What was your best experience while studying your course at the University of Liverpool?
Studying at the University of Liverpool gave me something I hadn’t bargained on – it gave me the confidence and self-belief that was required to have a positive career and even go on to build Lending Works. I’ll try and avoid all the terrible clichés about “finding yourself”, but in reality, during my time at Liverpool I grew from being a very naïve teenager, to actually knowing that I needed to work hard to get on, and that I could achieve my objectives if I went for them.
Which aspects of your course do you think have been the most beneficial to your career development?
It’s funny, during the early part of my career, I thought that I would never really apply what I had learned while studying Computer Science at the University of Liverpool, but I could not have been more wrong. I worked at RBS as a Relationship Director in their corporate finance division. I basically had a range of corporate clients that I provided financing facilities to, and there was not a line of code in sight.
Well, fast forward 13 years from departing the wonderful city of Liverpool, and I leverage my degree every single day. At Lending Works, we have a team of about 40, and we plan to scale to approximately 200 over the next five years. Our team is (and always will be) approximately one third software developers, product managers and data scientists. This means I am often involved in conversations about system design, architecture and infrastructure. In my weekly catch-up session with our CTO he often jokes “wow, you actually know about tech”. Furthermore, while we love all of our team members and value their input immensely, it is often the developers, product people and data scientists that can have the biggest impact through their work. They’re often the rock stars.
Can you please share an insight into your current role and if this was supported by your time at the University of Liverpool?
My role should involve leading a team of executives to deliver our vision and objectives. In reality, I am significantly more hands-on than that. I take responsibility for technology, product, marketing and business development (which are often both very technical pursuits), credit risk management, data science, and operations. While we have a senior leadership team leading these areas, I am often involved in detailed conversations about these topics. Whether it be the rational for investing in an object orientated solution to a problem over hard coding an MVP or creating a decision tree and logic, I actually use so much of what I learned at university in my day-to-day role.
Surely the most impactful element of my time in Liverpool, though, was building an amazing network of friends, and in particular, my Lending Works co-founder, Matt. I met Matt early in the first year and we’ve been great friends ever since. We conceived the idea of Lending Works in 2012, eleven years after we’d first met, and it will surely be one of the most memorable professional periods of our lives. And I can say with certainty, it wouldn’t have been possible without each other!
Do you have any top tips to share with future and current students?
My three top tips (one of which I didn’t necessarily follow at the time) are as follows:
Get involved. The opportunity to be a student is something that most people will only have once, whereas gallivanting around an interesting city is something you are likely to be able to do for years to come. Spend time at uni. Spend time at your faculty. Join societies and clubs. Make friends with people on your course. Bars and clubs in the city will still be there in 10 years’ time, but the opportunity to be a student will not.
Take responsibility. I was slightly blindsided by the fact that no-one was going to ‘hold my hand’ through the process. You have to take responsibility for everything yourself, that includes the administrative side of your course, planning your own diary, even turning up to lectures. If you don’t take responsibility for yourself, no-one else will, and you’ll probably end up dropping out of the bottom of the system, which, in my opinion, will be one of your biggest regrets.
Finally (this is the one I did follow!), your university friendships are likely to be some of your strongest. Unlike school where you are thrown together, at university, you can actually choose who you’d like to spend time with, so invest in that process. Don’t feel limited by just being friends with people from your halls, there are many ways to meet interesting people so go for it.
What is the first thing that you think of when you think of the University of Liverpool?
Good times. I had such a good time while in Liverpool. I learned a huge amount, without really even realising. I made some great friends. Formed lots of amazing memories. And fortunately, set myself up for a career too.
Are there any other memories you would like to share from your time at the University of Liverpool?
How about one serious and one not… I learned a lot from my dissertation, within which, I worked with a real business to help them build a website for their engineering business. The project was actually a failure, but I really enjoyed the process and learned a huge amount. And how could I answer questions about my time at uni without mentioning The Raz (Blue Angel) – that place will stay with me forever!
Find out more about Nicholas and Matthew's business here: www.lendingworks.co.uk