Page 32 - Careers in Mathematics

DataAnalystTrainee learn SQL coding and how to work on databases, both of
which I enjoyed.

Since this initial project exposed me to many more facets of
I wanted to the business, including data integrity and quality, and I have
study the
gained many new skills such as data modelling, machine
most
learning and sentiment analysis. Through my broadened
challenging
exposure to the business, I have also developed new soft
Muthembi
degree I
skills.
could think
of so started A typical day starts at 8 am. Because I am on the graduate
Sphiwe
out doing
programme, I meet with the other graduates, and we compare
Actuarial Science – but soon notes on how our work and projects are going. There is
gravitated towards Finance and
muchcollaboration which helps us to learn from one another.
Coding so switched my UCT studies
to a BCom with Economics and
Adjusting to the world of work means learning to balance
Finance. priorities – I spend four days of the week doing real work with
deliverables, with one day a week spent working on projects
Today, I am part of Sanlam’s Data with the other graduates. Both are challenging, interesting
Analytics Graduate Programme,
and fun.
where I learn and grow my skills
daily. The program involves a series
To keep pace with the learning curve, I watch a lot of tutorials
of rotations as well as a
and YouTube clips, as well as doing a bit of forex trading in my
combination of real and project spare time. Keeping fit and active is key to my success and,
work. My first rotation was a lab
being quite tall I am an adept basketball player. I am always
project for one of Sanlam’s sub- eager to challenge myself, using initiative to take on tasks in
clusters. I was responsible for
my team, writing board exams (I have enrolled in writing an
producing dashboards which
Actuarial board exam), to trying new and efficient ways of
connect the models my team were
optimising the things I already know how to do such as
building with meaningful
developing my very own trading algorithm.
information and data fed to the
client. Working on this project
introduced me to the opportunity to

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