Matthias De Aliaga Melloni

When Matthias De Aliaga Melloni began looking for a Masters programme to bridge his academic knowledge with the business world, he was immediately attracted to London Business School’s Masters in Management (MiM).

“I’d studied business management for my bachelor’s degree, but had minimal company interaction. I felt like I lacked the real world experience to begin my professional career,” Matthias says. Strong business links, a global cohort, and LBS’s highly applied teaching style were major draw cards. “LBS uses simulations, group activities and company visits to teach business skills; I felt this would give me the practical application I wanted. Plus, the School has a great job placement record, so I knew it would have an excellent Careers Centre.”

Pursuing his interest in a data-focused career, Matthias took advantage of relevant LBS electives like Decision and Risk Analysis. “Professor Gah-Yi Ban was contagious in her passion for data. Everything was interactive, exciting, and involved a lot of classroom participation - for example, we used a decision analysis software to map all the choices a company could make.” The Data Mining for Business Intelligence elective was another favourite. “Tolga Tezca and Nicos Savva gave me an excellent introduction to machine learning and advanced data analytics and solidified my desire for a data-focused career. They even brought in the Head of Data Science at the BBC to give us our final course assignment (based on BBC data) – it was a great way to see how real companies use the knowledge we had learned.”

As well as developing his passion for data, Matthias says the MiM provided invaluable career insight. “Career Centre played a big part in my job search, providing early workshops on tools like LinkedIn and navigating networking events effectively.” He also participated in a Career Vision workshop, something that propelled him further towards the technology field. “When the MiM finished I decided to take a bit of time out to boost my programming skills at a Data Science boot camp and intern as a Machine Learning Engineer at a blockchain startup. Even though I’d left the School, Career Centre reached out and provided thorough advice on the different stages of my full-time job applications. I wasn’t expecting that level of help.”

Matthias has now secured a permanent role at Deloitte, as a consultant in the Analytics and Information Management team. “My internship has been heavily programming focused so I’m looking forward to my analytics role at Deloitte, which will combine a business focus with technical data work.” More and more, he says, businesses are realising that they can benefit by implementing new technology trends. “Technologies like machine learning, AI and blockchain, are all advanced applications of big data technology. As a manager it’s important to be knowledgeable and able to differentiate when this technology is useful, so you can make and implement the right business decisions.”

Matthias says the LBS community continues to be a great support. “The network at LBS is outstanding. I’ve been able to interact with and seek advice from people in all the top data-centric companies – it’s helped me make informed decisions about where I fit in the data world, and where I want to work. There’s a massive demand for people joining traditional business roles to have complementary data skills; at Deloitte, my expertise means I’ll be participating in hugely varied projects that need people who can analyse data in advanced ways. I can’t wait.”