We are featuring a new series of “diary” posts from our Kogod Graduate Student Ambassadors, bringing you a first-person view of life as a Kogod graduate student. Our second entry by Rui Huang (Kogod/MS ’20) is about her experience working for Uber Eats after earning her undergraduate degree and how this led her to the decision to pursue a master's in analytics from Kogod.
Bachelor’s degree? Check. First job? Check.
As I walked through the doors of Uber for the first time, I was amazed. I thought to myself, Am I ready to start my career? I guess I’ll find out!
I started my first post-undergraduate job as an account manager for Uber Eats in charge of onboarding enterprise brands in the North American market.
As someone always willing to explore room for growth, I was not just settling for managing accounts on a daily basis but also constantly exploring the data-rich reports that were shared with our team. I was intrigued by all of the advanced functions incorporated in a report that make it so dynamic. I would go home and study the reports until I fully understood how and why a certain function was being used.
My hard work paid off and I was elevated to the process optimization team. My team’s mission was to automate as much manual labor as possible to expedite the processes. One of the most exciting projects I spearheaded was communication email automation. I integrated all stages of communications emails for the North American market, which were originally sent out manually by each account manager. This project enabled the onboarding team to save at least three to four hours of labor on a daily basis.
For the first time, I had a taste of feeling fulfilled by a job. I felt so grateful to be chosen for this experience.
If I could share one thing I learned from working at Uber, it would be to always remain curious about the unknown and never settle for what you already know. Most of the time, our growth starts from being uncomfortable with the unfamiliar.
My role in the process optimization team was definitely a turning point in my career interests. I was excited whenever it came to dealing with data at work, and I wanted to explore this more. That is exactly why I chose to apply for the MS in analytics program at the Kogod School of Business. At its core, the analytics degree is a business-oriented education where courses are balanced between business and statistical analysis. For someone from a business background who had been exploring technical skills, it was a perfect match.
After graduating, I hope to land a job at an organization where I am able to apply my skills to the fullest extent. I always want to make sure that what I do makes a positive impact on people. There are a lot of ways to help make the world a better place, and my goal is to utilize data in an ethical way to improve the lives of others, either directly or indirectly.