New Merchant Additions + Trivia Night

Day in the Life of a Data Analyst Intern

Each summer, a handful of carefully selected interns join Earnest’s data team. Working side by side with Senior Data Analyst mentors, interns learn core skills like interpreting financial statements, excel best practices and SQL programming during an intensive and fast paced 8-week program.

Pendo Abbo, a rising Senior at Columbia University majoring in Operations Research was one of our star interns this summer. We’re excited to say that Pendo will be joining the Earnest team full time after she graduates!

Read on to see how Pendo spent a typical day as a Data Analyst intern. For more information on our summer internships, email careers@earnestresearch.com.

7:30 am: I wake up and listen to the New York Times Podcast “The Daily” to catch up on the latest news while I have breakfast. Then I switch to the BBC Global News Podcast before getting ready for the day. I love podcasts.

8:30 am: I am (hopefully!) out the door and getting on the subway. I usually spend my commute reading a novel; This week it’s “Americanah” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

9:15 am: I always leave myself a to-do list at the end of each workday, so the first thing I’ll do is read over that list. For our main summer project, we are tasked with adding a new merchant to Earnest coverage. As part of my research, I’ll look for interesting performance trends in the data. Today, my research will involve seeing how competition with other merchants has influenced shopping frequency.

11:00 am: I need to bounce an idea off a colleague to help me better understand something in the data. Although each intern works on a unique merchant, there is still a lot that we can collaborate on.

1:00 pm: Lunch time! The other interns and I walk over to one of the many restaurants near the office for lunch. My personal favorite is Cava, a healthy Mediterranean restaurant. I take my lunch to go and meet up with the other interns at the lawn at Madison Square Park.

2:00 pm: By now I should be most of the way through my to-do list. To change things up, I move to one of the comfortable couches. It’s my job to find interesting ways to cut the data and glean insights on company performance and shopper behavior. The couches are near the break room, so there’s always someone walking by that is willing to answer a question or offer advice.

Pendo (center) catches up with the intern class during a summer rooftop event at the Earnest office.

4:00 pm: Time to meet with my mentor, Phoebe, a Senior Data Analyst. She offers feedback on new approaches I might try, helps me think through any oddities I’ve observed in the data, and offers guidance on next steps. These meetings are very insightful for my own work and in understanding how Earnest data analysts approach a problem.

5:00 pm: After meeting with Phoebe, I return to my desk and make some improvements based on our conversation. I jot down remaining questions on my to-do list for tomorrow.

6:00 pm: Tonight is Trivia Night! We are split into groups, each comprised of a full-time analyst, new hires, and us interns. This is a great opportunity to get to know some of the other members on the analyst team over some healthy competition. Tonight’s theme is New York City and Earnest. With a few native New Yorkers and a senior analyst on my team, I’m feeling pretty lucky.

The interns pair up with full-time employees to try their luck at Earnest Trivia.

7:30 pm: With Trivia Night coming to a close, I leave work to meet up with some friends for dinner near Washington Square park. After dinner comes the main event, DO, an amazing cookie dough shop not far from the park.

9:30 PM: With my sweet tooth satisfied, I get back on the subway to return home, relaxed and ready for tomorrow’s data discoveries.

Interested in applying to our Data Analyst internship for Summer 2019? Contact careers@earnestresearch.com to learn more.

Fall 2018 Campus Schedule

If we’ll be at your school’s career fair this fall, please stop by to learn more about our internships.

• Yeshiva; 2018 Finance & Accounting Fair; Thursday, August 30, 2018 8:00–10:30 PM
• Columbia; Industry Showcase: Beyond the Bulge Bracket (Boutique Financial Services); Tuesday, September 11, 2018 6:00–7:30 PM
• Yale; Boutique Finance Fair; Wednesday, September 12, 2018 6:00–8:00 PM
• University of Pennsylvania; CareerFIRE; Wednesday, September 12, 2018 10:00 AM — 3:00 PM
• Duke; Data Analytics & Data Science Networking Event; Wednesday, September 12, 2018 6:00–7:30 PM
• UVA; 2018 Commerce Career Day; Thursday, September 13, 2018 10:00 AM — 3:00 PM
• UVA; 2018 Fall Finance Night; Thursday, September 13, 2018 6:00–7:30 PM
• Princeton; Fall 2018 HireTigers Career Fair; Friday, September 21, 2018 11:00 AM — 2:30 PM