Growing with Koodoo: My Journey as a Data Scientist
My name is Nerea, and I am a Data Scientist at Koodoo. Here I’ll talk about how I found myself in Data Science, and my experience of being part of a fast-growing start-up.
It all started in Madrid, after finishing my undergraduate degree in Industrial Electronics and Automation Engineering, my first job was actually working as a Business Analyst. To be honest, I didn’t really have a career path in mind, and that was the first job offer I received. I didn’t really know much about it but I knew that I enjoyed maths and tackling problems by using analytical thinking, so I decided to give it a go. Fast forward a few months into the role, and I realised that I loved working with data: exploring it, designing tests to validate its veracity and looking for answers, trends and patterns. I also figured out that I prefer work of a more technical nature.
Serendipitously, around this time I discovered that there was a “Data Science” career path which combined Maths and Computer Science, and I realised that was exactly what I wanted to do. To pursue my goal, I enrolled into an MSc in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Nottingham.
Finding Koodoo
Toward the end of the program in 2019, I attended an inspiring talk that was being given by the former CTO of Koodoo, a Fintech start-up looking to transform the mortgage industry. I added him on LinkedIn and soon after this, he invited me to their office in Nottingham where I met the team. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and was excited at the prospect of working for such a driven, young tech company. The selection process was amazing, especially the last stage, which consisted of a two-day hackathon. Not only did I learn a lot, I also got to meet interesting people and had a lot of fun.
When I first joined the team, everyone was very welcoming and friendly. Being the first Data Scientist in the company was very challenging, but I had a lot of support from everybody. I was very excited to be part of a team with such skilled people that I could learn a lot from and were always willing to help. An exciting aspect of working at such a young company is that you feel your work matters and you’re able to see its impact in the company’s progress.
Hackathons and more
A very cool part of the Koodoo culture are the hackathons, in which we all work together on a challenge using tools and frameworks that aren’t part of the company’s day-to-day tech stack. In one very memorable challenge, we built a model to predict the probability of our mascot, Kenny the koodoo, surviving poacher attacks.
Aside from the hackathons, I really like that we are encouraged to learn new things in our daily work and look for new technologies that best suit the projects we are working on. At Koodoo we work hard but it’s not all just about that, we have fun too! We’ve done a lot of things together such as go-karting, spinning, yoga, bungee fit and recently an offsite in the countryside! Even during the lockdown we found exciting virtual activities, such as murder mystery, whiskey tasting or painting a ceramic Kenny.
What’s next?
I have been at the company for two years now and recently got promoted to Senior Data Scientist. To say the time has flown by would be an understatement. I’ve grown a lot, both personally and professionally and worked on very interesting and engaging projects, some of which I have gotten to see be applied in the real world, while others are still in development or at very early stages. I’m looking forward to growing and leading the Data Science team at Koodoo and can’t wait to see what lies ahead of this fast growing company of amazing Koodoods!
