Ecaterina Gamanji, who is graduating with a BSc Computer Science, is one of many Essex students who took a placement year.

Ecaterina Gamanji

Ecaterina, who has secured a graduate job at Betfair as an Infrastructure Automation Engineer, spent a year of her degree as a core software developer at Microsoft for Bing Related Searches. She was responsible for the maintenance and creation of internal analysis tools, and was also able to contribute to the improvement of main related searches.

During her year at Microsoft she said she “realised that it is important to learn and surpass your limits. I am now more confident in my technical and soft skills, and I am more certain that independent of the task, I will be able to deliver the end results for a project.”

Ecaterina, who is passionate about machine learning and computer vision, plans to continue her studies to Masters and PhD level.

The doors to Graduation 2016 open on 12 July. 4,691 students will graduate, bringing the number of Essex graduates, since 1964, to more than 93,000.

Each and every one of our 2016 graduates has had a life-changing experience. They have risen to the challenge of developing a research mindset, they have been involved in clubs, societies and volunteering, and they have grasped opportunities.

We can’t tell all their stories but our Graduating 2016 student profiles shine a light on the individual experiences that make the Essex family inclusive, international and inspiring.