Harold Selman

Putting Data Science into practice is my passion and my work

During my master internships I discovered that Data Science was my passion. Later on, I also discovered my two masters to be an amazing combination: Applied Mathematics in Finance which is heavily based on Probability and Statistics, and Science Education & Communication to become a high school math teacher in which I improved my presentation skills and discovered my passion of sharing knowledge.

After graduation I decided to pursue my career as Data Scientist and after several job interviews and inhouse days, I met (my future) manager on the Nationale Carrierebeurs in Utrecht. One of my best choices in my life. Ordina is an innovative ambitious IT company operating in the Benelux. Ordina is currently growing fast, mainly with Young Professionals who are trained and guided during their first two years. It helped me develop quickly to a professional employee.

I currently work as Senior Data Scientist and Project manager for clients. I love to turn my knowledge and experience into value, and I also teach and coach others. My fields of expertise are profiling, fraud detection, anomaly detection and data quality. I design knowledge systems, build web applications, write queries, discover patterns, study processes and interview stakeholders. Besides that, I visit clients to convince them to do business.

What do Data Scientists do? And how do you become one? A Data Scientist does research, tries to predict the future and discovers patterns. The following 7 skills determine your success: math, statistics, programming, communication, visualisation, research experience and domain knowledge. That’s why the EEMCS faculty most definitely will produce awesome Data Scientists. The part of communication and visualisation I developed most through my experience as a teacher. During work I discovered which field I wanted to make my domain. As a final recommendation, read articles and blogs from experts and never stop challenging yourself.

Graduation year: 2015
Bachelor programme: Technische Wiskunde (TUD)
Master programme: Applied Mathematics (TUD) & Science Education & Communication (TUD TNW)  
Track/specialisation: Finance/Probability/Statistics/Pattern Recognition & Eerstegraadsleraaropleiding Wiskunde (Education Math track)
Current position: Data Scientist
Company: Ordina
LinkedIn: https://nl.linkedin.com/in/haroldselman