Greg Cooke
Current Employer/Organisation Name
Hiscox
What have you been doing since leaving Exeter, and what are you doing now?
I wrapped up my final year just in time for the infamous summer of 2020, when I was all set to spend a year teaching English in China. Unsurprisingly, global events had other plans. Instead, I did a couple of short stints as an online TEFL tutor and even as a groundsman, which taught me that career paths do not always follow a straight line.
I then secured a role as a Data Scientist at a startup, which set me on a more defined trajectory and eventually led to me rejoining the Bank of England as a Graduate Data Scientist in 2021. I spent three and a half very happy years there and completed an MSc in AI and Data Science along the way.
After that, I joined IBM, where I worked on Generative AI solutions for large government clients, before moving into my current role at Hiscox London Markets as a Principal Data Scientist which I am loving.
Why did you choose this career? And what do you enjoy most about your work?
Data Science and AI is an industry that never sits still. It feels completely different from the career I first stepped into back in 2018 during my placement year at the Bank of England. I knew from the start that choosing this field meant constant learning and skill development, which is exactly what I enjoy. It is almost impossible to get bored or feel stuck in this line of work.
It is also a very collaborative environment. At Hiscox, we actively encourage knowledge-sharing and working together to tackle challenges, which makes the work not only rewarding but genuinely fun.
Please tell us if you were a member of any societies, groups or sports clubs?
Club Captain of Rugby League
What did you enjoy most about your programme and what was the biggest highlight?
It was a very sociable course, I always saw fellow students looking out for and helping each other out both in and outside of the classroom.
What did you most enjoy about studying here?
It’s cliché but the people. My memories of Exeter are full of hard working, competitive, friendly folk who all positively contributed to the ethos and culture of the University.
That, and the Black Horse.
Why did you choose to study at Exeter?
I wanted to go somewhere that was competitive in everything it did and drew in people of that elk. A couple of chats with Alumni as an 18 year old was all I needed to convince me coming to Exeter was the right call.
What skills and experiences have been most useful for your career?
The most valuable thing I took from my degree was not any single topic, but the skill of independent learning. In my career I am constantly faced with new and complex ideas that I need to break down and understand, often quickly. Exeter gave me the framework and confidence to approach unfamiliar problems, ask the right questions and teach myself effectively. That mindset has been far more important than any individual module.
What advice would you give to a current student who wishes to pursue your career?
As with any career, you need to demonstrate a genuine passion and curiosity for the topic and you need to be able to show that in an interview.
For Data Science you need to show a comfort with the fundamentals like statistics, programming and critical thinking. If you can get some projects under your belt either via University modules or Kaggle that’d be great too. Practical work is always a great topic of conversation in an interview.
What are your plans for the future?
I plan to continue growing at Hiscox, mentoring others, managing teams and learning as much as I can along the way. I am also open to working abroad at some point but I guess we’ll just wait and see.
