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Senior statistician: Daniela

This Case Study belongs to Statistician.

As my degree was in statistical sciences and not simply in statistics, it covered a lot of areas where statistics can be applied, including sociology, demography, economics, and finance. It gave me a good overview of statistical applications which was very useful for identifying the areas I was most interested in. Experience in analysing data using specific statistical software such as SPSS was also invaluable.

Whilst at school, I did well in all scientific subjects and have always been interested in numbers, especially where I could see a practical application. I was drawn to statistics because of its versatility and the wide areas of application that make it a very tangible discipline. 

I joined The National Audit Office (NAO) in 2004 after spending nearly two years working in the Maths Test Development Team at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). I saw the job advertised in a national newspaper and applied for it, submitting my CV and a covering letter. Shortly afterwards, I was invited for an interview and a numerical reasoning assessment and was then appointed as an executive officer.

Within a year I was promoted to higher executive officer and continued to grow into my role looking for more challenging and independent work such as managing a junior statistician on the team. I deputised for my manager during her period of maternity leave and that, combined with the Masters Degree in Applied Statistics that I had almost completed, led to my promotion to senior analyst in 2007.

I am part of a central team within my organisation which provides support to individual study teams across the whole office. In my role, I advise on quantitative methods, assess survey design and sample sizes, perform data analysis, write reports and give statistical training to non-technical staff and to international visitors. In the future, I would like to get more involved in the wider strategic issues that my office faces, taking ownership for specific projects with a view to managing a small team of statisticians.

I enjoy the variety of the work. The NAO investigates all areas of central government activity; so I could be working on a project looking at road accidents one month, schools the next and hospitals the one after. Attention to detail is essential. Common sense,and the ability to explain technical issues to a non-technical audience who don’t have a clue about regression is also important! I know it sounds very clichéd, but I can’t think of any less favourable sides to the job.

Case Study sourced by Judith Baines of AGCAS, 16 September 2008.