Course: Msc Business Analytics – 2021/22 Placement Year
Placement: Data Analyst – ISG

Hi everyone! I am a student at Aston University and I am pursuing my Master’s in business analytics at Aston Business School. I would love to share my placement experience with you.

When I first started my course, I was excited about the AGA (Aston Global Advantage) stream because I found out that we could work full-time as a part of AGA, so I started looking for internships or jobs from May and I’ve been rejected numerous times. I’ve attended so many interviews but nothing worked out, I still did not give up on myself because I knew that something would be out there for me. I was very active on LinkedIn, I used to continuously post about individual projects I was working on. I used to consistently update the certifications that I have completed on LinkedIn and Udemy.

One fine day, a HR rep from a construction company named ISG contacted me on LinkedIn, explaining that there is an opportunity for a three-month internship as a data analyst for their company. The job description aligned with my career goals and what I wanted to do for the future. I was passionate about visualization and finding insights on huge data sets, providing my recommendations about how we could use the data more appropriately.

The interview went well.  I had two interviews one with my manager and one with the senior team member. They essentially asked about my career goals, if I was interested in the internship and they asked me situational judgment questions like: what I would do in the event of a particular situation, if I’ve ever worked in a team, how would I solve problems and explain an example of how I’ve come up with new ideas. I was well prepared for all this because of the interviews that I have attended before and finally, I got the golden call that I was selected for the three-month full-time paid internship.

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I was working mostly on a tool named POWER BI. Since it is a dynamic construction company, they were new to using these visualization tools.  I had two projects lined up for me, which were modelling and manipulating the data using underline data sets in Excel. I had to build relationships between the data sources in Power BI. I learned a lot during this period as I got to work on this dynamic tool, which I know most companies use these days and is very much in demand. I created visually appealing dashboards based on the performance of every team in the company. I had to use the analytical skills which I gained during my master’s degree, which helped me to develop new insights, analyse trends, forecast the future, etc.

I had something new to work on every single day for every team in the company and I was so happy with what I was doing. I also used to do a lot of research on visualization, how we could improve the underlying dashboards and how it would be better to present to all the managers and clients in the company. They were really impressed with my work, and they offered me an extension of another three months to do work in the company, whilst completing my Master’s business project.

The advice that I would like to give to current students, who are searching for jobs, is to never give up, always up-skill yourself and have a particular goal on what you exactly want to do, in order to get better at it every day. Be active! Expand your networks on social media and be ready to take on any challenge. I was scared at first when I came here, because I’m an international student from India and I was worried if I would actually be selected for an internship, but due to my persistence, I managed to grab an opportunity and you can too!