Ecaterina Gamanji

"Studying at the University of Essex helped me to develop a strong and solid skill set that is desirable by many employers"

From the start, I was immensely impressed at how diverse and multi-national the University of Essex is. It proved to be accommodating and nurturing for different cultures, languages and backgrounds. This was definitely one of the highlights of studying at Essex.

The computer science degree provided a diverse and insightful combination of lectures including programming, project management, networking and even engineering. This provided to be a solid basis for the entire degree and my future career as an infrastructure engineer. All the programming related courses were extremely enjoyable for me, as this co-related with my career vision. The University of Essex has a great professorial collective from which I have learned fundamentals and some of the best working practises.

I had numerous opportunities to work and volunteer whilst being a student at Essex. I was a Course Rep, Student Ambassador, Resident Advisor, to name just a few of the extracurricular activities that I undertook. All of these shaped my skill set and proved to be valuable in today’s work culture. I also undertook a frontrunner position at the UK Data Archive, which led me to land my placement year at Microsoft. As the role at the UK Data Archive was so successful, the team also employed me for a second time to help with a test suite build.

Since graduating from Essex I have worked as an Infrastructure Automation Engineer at Paddy Power Betfair, and I am now a Cloud Platform Engineer at American Express. Studying at the University of Essex helped me to develop a strong and solid skill set that is desirable by many employers. Also, the computer science related knowledge helped me to target some of the most challenging technical roles in the job market.

Graduation is without question, one of my most valuable memories. I turned 24 that day and officially completed my bachelor of science degree – a dream come true!