Abir Ahmed

Meet ambitious Abir Ahmed who made the most of  the support at Herts and is now on a Graduate Programme at Vodafone

Abir is part of the Technology Discover Graduate Programme at Vodafone which helps explore different roles within Tech over a two year period. He says, ‘My current role is in data analytics with a team which works closely with crowd sourcing data. Day to day I mainly use Python, Google Cloud Platform as well as visualisation packages.'

Why I chose to study at Herts

'I grew up in an estate close to central London and it was challenging to stay motivated, and hard to meet successful individuals who were willing to mentor or support you through your career. I also come from a BAME background so at times I lacked confidence and felt demotivated, especially when reading some of the performance statistics of those who come from similar backgrounds.

I could see Herts was successful in helping students from all backgrounds attain success post studies. From high employment rates to helping students with starting their own business. It was a place full of opportunities where I could get support in any dreams or aspirations I had.'

'Amazing' course

When talking about his course Abir is full of praise, ‘The Mechanical Engineering BEng was amazing and pushed me to explore different paths. I had the opportunity to use different techniques to analyse cases when solving engineering problems. The lectures were always happy to make time for us all and give us key tips and tricks. A shout out to my fluid mechanics and thermodynamics lecturer who was able to give me advice based on her experiences in industry prior to becoming a lecturer!’

However, Abir is particularly proud of getting through his degree during the pandemic. 'The pandemic was only just starting in my third and final year, I got very anxious. The University was very supportive and at times when I thought I wouldn’t be able to push through, I was able to benefit from extensions and support online from our lecturers and tutors. It was a proud moment for me getting my job offer as well as completing my dissertation!’

Career support

Abir realised during his studies that it was important to take advantage of all the resources made available to him at Herts. He particularly made sure he used the Careers Team.

‘I spoke to the careers advisers who were an amazing help in supporting me during my job application process. I was given key guidance on how to perform during assessment centres which came in handy, and I was also able to get CV help too.

I made use of the careers website which was regularly updated with job opportunities.

The organised careers fairs were great in being able to branch out and make contacts with working professionals.’

Herts memories

Abir looks back at his time at Herts with great fondness and says, ‘I really enjoyed making use of the communal prayer space on the College Lane Campus. It was a place I could reflect and pray as well as meet fantastic friends.

Charity events were always fun to attend, bake sales, football tournaments and more. I really liked the maths support in the LRC which helped me with those difficult equations and exam and coursework prep too.’

What the future holds

Abir has his sights firmly set on the future in both the short and long term, ‘My short-term ambitions are to complete my grad programme and find a permanent role which challenges me but also gives me time to learn and develop new skills.’

My long-term ambitions and aspirations are to dive further into the world of tech. I mainly enjoy data analytics and visualisation, but have interests in data engineering and data science as well as UX and UI. I’ve also been working on my own projects some of which include developing an AI bot for my local machine!’