Why I chose Flatiron School

Between all of my technical-oriented posts, I thought it would be beneficial to speak a little about myself and my choice for pursuing the Data Science Program at Flatiron School.

I have always been an analytical-oriented person. I began my studies at Brandeis University, focusing on business and economics. My economics courses consisted of statistics for economics, econometrics, etc. and these classes provided me with a strong mathematical foundation. However, my undergrad was a liberal arts degree, and while I was exposed to various areas of business and economics, I did not have a specific specialty.

As a result, I chose to continue my studies in a Masters degree program at the London School of Economics (LSE), where I enrolled in a Managerial Economics program. There, I dove deeper into the topics of game theory, pricing strategy and management theory. This allowed me to pursue my economic studies in a more specific field. I completed a dissertation utilizing STATA and SPSS that analyzed what specific workplace incentives improve employee productivity. I conducted this analysis through regression modeling, utilizing the economics foundation and statistics background I received in my undergrad, coupled with the contextual specialization I learned in my masters program. Overall I found this to be a very challenging and worthwhile academic experience.

I then began my career in London as a Data Analyst for a media company called ECI Media Management. My role was to assist media oriented clients analyze the results of their media campaigns through data-driven insights and recommendations. This role allowed me to utilize my analytical and mathematical aptitude from my academic background, and apply my knowledge to real-life problem solving. I primarily utilized the company’s in-house propriety tool to develop insights, then analyzed the results to provide recommendations and strategies for company’s to better utilize their advertising and media budgets. My role required me to analyze large datasets and to articulate my findings to a non-technical audience.

I then further expanded my data-oriented skills to a role as an Economic Data Analyst at SL Green Realty Corp in New York City. This was an opportunity to apply myself to a new industry, commercial real estate. At SL Green, I was responsible for utilizing the company’s existing data to create methods and systems that would automate some of the routine tasks of the accounting and finance teams. I accomplished this through the use of Alteryx, and building Alteryx workflows that manipulated data and spreadsheets allowed the team to analyze and infer their data in a significantly more efficient manner. I would then present this data in a data visualization tool, primarily Tableau. These resulting Tableau dashboards would be used by non-technical members of the company to gain a visual understanding of how their properties are operating on a day to day basis. As a new member of the Data Analyst team at SL Green, I was really able to assist the company with building their data analytic tools from the ground up, and to implement the use of data to improve company strategy and decision-making.

So now you may ask, how does all this lead to Flatiron School? Well, my academic knowledge positioned me well for a data-oriented role, and my experience as a data analyst in both the media and real-estate industries gave me solid exposure to how insights can be generated from data, and how businesses can improve their strategies and decision-making using these insights. I was, however, missing a key component to becoming a Data Scientist — the softwares and technological tools that are used by individuals in the data fields today. I wanted to learn the newest technologies that are cutting edge of the tech industry, such as Python and SQL. My experience at Flatiron has expanded my knowledge beyond basic data analysis, to include Machine Learning and Data Science topics. I now feel confident that I have a wider breadth of knowledge that will position me well for a role as a Data Scientist. I look forward to exploring new opportunities in the tech space and for the next stage of my career! Thank you for reading 😃