Career Heroes - Thomas Kendell

Tell us more about you

I’m currently in my final year of study, working towards a bachelors degree in Business Analytics at the University of Ulster. I enjoy a balance between work and life, but I also enjoy personal development.

Travelling and the outdoors is a very important aspect of my life. I’ve taken advantage of opportunities in school, university, and my professional career to travel when I can. Sports are also a big part of my life, from football to rugby, going to the gym or skiing, and mixed martial arts.

What kind of work do you do?

I completed my placement year at FinTrU where I learned skills using Excel and other financial software. The skills I’ve learned have aided many aspects of my final year of study. Working with a strong and motivated team in FinTrU helped solidify my soft skills, and I got to learn and develop on a daily basis.

Some of the tasks I completed included sending daily “data scrubs” and reports on document progression to the legal team within FinTrU and to my allocated client, making visual dashboards, and communicating with clients on the progress of their negotiations.

I really enjoyed the vibrant and team-oriented environment in FinTrU. We had regular daily calls discussing our tasks and responsibilities for the day or the week, as well as team calls on Fridays to look back on the week’s achievements. There were also company events and initiatives I could participate in.

During my placement, I had opportunities to speak with senior managers in some of the top tier one investment banks. That was great exposure and boosted my confidence in communicating my findings from data reports.

Individual progression was a driving force within my team, and any team within FinTrU for that matter. I was given opportunities to work on my own tasks and given time to produce personal endeavours and tasks I could feed back to the client and wider team.

How did you become a Junior Analyst?

Whilst studying at Belfast Royal Academy, I always took an interest in the business and information technology elements of my studies. I chose Business Studies, Information Technology, and Politics as my A Levels and went on to apply for a degree in Business Analytics, where I could turn my interests into a career.

Whilst at university, I ensure I keep up to date with current affairs and pay attention to how changes in regulations and technology advancements in both the business and tech sectors might affect society and everyday life.

I’ve taken part in essay writing competitions, submitting essays on topics such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Advanced Data Analytics. This helped to solidify what I was learning during my degree, and helped inform my choice to apply for a placement year with a company that matched my skill set, but also my values and career progression aspirations.

FinTrU stood out as they are a young company but eager to grow. They’re community and teamwork focused, and I figured this was the perfect environment for me to start my professional career journey.

I was selected to work as part of the Data Metrics team, providing real-time data reports for clients and negotiators within the FinTrU legal team. I helped present findings in a professional, visual, and seamless way to support communication.

If you could do-over, What would you do differently?

I’m a great believer in things happening for a reason. For much of my life, I’ve always believed mistakes are the first point of development; without them, we can never learn.

If I was to go back, I’d pay more attention to what’s going on around me, question what others aren’t doing, and ensure a positive relationship between work and life balance.