Associate
After graduating from university with no idea what to do for a career whilst working a low paid mickey mouse job in a depressing industrial estate I went to a data careers open day. What I found most interesting was data analysis in transport, in particular a company there called Steer Davis Gleave. They spanned all forms of transport and had offices on the South Bank. I applied to them but got rejected at application stage.
2 years later I'd still got nowhere, just the odd interview. I contacted the organiser of that careers day for advice. He said my focus on the transport industry was too narrow and I should apply for data analyst posts in any industry and then move to my preferred industry once I'd gained experience in data. That's what I did and landed a job in an advertising agency.
Straight away I could see that advertising was a load of nonsense, but least I'd got the opportunity to crunch numbers and use things like SQL. I was promoted 3 times in the following 4 years but have gone stale ever since. In reality my promotions have just been the same job for more money and moving companies has been the same job for more money. I'm currently at an AdTech company which is the worst of both worlds, it's boring as hell but with all the nonsense that comes with the advertising industry. It's apparent I've hit this glass ceiling because I'm great at the data part, but I'm not an "advertising type". The obvious answer is to an industry I have more of an interest in i.e. transport.
I've looked at Steer (formerly Steer Davies Gleave) but they require experience in the transport industry. TFL don't pay enough and Network Rail data jobs are in Milton Keynes. I had an interview at Toyota a couple of years ago but didn't get the job. Nissan don't pay enough and I can't find any other car manufacturers with London offices.
I'm struggling to find many transport data jobs in Central London, most seem to be in some middle of nowhere places. I always worked in middle of nowhere locations prior to that advertising agency job and can't go back to that after experiencing Central London.
Am I just not looking in the right places for these transport jobs or do I just have to accept that if I want to continue to work in Central London then I'm unlikely to get a job in the transport industry?
2 years later I'd still got nowhere, just the odd interview. I contacted the organiser of that careers day for advice. He said my focus on the transport industry was too narrow and I should apply for data analyst posts in any industry and then move to my preferred industry once I'd gained experience in data. That's what I did and landed a job in an advertising agency.
Straight away I could see that advertising was a load of nonsense, but least I'd got the opportunity to crunch numbers and use things like SQL. I was promoted 3 times in the following 4 years but have gone stale ever since. In reality my promotions have just been the same job for more money and moving companies has been the same job for more money. I'm currently at an AdTech company which is the worst of both worlds, it's boring as hell but with all the nonsense that comes with the advertising industry. It's apparent I've hit this glass ceiling because I'm great at the data part, but I'm not an "advertising type". The obvious answer is to an industry I have more of an interest in i.e. transport.
I've looked at Steer (formerly Steer Davies Gleave) but they require experience in the transport industry. TFL don't pay enough and Network Rail data jobs are in Milton Keynes. I had an interview at Toyota a couple of years ago but didn't get the job. Nissan don't pay enough and I can't find any other car manufacturers with London offices.
I'm struggling to find many transport data jobs in Central London, most seem to be in some middle of nowhere places. I always worked in middle of nowhere locations prior to that advertising agency job and can't go back to that after experiencing Central London.
Am I just not looking in the right places for these transport jobs or do I just have to accept that if I want to continue to work in Central London then I'm unlikely to get a job in the transport industry?
