Mar 30, 2023
Tianqi Wu is currently a student in the MS in Data Analytics & Business Computing (MSDABC) Class of 2023. After earning her undergraduate degree from NYU Shanghai with double majors in Business and Finance and Data Science, she is using her time in the MSDABC program to further enhance her data analytics skills to make herself more competitive in the professional market. “Data analytics can be divided into three components: data, insights and decision. From data, we generate insights, and then we make decisions. The MSDABC curriculum has allowed me to learn concrete frameworks and develop data analytics, data management and data-driven decision-making skills along the way,” she reflected.
From the start of the program last June, Tianqi immediately began to take advantage of program resources to hone her career goals and make connections to support her next professional steps. As a first step, she worked with Ji Tang, a career advisor in the Center for Career Development (CCD), to identify her career goals and establish an action plan. She found an internship at ByteDance, where she is mainly responsible for analyzing customer acquisitions in the marketing operations department. “I learned how to build a comprehensive set of analytics models and execute common analyses in the Marketing Analytics course, which is very helpful in my current internship at Bytedance when conducting customer analysis and behavior attribution. This experience taught me that the purpose of data analytics is to generate meaningful insights to make better business decisions rather than focusing on the analysis itself.” In addition to furthering her technical skills, the internship also helped illuminate her goals and priorities when seeking a full time opportunity: “I realized that I prefer to work in an organization where recent graduates are encouraged to take more responsibilities and work on projects cross-functionally for faster on-the-job learning.”
Throughout the fall semester, Tianqi continued to meet with the CCD counselors and take advantage of the career support. On Handshake, NYU’s job seeking platform, she found and applied for a technical trainee program at a financial services company that provides investment platforms to major financial institutions. She was particularly interested in this position because the technical trainee program allows recent graduates to improve their programming, testing and communication skills during the program rotation. Thanks to the company’s recognition of graduates from the MSDABC program, Tianqi was invited to attend the open day hosted by the company: “The open day allowed me to see the company environment and interact directly with HR as well as the program alumni Jennifer (MSDABC ’20) and Luffy (MSDABC ‘22), who offered helpful advice on job searching strategies and valuable insights into the company and different career paths.”
Tianqi eventually secured an offer from the company to start following her graduation this Spring. “I am so excited for this opportunity,” she said. “In the short term, I would like to apply what I learn from the program and enhance my technical skills through the rotation. In the long term, I hope I can continue to develop my soft skills to manage a team or a product in the future.”
When asked about lessons she will take away from her yearlong Master’s journey, Tianqi shared: “Never feel too stressed about your career direction if you have too many options. Stay calm. Seek advice from career counselors, program alumni and professors while assessing your own interests and skills along the way.