All about Niamh's current role:

I'm a consultant, working with visual analytics and business strategy.  I work with clients from the start of their engagement right through to the end. I sit with them in initial conversations and I help them build out what they actually want - what is the work that they're currently doing and what do they want to use technology to help transform. So my day-to-day is working on what are the possible solutions. I work in what we call low code, no code.

You don't have to be a computer science graduate to do tech consulting. I think that was one of my biggest fears at the start of this. I knew a bit of Python, a bit of R and can really work with Excel but not everyone is going to have those hard coding technical skills, and you should never underestimate your soft skills in consulting. You can be technical, but working with clients and especially working within public sector or different member firms, soft skills are so important! That's how you get the information and that's how you kind of translate it for technical people to build it. So you should never underestimate that you have to be the personal person that clients will talk to, engage with and build rapport to support their issues.

All about Niamh's Career Path:

I've been with KPMG about two years now, but before that, I did my undergraduate in biological sciences through Queens and from my dissertation I realised I really like working with data and problem solving. I completed a master's in bioinformatics and computational genomics.  I continued to focus on the data and problem solving elements of the masters and worked into the graduate scheme through KPMG.

One of the key pieces of advice I would give for anyone who's maybe considering consulting or just a move into a different kind of career sphere would be to build out your network.
LinkedIn is incredibly useful and tech in Belfast is a very close knit community. We have women tech makers for women who are looking to get into technology.

Niamh Quigley

Technology Consultant, KPMG

BSc Biological Sciences