Matt Hopping

Current Employer/Organisation Name

Mazars

Tell us about your background

I’m from South West London and have lived there pretty much my entire life. I did Chemistry, Maths and Economics at A levels, before doing Economics at Exeter. It was during my undergrad that I realised how much I enjoyed the data science/stats/coding aspect of the work, which is what led me to doing my masters in Data Science.

Tell us about your programme and the lecturers you had

I studied for my masters during COVID, so all my lectures were online. The course was an extensive coverage of data science and stats, with lots of both theoretical and practical learnings. All the lecturers I had were fantastic. They were always very willing to help, super approachable and really friendly. It was so nice to be able to feel like I had a proper relationship with them despite the fact we weren’t able to meet in person. Gavin ended up being my supervisor for my dissertation along with Matthew Thomas, and they were the best supervisors I could have asked for. They’d help whenever and always provide brilliant guidance allowing me to do as best as possible. It was so good studying for them, I ended up working with/for them afterwards!

Tell us about living in Exeter

I loved living in Exeter. I’m a keen surfer so it was the perfect place to be able to go to North Devon and spent a lot of my spare time driving to Saunton and Croyde to surf with friends. I also loved exploring Dartmoor in the summer, there were so many cool places to go swimming and walking. I feel like after 4 years there I still only discovered a fraction of what it had to offer. Being really near Exmouth beach was so nice as well, it’s only a 20 minute train ride so any nice day you can go get in the sea.

What was one of your favourite things about studying at the University of Exeter?

Definitely the location as I said above. The campus was also really nice and made it really easy to meet people. By the time I left I felt like I recognised most of the Uni!

What have you been doing since you graduated?

I worked for Gavin and Matt carrying on some of the work I did in my dissertation, before I got a job at Mazars as a Data Analyst. It’s been really nice to use the things I learnt during my masters in my career, and I’ve felt unbelievably well prepared going into my professional life.

Did you get involved in any extra-curricular activities, such as sports teams and societies?

I enjoyed being part of both Surf club and Snow sports. I went on multiple surf and ski trips, going surfing in Newquay and skiing in France and Andorra.