Working at the
intersection of
data + craft.
I'm Darren. Data Science MSc graduate, based in London. I have consulting experience building Power BI dashboards and Python pipelines. I naturally ask “what is this data really telling us?” I'm looking for a graduate or junior data role where I can keep asking that question and learn within a team. HELM and writing happen alongside.
The thing I'm actually trying to prove is that you don't need a linear path to do good work. You just need to keep shipping things you care about, and write about them honestly while you do.
A non-linear path
is still a path.
I studied Games Design at Bournemouth University. I thought I wanted to build worlds for a living. Then the games analysis module in my final year changed things. I was more interested in the systems behind the games than the art on top, and in how data could make them better.
After uni, I landed a data analyst apprenticeship at SXOLLIE, a cider company in London, through the government's Kickstart Scheme. I was there from July 2021 to February 2023. Every week I pulled together sales data from Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Waitrose into a KPI report in Excel that the CEOs and managers used to make decisions. Alongside that, I taught myself SQL and Google Cloud, and got about 70% of the way to moving the data into a MySQL database in the cloud. It taught me more than any classroom did. Real data, real mess, real consequences when something broke.
Then a short stint at Iron Mountain, processing around 500 documents a day. Not glamorous. But it taught me why quality assurance matters. When documents are processed wrong, the errors are costly. It also showed me how repetitive work wears people down, and why validation and automation actually matter.
Next came the MSc in Data Science at Kingston University, while I worked the front desk at The Columbia Hotel in London, during the course and after it, until May 2026. My dissertation was on classifying music by genre and emotion. I finished in October 2025 with a 2:1 and graduated in January 2026. I was aiming for a First. So close.
From May to October 2026, I was a junior consultant in Squarcle's Digital and Data Science team. I built six Power BI dashboards tracking HR KPIs for a client, and presented them to the client myself. That meant data modelling, DAX measures and visual design. I also built a Python pipeline to validate, merge and reshape the client's data, with data quality checks, reusable functions and pytest tests. Everything went through Git and GitHub branches, and a senior team member reviewed all my code. It was the first time I'd worked inside a proper engineering workflow, and it changed how I write code and how I work with a team. The MSc didn't teach me that. The client work is confidential, so it isn't shown here.
That role ended in October 2026. Now I'm looking for my next role, or freelance work, with more to show for it than ever.
A short list of
things I think
are true.
What a Master's teaches you and how the real world works are two different things. The theory is the foundation. The job is learning how it's actually done.
Working with another coder is the fastest way to see your own code clearly. A fresh pair of eyes catches what you stopped noticing.
Vibe coding is not cheating. AI is a tool. The person directing it still has to know what to build and why.
Bad data in, confident nonsense out. Validation isn't the boring part. It's the job.
Criticism isn't personal. It's directions. Every piece of feedback gets you one step closer to what the client actually wants.
If any of that
sounded like
your kind of thing.
I'm open to graduate and junior data roles, freelance projects, and conversations with people building interesting things. London based but happy with hybrid or remote.
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