(scroll to read how I respond to each of your hiring needs)
I am a recent graduate from the University of Oxford, where I studied European Politics at the MPhil level. I also hold a BSc in Politics and International Relations from UCL. I am originally from Italy but I grew up in France, and I have been living in the UK for the last five years. I speak both Italian and French fluently and I have previous experience conducting research and translation work in both.
I have a strong interest in the intersection of business and politics, especially with regards to climate policy. In my undergraduate dissertation I looked at how annual report language predicted greenwashing behaviour, which earned me the Best Dissertation Award for my cohort, and most recently my MPhil thesis analysed how stock markets reacted to the European Green Deal policy wording. Beyond my research work, I have academic training in political economy and international political economy (IPE) which allows me to understand current affairs and how they relate to geopolitics more in depth.
In addition to my focus on IR and political science during my studies, I maintain my interest in current affairs and writing in my role as the managing editor of the Oxford Political Review (OPR), where I edit (and occasionally contribute) global politics articles and interviews. I greatly enjoy that the OPR shows me stories beyond the mainstream, and I want to join the FT to continue working within this diverse and constantly changing space.
I learned the fundamentals of data journalism during my internship with The Economist ’s Data Team, where I pitched stories and provided help with ad-hoc tasks. Though it was a steep learning curve, I learned how visual journalism can be a way to effectively compete in the attention economy and how to search for data sources.
Two of the pieces I worked on were published on The Economist ’s page. I gathered data and wrote America’s missing doctors following my senior editor’s pitch, and I pitched and researched Don’t blame “quiet quitting” on Gen-Z. I also contributed desk research to Places claiming to be centenarian hotspots may just have bad data.
Chart from America’s missing doctors
Chart from Don’t blame “quiet quitting” on Gen-Z
Last year I also brought my visual data skills to the OPR. I took data from an academic paper (liasing with the author) on different ways teen migrants adapted to their new country and adapted the visualisation to be more easily comparable. Though I had less creative control over the final illustration than I would have liked, this marked the OPR’s first data journalism article.
Chart from my piece in the Oxford Political Review (OPR)’s print issue
I want to join the FT to continue doing this work now that I have a stronger political science background and a more defined idea of what I want to achieve with my career. I am especially interested in investigative journalism. After having attended London Climate Action Week (LCAW)‘s corporate events last month; at events attended by business leaders there was a very ’sustainability is here to stay’ attitude, but this contradicted their actions (most companies have cut back their 2030 goals) as well as the talking points at journalism and public-sector events. I want to continue exploring these questions through the FT’s network and reach.
Though I have not used React, I have experience in using R for data visualisations for my academic work. I have also previously worked with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Indesign, Procreate and Canva for visual art projects, so I am confident I can quickly pick up on new technologies.
Map describing my MPhil dataset
In addition to my training from The Economist , I have academic training in quantitative methods for social science analysis using R. Most recently, I created a dataset from scratch for my MPhil thesis, sourcing financial data (primarily through LSEG/Refinitiv and WRDS), using SQL to query EU datasets (Cellar), and updating a climate dictionary to measure climate talk in European firms’ earnings calls.
Word cloud from dictionary analysis on most common words related to regulatory risk
Working as managing editor of the OPR showed me the importance of effectively communicating demands, deadlines, and expectations to the senior levels of the committee and the editors. I worked tightly with the editor-in-chief, and together with the senior editorial team we produced three editions on time and with themes popular enough to attract record numbers of attendees at our launch events, especially from outside our usual pool of readers. I am confident I can bring my communication skills to effectively collaborate with the rest of the FT team.
I have also worked on written pieces alongside colleagues with different backgrounds, which prepares me to effectively work across sections at the FT. At Oxford Net Zero I worked with a fellow intern from a consulting background to draft a set of climate-justice business standards, and at medical consultancy firm IQVIA I worked with a leader of medical education to research and write a white paper on the impacts of a new EU regulation on patient data. At The Economist I also liased with editors from columns outside of the data team to build on my pitches or provide the data for their ideas. I want to continue working and learning from colleagues with different research backgrounds from mine through the FT’s experts.
Adapting to changing technical and editorial needs, multitasking and ownership of visual storytelling.
I have more experience with things going ‘wrong’ than I perhaps would like to. One of my published pitches was originally supposed to have data from places with failing birthrates, including Italy and Japan - two countries which have notoriously bad data collection. Despite being able to collect some data for these two countries and having full data for a two other countries (including Finland - I do not speak Finnish but nonetheless managed to obtain precise medical records through unrelenting correspondence with their official bodies), the senior team decided to re-frame the article to be focused on the US. I thus had to adapt my focus and supplement my existing research, as well as adapt to this new angle.
In addition to the difficulties in finalising the successful pitches, the majority of my original pitches were rejected or did not have good enough data to make it through. I spent five weeks researching a story on the (at the time new) route of cocaine from Ecuador to Europe, interviewing experts from the UN as well as correspondents on the ground. Though frustrating, this experience taught me when to let a pitch go and how to effectively balance working on multiple tasks at once.
I also have experience in adapting my communication for extracting information from a wide variety of people. At the Oxfordshire County Council I had to audit each of the transport policy’s teams progress and then compile a document of recommendations to keep the organisation on track. I switched from my initial approach of going in with a mandate and reframed my approach as being an opportunity for colleagues to air their grievances, which provided me with far more transparent information and allowed me to effectively gather the data I needed.
I am confident that I can apply my adaptability and resilience in the face of data scarcity to sourcing quality data for the FT’s team.
I do not use AI in my daily life and I believe it should be used as sparingly as possible, especially due to its impact on the climate and our cognitive functions. However, I use AI in helping me with my coding and to discover functions of platforms that I did not receive formal training for.
I look forward to hearing from you.