in SMSAS and CEMS were all amazing. Services like checking your CV, mock interviews and general career discussions were super helpful when searching for jobs. Plus, events where companies visited the University were great to practice networking with professionals, even if I wasn’t interested in that specific company/industry.
What did you learn in your degree that has been beneficial to you in your role?
The computing modules were a great help in being able to learn programmes/coding as well as being able to practice implementing it. These skills made up a large chunk of my CV. In my Master’s, I went on to learn these skills to a higher ability and continued to apply methods which I’d learnt in my Undergraduate degree.
What are your main responsibilities and tasks?
Working for an agency means that my tasks/responsibilities are widely spread and cover a range of clients. It’s really interesting as I am able to work on a range of different projects and am constantly developing new skills due to different requirements from each client. One of my biggest responsibilities at the moment is ownership of reporting monthly performance of an online B2B learning platform for Samsung, working to automate and optimise this process.
Are you working on any exciting projects that you can share?
At the moment I am mainly working with Samsung and with Pampers – both are interesting accounts that I thoroughly enjoy working on.
What are your plans for the future?
I plan to keep doing what I’m doing and learn a lot from my colleagues at Iris. I hope that with time that I can work my way up through the team and gaining more responsibility.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to follow the same career path?
Find the right company fit for you! Sometimes when job hunting it can be very easy to focus on the role because you know ‘that’s what I want to do’, but something that can be overlooked is what the company is like to work for. What is the team like? Is it a corporate feel or more relaxed? You’ll be spending all of your time with these people so make sure it’s a team you feel you would be genuinely happy working with for the foreseeable.
What was your favourite memory from your time at Kent?
Doing my Master’s. I loved getting to know my supervisors more, meeting fellow research students and still being able to attend lectures. I met so many amazing people and had so much fun doing so! Deciding to stay on and study for an extra year was a difficult one for me but I’m so pleased that I did it!