To give you more insight into what our Career Accelerators are really like, we’ve invited learners to share their experiences in live Q&A sessions. 

Most recently, we were joined by Eleonora Bacchi and Adrienn Szollosi, two past learners from the LSE Data Analytics Career Accelerator. They spoke to Daniel Cairns, Head of Enrolments at FourthRev, about how they found the programme, how it’s benefitted them and what their future career plans look like. 

Some of the questions they answered included:

• How much of a technical background is needed to do well in the programme
• Time management and balancing commitments
• Whether the programme is suitable for people at different stages of their career
• What it was like working with a Career Coach 
• The structure of the Employer Project and how it enabled them to apply their new data analysis skills to a real-world problem 
• What their career outcomes have been

Watch the full event recording here

Snippets from the Q&A webinar

Do you need prior experience with programming and the languages covered in the course? 

Adrienn: No, I didn’t have any background in Python, R or SQL. It is really about your commitment. You don’t need any knowledge going in because the course material is really well explained. There are written and video explanations to cater for different learning styles. Without any background, you can get through.
Eleonora: Yeah, I had zero previous experience. Adrienn is so much more experienced in Excel than me – I didn’t even know how to do a pivot table. You go really deep into the languages, which I personally loved. I remember the day I started programming in Python because it was my birthday. I knew nothing in the beginning, and now I do everything in Python, like easily. So from zero to the top.

Can you provide some insight into how the Employer Project works and what projects you had to choose from?

Eleonora: First you’re assigned to a team, and you discuss your roles and what you personally want to get out of the project. Like, for example, this was a very important project for me because I wanted to put it on my portfolio as a highlight. Next, you choose which employer you will work with and get more information about your project. I did a very hands-on project with Zoomo, an automotive B2B and B2C company that provides long-term rentals to delivery drivers. They gave us data to help them build a feature in their app. 

Daniel: Another project through Thoughtworks was related to the City of London Transport for London and their goal of reducing 80% of traffic within the London CBD through the use of foot, bicycle or public transport by 2041. The measurement of the progression towards that was proving challenging, so students worked with the data sets to improve that tracking. It is a really meaningful, impactful opportunity that they had.

Adrienn: I kicked my project off yesterday. I’m working with Agent3, but because we only got the information and data so recently, it’s still very new to me. We’ll be looking at mortgages in the US, which is interesting. 

How do you feel your work with a Career Coach will help you move forward in your career?

Eleonora: The coaches are equipped to help everyone. Adrien is a “career advancer”, and I am a “career changer”, meaning I made a complete switch. I’ve found the career coaching tips have been helpful. What I appreciated is you get advice that is useful to everyone, like how to set up your LinkedIn profile, how to reach out to people, worksheets, readings, and tips on how to present yourself – all sorts. But you also have the one-to-one time where you can work on what is specific to you. When you connect with the right person, this makes a real difference. 

If you’re interested in finding out more about the LSE Data Analytics Career Accelerator, please reach out to our friendly Enrolment Advisors. They’ll be able to answer any questions that you might have. You can also ask them to keep you updated about when our next learner Q&A webinar will be taking place.