Alexander Zarach

Alex graduated from Kent in 2016 with a  BSc in Business IT (with Year in Industry) and is now a Senior Analytics Consultant at Atos. His career took off during an internship at the company, where he automated reporting processes and introduced Power BI to clients. 

He credits Kent for giving him a strong foundation in IT consulting, particularly through his experience in Kent IT Consultancy (KITC).

Tell us about your career path since graduation.

My career path started even before graduation. In my third year, I secured an internship at Atos, a company known for its high-profile, high-impact work with clients such as the Olympics, UEFA, and NS&I. During my internship, I worked on internal projects, inheriting existing Excel and Access reporting processes. Determined to improve efficiency, I set out to fully automate these reports using industry-standard tools - many of which I had never encountered before.

They seemed pleased with my work, so much so that they invited me back as a graduate and agreed to sponsor my final year. Upon my return, I quickly resumed my previous role until my first client opportunity arose. I then took on a role managing data for a reinsurance firm, focusing on legal reporting. I thought that would be my future but an opportunity came up to move a government client off Excel onto a reporting platform, and I would be the one introducing them to the future. I became the first person in my company, at least to my knowledge, to build a Microsoft Power BI solution for a customer. It was a completely new tool for me, and I felt out of my depth, but they were thrilled! From that moment on, I took on a lead role specializing in Power BI, same company, same outcome, constantly changing tools and environment, and I love every minute of it.

What does a typical work day look like for you?

I catch up on customer emails, check over my customer DevOps boards and plan out my work for the day. I quickly find myself in daily stand ups giving updates on the previous day and sharing my plans for the day, then work through planned work. As I'm in analytics, my role will involve writing queries to get data into dataflows, building out those dataflows to get data looking how the customer wants it, then making it available in models for others to drag and drop that data into visualisations. I'll pause that work several times during the day as I join meetings getting more tasks for the next sprint, answering questions about the data, and clearing up anything getting in my way (access issues, quirks with the data, getting updates on testing, and putting work into Production).

Can you share a professional highlight from your career so far?

It's hard to pick a highlight when most of my days are head down in work, but if I take a step back and think who I've worked for, what my work has led to, I remember that a job in analytics can genuinely change people's lives. It's not just the work but the benefits of that work, so my highlight is receiving the Chief Constable's Commendation at Sussex Police for the impact of my work on the force and its citizens.

How did your time at Kent help you achieve your current career?

That phrase companies love, "transferrable skills". Kent IT Consultancy (KITC) taught me what it's like to work for a customer and problem solving, my modules on agile showed me process and best-practice, I picked up coding in Java, learning about databases and statistics, all these skills directly or indirectly feed into IT consulting and what I learned at Kent gave me a very stable foundation.

What advice would you give to our current/prospective students who are looking to get into the same line of work?

Year in industry- no excuses, just do it! There is no better way to prepare for life after university than to experience it for a year with the safety net of the final year at university. It will change your approach to your course, focus your learning and very likely guarantee you a place at that same company after uni. Mine even sponsored my final year. If you don't know what role you go for, pick one you like. Their entry requirements will tell you if your course is relevant and if they accept you it means your path is a good match for the role.

Did you get involved in any extracurricular activities as a student?

I was a tour guide during university open days, which included accompanying people to the student accommodation, and I presented at UCAS days as a UCAS day helper to give people a real feel of what the course, the university and student life was like.

Do you have a favourite memory from your time at Kent?

Security and cryptography. Not a module that's directly fed into my career but it was so fascinating, completely different to anything I'd studied before or since, and the ways of thinking and problem solving have stayed with me.

Is there anything you would do differently if you could repeat your time at Kent?

I don't think so, no. Things are changing so fast with cloud technology that at the time I don't think there was a more suitable course, no course can fully match what role you go into after university. I definitely made the right choice joining KITC instead of doing a group project, it scratched the surface of what it's like to be an IT consultant.

Are you still in touch with other Kent alumni or academics?

I've remained very good friends with a fellow alumni to the extent I'm best man at his wedding this year.

What are your future ambitions?

To keep evolving as the data landscape keeps evolving, stay relevant and embrace AI as those in my profession learn to coexist with AI.