My name is Brian Downer. I'm the Director of my own limited company, DWNR and Co,
and I'm based in London, England.
So my career path after graduating was quite an interesting one. I was fortunate enough
to get recruited by Accenture as soon as I finished my MSc in Computer Science, and that
involved in the early years travelling all over the world. I was lucky enough to go and
do some training in Chicago. I then went and did a project in Washington DC. I spent some
time in Brussels in Amsterdam and also in Milton Keynes. So you can imagine it's very
varied the type of projects that you can get involved in if you have the right skillset
within Accenture. In addition to that I after a period of about four years I decided to
work as an independent consultant, so I set up my own limited company and did very similar
types of projects but directly with end-users, and I've been doing that ever since for the
last ten years.
I did an MSc in Computer science within the Department of Computer Science at the University
of Birmingham.
My course had a number of different elements to it. It was a mix of some theory, so looking
at historical elements like Alan Turing and artificial intelligence, but also looking
at some very practical current day aspects such as database analysis and normalising
databases, so that was quite big element. Another aspect was on a week by week basis
we were set tasks that we had to use our newly acquired Java skills, our programming skills,
in order to build a mini application, and after exams in the spring of the following
year we had what I find was the most exciting part of the course which was the project.
So that's really where you get to grips with software development and writing Java
and it's almost like if you spend enough time focusing on it, it really becomes almost
second nature, and when that click happens it's awesome. I enjoyed all my time at the
MSc and came out with a distinction at the end of it so I was very pleased.
There's a number of things that attracted me to the University of Birmingham. Well for
starters I did my undergraduate degree there, so it was a natural choice to return to Birmingham
to do my MSc. It meant that I could get up to speed very quickly without the normal distractions
that you would have when you're going to a new city to study. The University has an excellent
reputation, both globally as a university and within the specific Department of Computer
Science. So it was a no-brainer for me as far as selecting Birmingham to do my MSc in
Computer Science.
As opposed to an academic year it's a calendar year, and you really don't have much time
to, you know, get to grips with what many people take, you know, two or three years
to come to grips with, but if you apply yourself everything is possible.
I think the course gave me excellent preparation in the sense that some of the skills that
I learnt and developed on that course such as requirements analysis, software development,
and elements of project management, have all been things that I've carried over into my
professional career, and it's almost uncanny that the basic fundaments that I learnt at
Birmingham University are still in use today. Things have got a little bit more agile and
iterative but Java is still used and it's really, you know, one of the I think key things
that comes as part of a role within computer science within IT that requirements analysis,
business analysis, and software development come as part and parcel of that.
One of my first excursions or trips was to the careers lab the careers centre at
Birmingham University. I visited there in the first, you know, week or two of my time
on the MSc because I really knew that in order to leverage my year I had to be very focused
and try and seek out the potential career and employment opportunities that would follow
on from my MSc. I managed to connect with someone in the career centre who gave me some
advice and direction, and as a result of that and my own endeavours I managed to get several
offers from a variety of different consulting firms and banks.
My top tip for anyone applying for this course would be I would say make sure that you're
aligning the selection of the course with your strengths, I think that's very,
very important. I'd also say, you know, have a think about where you want the course
to take you in the medium to long term, don't just do it for the sake of doing it. Have
a reason, have a purpose, and make sure it's properly aligned to your skillset.
Well the thing that I enjoyed most about my time at Birmingham was two things actually.
Firstly, I think it's the people that you meet there. I'm still in touch even to this
day; as recently as last weekend I met up with a friend that I met during my time at
Birmingham, we're still very close. And in addition to that I would also say Birmingham
University track and field athletics team was a massive benefit for me. There's a four
yearly exchange trip that they do with some universities in the USA - Harvard and Yale
and Penn and Cornell. Every two years we host them and every two years we go and
visit the States, and I was lucky enough to get on one of those trips. And once again
I've managed to keep some ties and contacts with some of the people that I met there.