The mission of Academy Trainees is to process the Panama Papers data so that qualified investigators can easily assess who is who. This is no obvious task: the data is just a set of csv files with thousands of records…
As we progress through the Academy and begin to process the data, we realize some companies are related, some individuals hide under different identities, or some third parties are more influential than others.
We need to clean up the data whilst discovering the key features and code implementations of the Quantexa software.
As new grads, we all come with our strengths and weaknesses such as ETL processes, understanding of fraud, software architecture, Spark and Scala, or soft skills. The graduate program is an opportunity to level up these skills and get the data to provide the answers.
Academy Trainees are part of the Quantexa Graduate Program - this is an entry-level position; our responsibility is to learn and get comfortable with the platform so that we can effectively bring value to real projects.
To learn more about the Quantexa Academy and courses on offer, read our Introduction to the Quantexa Academy article.
Meet Adrien…
Like many in the Graduate Program, I joined Quantexa straight after university. I hold two Masters degrees, one in Engineering and one in Applied Mathematics. I completed an internship in small scale data processing, another one in signal processing and a Master thesis at the intersection between maths and computer vision.
As for hobbies, I enjoy playing guitar but don’t ask me to sing!! I’m generally a house person but also like adventures. I recently travelled through Europe for two months (top 3 experiences: bus and train trips in Scotland and the Isle of Mull, taking the Glacier Express in Switzerland, and October life in Monopoli, Italy).
I grew up in Brittany, France, I’ve lived also in Lisbon (for almost two years) and more recently in Göttingen, Germany. I’ve now settled in Brussels as part of the Quantexa Belgium team.
During my time in the Academy I completed the Data Engineering Academy and Scoring Academy.
How do you normally start your working day?
I’m not a morning person so coffee is my go-to. The Academy training is done in a virtual cloud environment (VDI) which takes a bit of time to start. There is nothing like enjoying a coffee while contemplating life as the VDI starts up.
How would you describe a typical day?
For the Academy, we are given lots of materials to look through that ends in an assignment. Every day new challenges arise, and I have fun tackling them. I found out that the strategy that best suited me was to just play around and learn through trial and error. That is, I usually have a quick light read of the materials and then get straight to the task. This brings me to be actively involved in the obstacles that could be faced and gives life and meaning to the material. I’ve also loved connecting with the my colleagues in the Grad Program to help and get help.
What do you enjoy most in your role?
Solving the problems that arise and connecting with people around the world.
What are your main goals as an Academy trainee?
- Develop a good technical understanding of the ETL process and software design
- Develop skills to be able to help others effectively
- Develop troubleshooting skills to solve problems that might arise and debug common issues in the Quantexa Platform
- Develop a wider understanding of the Quantexa Platform features
- Improve our ability to code in Scala and Spark
- Understand how to customise the Quantexa Platform according to a typical clients needs
What are your most memorable moments?
I can’t think of one outstanding moment, I would rather mention the stack of novelties that happened in such a short time. Some of my favourites include: getting to discover a new office and meet new people (the photo on the right), meeting more people online from the Quantexa offices around the world, and getting to grips with all the little pieces of code that come together to create the Quantexa software.
What do you think are the most important attributes of an Academy trainee?
Not being afraid of failing, embracing the tasks as games, finding the right balance between solving on one’s own and asking questions.
What are you excited about at the moment?
Putting my training and new skills into practice on real projects.
What is the best tip you have learnt for using Quantexa?
When coding, mastering a few shortcuts in the IDE can save an incredible amount of time and quite a few headaches. There are two easy ones I keep using in IntelliJ: Shift+Shift and Ctrl+Shift+f for quick lookups of bits of code at the scale of the project. It helped me a lot connecting pieces together.
What is your favourite area of the Quantexa Community?
The Academy Q&A topic is full of gems, with some relevant questions and detailed answers that really helped me solve difficulties I was also facing.
