People Analyst

As a people analyst, my job is to work with executives and HR business partners to use data to make informed people decisions. So my journey to people analytics is a very unique one. Coming from an NYC School in New York and going to school in Syracuse for the private school. The tradition was very different in terms of the rigor academically and also the social level that I was competing with. And just being completely honest, I did feel like I didn't belong there. I felt imposter syndrome each and every day. And my first semester. I was struggling with my academics because of the lack of strong foundation that I had. Every time I finished my classes, I was seeking for tutoring opportunities. So I was working three times or four times more than my peers. But in the long run I actually came to a point I was doing much better than my peers. And I was the one actually, teaching them, also tutoring them on their homeworks. When I was going to college my freshman year, I wanted to major in computer engineering. But unfortunately, coming from a family of immigrants who did not know what computer engineering was, or even saw someone in our community who has really succeeded in that, they really discouraged me from pursuing this path again, because they don't want to take the risk. Unfortunately, I switched my major from engineering into undecided. Fortunately for me, two years later, I found other black friend of mine who was also an immigrant African, who was majoring in information technology. And just by me learning from his experience and the classes he was taking, it really got me really interested in the field. I took one of introductory classes, and I really succeeded in that. Prior to Google, I used to work at a company called Accenture, where I was a consultant doing customer analytics. So towards the end of my second year at the company, I went to a job fair where Google was recruiting there. So I spoke to the recruiter, and she mentioned to me about this new practice called people analytics, which is very similar to what I was doing at Accenture. I just went back home, did my research, and from there I was really interested in this space that I wanted to fully develop my career. So since I started at Google, I just will also honestly say that, it was very challenging in terms of the rigor and the difficulty of the work that we're doing. So the first thing that I did was I seek for mentors. I knew I was interested in my career development and also an advocate for myself. So by talking to them and just learning a few lessons from them, as the way to better maneuver through this space, I first gained a lot of courage and also was motivated to even learn beyond the work environment. Second thing is that I want to make sure that I'm constantly learning and also leveraging my peers as a resource. So whenever I do get analysis that I need a second opinion on, I turn to my teammates who will just make sure they give me the encouragement I need or a second opinion for me to better enhance my analysis. And I believe the third thing that I always do is that I seek for stretch opportunities, right? So, for example, I know that there's a space that I'm lacking in that I need to develop, I make sure that I ask my manager that, "Hey, I know that I struggle in this space. How can I actually grow this area by giving me more work that will allow me to develop that skill set?" So I would say that's a mix of acknowledging that you see a gap in your personal development and also working towards improving that by leveraging the resources around you. And just working towards that goal to improve yourself each and every single day and also every year as well.