Meet the Team: Erin Barker

Erin Barker

Senior Statistician, YHEC

Interested to find out more about what it's like to work at YHEC? Or maybe you have an interest in statistics and are wondering what a career in this field is like? In this blog we interview Erin Barker, a Senior Statistician at YHEC. We find out how she got into this role, what her day-to-day work looks like, and what she enjoys most about being part of YHEC.

What is your name, role and workstream?
My name is Erin Barker, and I work as a Senior Statistician in the statistics team.

Tell us about your qualifications and career path up until this point.
While I have always been good at maths, it wasn’t something I pursued initially, so I would say I discovered my love of maths accidentally! I began a degree in sociology, which had a maths element, but soon realised it was the maths part that I was enjoying most - so, I switched and completed a BSc in mathematics.

I spent a short time working as a data analyst before training to become a secondary maths teacher. I taught for five years before leaving to complete an MSc in statistics.

After my MSc, I joined YHEC. I began as a Research Assistant in public health. At that time, there was only one Statistician but, as the statistics team developed, I was promoted to Statistician and then Senior Statistician.

Tell us more about your role.
There is a lot of variety in my role and I work across all workstreams. I’m involved in independent statistical projects as well as statistical elements of larger modelling and review projects. My role includes day-to-day project management, client liaison, acting as a specialist advisor and, of course, performing or quality-assuring statistical analysis. I also support proposal writing, attend conferences, develop publications, and run training courses both internally and externally (the teacher part of me comes in helpful here!).

What do you love most about your role?
The data! I’m a logical person, so I like the logical aspect of analysing and exploring it.

What are your favourite types of projects to work on, and why?
Good question! Probably working with real-world data because, even though it can be messy, it’s more interesting to explore. I like the challenges it presents and the fact that it’s reflective of the real world.

What do you enjoy most about working at YHEC?
I enjoy the variety of work and the mixture of clients I work with in both the public and private sectors, but I think what I like the most is that YHEC is a really good company to work for. It’s friendly and welcoming, it offers me flexibility, and it makes me feel valued – it has a great ethos.

How do you see work in your field developing in the future?
As I mentioned, the YHEC statistics team is relatively new. In the last few years, the size of the team has grown as the demand for statistical analysis has grown. I can definitely see our team continuing to grow and I look forward to the new opportunities that develop.

What’s your favourite thing to do outside of work?
Spending time at my allotment - I love it! I love being outside and I love eating what I grow: it’s so rewarding to cook something with veggies you’ve grown yourself.

Tell us a surprising or fun fact about you.
How about one of each? People might be surprised that I used to be a respite foster carer. It’s something I was brought up with because my parents fostered when I was young.

For the fun bit: I’ve been skydiving – twice!