Honours pinpoints career path in risk management

Jason Pushon's interest in statistics lead to his job in credit risk modelling for Westpac. Photo / Ted Baghurst

Anyone who needs or wants to look critically at numerical information and not be misled should learn more about statistics, says Professor Chris Triggs, Head of the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland.

Statistics help solve a huge range of problems that vary from how to make a business more profitable through to improving living standards and fighting cancer.

"Investigative questioning, designing ways to collect data to answer those questions, collecting data, and making sense of what that data says to produce reliable answers, this is the subject matter of statistics," contends Professor Triggs.

Statistics can be studied through arts and science degrees at the University of Auckland. It can also be studied as a minor subject within a number of other degrees. Nearly two out of every three students at University of Auckland put at least one statistics course in their undergraduate degree.

THE GRADUATE
* Jason Pushon
* 23-years-old
* Analytics Graduate within Risk Management at Westpac
* Pay: $41,600 - $52,000 (or $20 to $25 per hour)

Completed Bachelor of Science Honours (Statistics) and Bachelor of Commerce (Economics) end of 2009.

Currently I am working in credit risk modelling, which involves the creation of risk models to determine how much capital Westpac needs to set aside for a particular portfolio in case of a large loss. After we create the models they are sent to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand for a final check.

At university I did a conjoint degree over four years and then did a further honours year in statistics. I decided to do a conjoint because it was the way to study both statistics and economics to a high level. Statistics particularly interests me because I like the idea you can answer questions through statistics with data that you can model and extract meaning or insight from.

In my final year of undergraduate study I discovered I liked the modelling and data analysis of statistics, especially in financial areas, and wanted to find employment in those areas. I tried to be proactive early in my final undergraduate year and emailed a number of statistics consulting firms, but got no responses, not even for part time or work experience. This was discouraging so I moved into an honours year to improve my employment chances. And it did. In 2009 I was accepted into Westpac's graduate programme which is a great opportunity because I get the chance to explore other areas of the business I would not normally experience. While undergraduate laid the foundations, I definitely feel post graduate study prepared me well for my role at Westpac. My favourite paper was quantitative risk management which opened my eyes to risk management, especially from a stats point of view. My honours dissertation a also helped form good habits which are paying dividends today because projects I am currently working on closely resemble the type of work I did in writing my dissertation.

Although it was hard work, I really enjoyed my post grad year. The statistics department lecturers seemed to be proactive in finding out what employers were looking for and working that into their courses.

Skills I learned that are directly transferable into my job include learning to code in SAS, Excel, and R. Even report writing, which is drilled into all stats students through repeated technical notes and executive summaries, pays off in the end.

My honours year helped give me a point of difference from other statistic graduates. I felt more confident about what I had to offer because my learning had gone to a more advanced level and some of the honours papers had a practical application.

MANAGER
* Grant Allerby
* Head of Risk Analytics
* Westpac

We look for students with an aptitude for problem solving and innovation. The students that do well in our area have sound reasoning and positive thinking towards problem resolution.

Increasingly banks are using information and analytical techniques to provide customers with the right solutions to their financial needs. Jason brings to the team the skills to manage this information and help ensure we apply common sense with theory.

He also brings new ideas and the ability to challenge the norm. In banking he is also our customer of the future so he can help shape the way we use information to provide service to our customers now and in the future.

Risk is an intrinsic part of doing business in banking and financial services. The banking industry continues to be highly competitive and the global environment has changed. Ensuring we continue to learn from this will provide us the ability to deliver value to our customers.

It is imperative we attract high quality graduates that can manage and utilise data to provide quality outcomes. However, we have had a shortage of graduates in the analytical area choosing banking as a career.

TRAINING PLACE

* Qualification: Bachelor of Science (Honours) Statistics

* Provider: University of Auckland Department of Statistics

* Contact: 0800 616 263 or Statistics Department, (09) 923 6893, txt 5533, studentinfo@auckland.ac.nz, www.stat.auckland.ac.nz

* Entry Requirements: NCEA University Entrance plus 150 points for best 80 credits over 5 subjects, or equivalent.

* 2010 Tertiary fees: $5300 - $5500 pa, depending on paper choices

* Application closure dates: 4th July for July 2010 and 8th December for March 2011

angela@careerideas.co.nz