Sydney Vertigan
Graduated with BSc Mathematics in 2018 and MSc Mathematic of Cybersecurity in 2019
Current role: Developer in Quant Development Team
Career path after graduating: Applied for grad schemes throughout the first half of my masters, so I started this job just before my masters project hand in.
How did your degree prepare you for this job: The masters prepared me more than my undergrad. Coding skills and principles learnt helped with the technical interviews. Also, having become more confident at uni after meeting so many new people, helped with the interviews.
What did you enjoy most about studying: The freedom of module choice! A lot of my friends at other unis didn’t get this choice. It meant I could tailor my modules to my interests. By being able to take modules from computer science / engineering it made me realise I wanted to work in tech and also, do the cybersecurity masters.
Tips for prospective students: Bristol is a great place to study Maths if you want to try lots of different areas/branches of Maths. You don’t only focus on pure mathematics or only on statistics for example, there a lot of mechanics or physics-related options and also options for computer based modules. Also, the city is a great size! Big enough that there is so music to do (music, food, festivals, parties), but also small enough that you can walk to most places. I came from a village and it was a good first city to live in.
Why did you decide to apply for a course at Bristol: Two main factors - the people I met on the open day were super friendly and I loved the city when I visited. When I came we stayed for the night, so I got to explore the city and I loved it. I still love it now! And would definitely move back in later life.
What would you like to do next: I enjoyed the data science I did in my masters. Would like a role that allows me to do more machine learning.