Key Skills: for the Workplace

3 graduates working across financial services, technological consulting and law share the skills that they use most in their workplace.

Rachel Miller joined Accenture as part of their Analytics Graduate Scheme after having studied Physiology for her undergraduate degree and then obtaining an MSc in Bioinformatics. When asked what she thought the most valuable aspect of her time at Edinburgh was in preparation for her career Rachel said:

“While the content of the lectures and classes were important, I think the most valuable aspects are the transferable skills (I know everyone says this!) As, unless you

end up doing a PhD in the subject, it is often the case that you won’t need the exact information (except when telling people fun facts about things!) Skills like presenting work, learning to network and meet new people, and writing detailed reports will come in handy no matter what work you end up doing.”

Since graduating with an MSC in Operational Research with Finance in 2012, Christos Delivorias has been working in the financial services sector:

“My entry to the sector was via the industry placement program the department [Mathematics] was offering as an option for an MSc project. I interviewed with Scottish Widows Investment Partnership for the project on offer and upon completion of my degree I interviewed, and got offered a job, in the same company.” Christos’s work has been in different Quantitative Research or Developer teams across the areas of Structured Products, Fixed Income and, most recently, Active Equities. When asked what advice he would give to current students seeking a future working in financial services Christos recommended to “focus on your grades as much as you can as that would show consistency and a solid theoretical background”. However, it’s not only academic skills that are important to demonstrate as no matter your job, the skill of being able to successfully navigate a working environment is vital. In Christos’s view “the ability to walk into a meeting room and realise the social group dynamics, the antagonisms, the alliances, and the interests of the sub-groups, and bringing them all together on a non-zero-sum conclusion with a valuable result, is a superpower.”

Alejandro Fernández Jullian graduated in 2011 from LLM Human Rights and is currently the General Secretary of the Catholic University of Temuco where he leads the legal department and acts as the University’s certifying officer. His advice to students interested in pursuing a career in Law is: “It is important to know your subject, the law, but it is way more important and essential to know how to work with people at every level. In the world of work, being able to do teamwork, interdisciplinary work and producing results and decisions with people from different fields is not only the way to do things properly, but also the most rewarding things I have encountered during my career”.