A man in business attire is sitting at a table using his laptop and smiling.
Karl Heery. Image: Luke Maxwell/Siliconrepublic.com

Why it’s great to have ‘lots of curiosity’ if you want a career in data analytics

10 Oct 2019

Karl Heery, head of IT at the Aon Centre for Innovation and Analytics, explains what the company is doing with data and what it’s looking for in new hires.

Aon is a global professional services firm, with more than 50,000 employees across 120 countries.

Among the different areas of expertise covered by the company is a focus on harnessing data and cutting-edge technology to overcome challenges facing its clients as well as its internal people.

But what exactly goes on inside the company’s technology team? Siliconrepublic.com spoke to Karl Heery, head of IT at the Aon Centre for Innovation and Analytics (ACIA) in Dublin, to find out more.

“Aon’s risk modelling and data expertise is something that really makes us unique,” he said.

With three ACIA offices in Dublin, Singapore and Krakow, its teams support data analytics teams all across the globe, providing colleagues with a full suite of the best possible tools.

This, Heery explained, builds a workbench for Aon’s employees, but also shows a “true path to production”, allowing industrial-scale data analytics solutions to be generated. That’s a core goal for ACIA, and involves driving new value from data as well as building out models, dashboards and insights.

To join that team and help Aon “create the next wave of innovation for data analytics services”, Heery offered some advice on the types of skills potential candidates should keep in mind.

New hires can expect to work in a spectrum of areas, from cloud engineering to IT security, so a high level of technical proficiency and engineering skills are both key.

Other important attributes he highlighted include the capacity to “help bring new products to market”, as well as “lots of curiosity”. Finally, ACIA is seeking potential new joiners who make a habit of “keeping their finger on the pulse of the tech industry as a whole”.

Catch up on everything else Heery talked about by watching the video above.

Lisa Ardill
By Lisa Ardill

Lisa Ardill joined Silicon Republic as senior careers reporter in July 2019. She has a BA in neuroscience and a master’s degree in science communication. She is also a semi-published poet and a big fan of doggos. Lisa briefly served as Careers Editor at Silicon Republic before leaving the company in June 2021.

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