It all started on the Open Day…

'When I came for the open day, I fell in love with the city, and really enjoyed the talks I went to and the campus feel. I always knew I wanted to go to a campus uni, and it became my first choice there and then! In fact, the moment I knew was on the Park and Ride (P&R) bus back to the car, and we started talking to a student rep on the way to her shift at the P&R. You could tell how much she loved Bath as she spoke about her experiences, and it was fantastic to hear.'

'At the time of applying, Bath was also one of the highest ranking universities outside of Oxbridge for the course and the university was close enough to my home in South Wales that I could pop home if I wanted, but far enough away that I didn’t feel that pressure to go home.'

Studying Social Sciences: exposure without overloading

'I really appreciated the freedom to choose the topics that most interested me. I was a little nervous at first, as my school did the very generic subjects - I’d never been exposed to things like politics, psychology or sociology in an academic setting. However, the degree gave me some exposure to these without overloading me and let me define my own path. Some of these lectures were so engaging and interesting too - John Troyer's lectures were definitely my favourite.'

Where I found my feet

'I didn’t do a placement year as part of my degree, but I did internships during the summer months between my studies. My first internship was through the Santander scheme at University with a local company called EZ Education . They are the creators of educational apps to help school kids (from 3-15) with English and Maths. When I started, there were maybe 10 of us in one small room near the bus station, and a year later this had doubled in size with the offices spread over an entire floor!'

'Initially, I was taken on to monitor customer usage, then I was given responsibility for customer experience. One day, out of necessity, I was handed a phone and took control of the customer mail box. Talking to customers enabled me to identify areas for improvement which I fed back to the tech team - this is really where I found my feet and niche.'

'Within 2 months I had completely changed how we approached customer experience and streamlined the process - dealing with twice as many emails in half the time, increasing efficiency. By the time I left, I was interacting with business clients and had successfully trained 3 new staff members in the team.'

'My next internship, before I graduated, was a part time job at a media company. I was part of the Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) team - advising clients how to improve their websites. I already had an idea that I wanted to work in the digital industry (as it’s growing, and not going anywhere), but also to help people. These jobs allowed me to understand the range of roles out there, and the influence I could have. I had no clue what CRO was until my job at SearchStar , and now I’m very ingrained in the industry!'

'Currently, I work for Contentsquare which is an online platform where our clients can analyse their visitor’s behaviour from a user experience perspective. I deliver actionable insights through analysis and train our clients to do the same, comparing the differences between different visitor types - with the aim of optimising their site for users in order to persuade them to buy.'

The benefit of qualitative analysis in user experience (UX) roles

'Traditionally, data analysts have used quantitative data (such as number of visitors to the site, how many people are leaving on a certain page etc.) to tell web developers where a problem might be, or content writers that some content might not be performing well (but we don’t know why), or marketers that their latest ads didn’t do as well. Some companies then started doing things like user testing or user research, where they watch screen recordings or give visitors tasks to try to understand why they’re doing something.'

'This idea of valuable qualitative data is still fairly new, and it’s still a bit of a struggle to understand the ’type’ of person best suited for that job. For instance, when looking at job ads for a UX designer, I’ve seen some requiring psychology degrees, some requiring graphic design diplomas and some asking for software development experience.'

'It’s still a growing field, so being able to display knowledge of analysing both qualitative and quantitative data (knowledge we gain on the degree) is a huge bonus that not everyone has. Furthermore, it’s good to know how to research to be able to report on industry trends and analyse what competitors are doing. The industry I work in is still new - for a lot of clients I talk to, our software is the first time they’ve seen the data.'

My degree was invaluable

'It taught me to question why. I ask my clients that a lot - “Ok, we can see this is happening, but why might that be?”. It’s the difference between an observation and an insight, which can then be tested. That mindset of questioning things, trying to understand why that might be, looking at difference sources (and taking them in) is crucial. The social research aspect of the degree was also invaluable.'

Furthering a career in digital

'I’d love to move in-house to conduct this sort of analysis/testing myself, rather than teaching others. I want to get more experience across the whole ’testing journey’ - from looking at the data, to doing user testing, to coming up with test ideas, then implementing and analysing them.

I still enjoy learning - there’s an industry recognised platform called CXL where I do courses to learn about specific aspects. I am also learning to code online, which I highly advise to everyone! It’s easy to get into and can also be a big bonus when applying for jobs! I’m not intending to use it necessarily, but I know it’ll be useful to be able to understand it.'