Alex Irwin-Hunt

Tell us about your degree - why did you choose it? What elements of the degree inspired you to study it?
Economics has always fascinated me. It is part of all our daily lives. During my early teens, I remember the start of the global financial crisis and wanting to understand how it happened. My curiosity drove me to study Economics. I saw it as a way to understand the world around me. At the same time, I was a generalist at school, enjoying a wide variety of subjects from maths to writing-based subjects like history. Economics was a degree I felt would enable me to merge my different skills and continue studying across multiple disciplines. In terms of career prospects, Economics is also highly regarded with graduates typically earning above average salaries. 

What was the best part of your studies here? What did you enjoy the most about your course?
I highly recommend Leeds Business School as a place to study Economics due to its pluralist approach. The best part was the diverse modules on offer and ability to study cross-cutting disciplines like Behavioural Economics, Economic History and Ethics.  

The fact Leeds is a campus university also made it easy to navigate and has great facilities. The staff were also always approachable, avuncular and on hand to make the student experience as enriching and enjoyable as possible. 

What was your impression/experience of the student union, the city of Leeds and Yorkshire? Did you do any extracurricular activities during your studies? How did you enhance your personal development? What would you recommend to future students?
The city of Leeds is a fantastic place to live and study. It is cosmopolitan, vibrant and with something on offer to everyone's taste. During my time at Leeds, I went to Thai Boxing Society and got involved with the Trading and Investment Society. Outside of the University, you have an amazing music scene in Leeds and the Yorkshire Dales right on the city's doorstep. Leeds provides a perfect balance of academic rigour with personal development opportunities and chances to make some lifelong friends. For anyone going to study there, I would say get involved with as much as you can. Enjoy all that the city and University has to offer. 

How did your experiences at Leeds University Business School help you to advance your career?
My experiences at the Business School greatly improved the writing and analytical skills that I use in my day-to-day work as a specialist financial journalist. The variety of courses I studied also gave me a greater appreciation of the range of perspectives of different people across the globe. This was enhanced further with the opportunity to study abroad in Berlin in my third year. Looking back now, my experience at the Business School helped set me up on the path I am on today. 

How has your career progressed since leaving the Business School? Have there been any notable highlights? After working several jobs in the year after university, I landed an internship at a trade publication at the Financial Times focused on foreign direct investment (FDI). Six years later, I'm still there having had a whirlwind of a time. My job has enabled me to interview world leaders, write about business stories across the globe and travel, including to the US, Jamaica, Uzbekistan, Tanzania and across Europe. One recent highlight was giving a keynote speech at Costa Rica's investment summit about trends shaping global FDI flows. 

What are your ambitions for the future?
I am looking forward to continuing my path as a journalist and exploring many more business-related stories around the world. My journalistic work has increasingly become about sourcing, visualising and analysing data.  

My personal ambition is to complement my existing technical skills with other computational journalism methods. But looking further to the future, who knows, I would never rule anything out – whether in journalism or another field entirely. After all, as Leeds taught me, there are many paths that economics graduates new and old have ended up taking. 

What advice would you give to anyone looking to work in a similar role or industry to you?
Journalism, and the media industry more broadly, offers people of all stripes job opportunities. Stay curious. Read and write as much as you can. Make sure to enjoy life and socialise because  journalism is all about relationships and making contacts will help you in the long term. Data journalism has in recent years become a rapidly growing field and is an area that newsrooms are heavily investing in- meaning they are hiring people. My own career progression lends itself to this, but I would advise everyone to either learn basic data analysis skills or dive into it. Most importantly, be passionate, whether at work or in life. 

What is your defining memory of studying here? Would you recommend the Business School to others?
There was no single defining memory. The whole experience from start to finish was enriching and fulfilling. 

What advice would you give to students to help them get the most out of their time in Leeds?
Ensure you get involved with as much as possible. Work hard, but make time for whatever you enjoy. There are so many opportunities to meet some great people and have life fulfilling experiences.