Life After the Grades
Throughout my college career, I wanted to be able to learn and pursue my interests in Technology, Media, and Statistics. As a Senior at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Majoring in Media and Communications studies, with a focus in Statistics, and a Minor in Music, I can say with absolute confidence that these paths have been integral in shaping me into the professional that I am today.
In the Fall of 2016, I applied, and was extended an offer within Nielsen’s Operations and Technology Leadership Program. My time at Nielsen allowed me to peruse those passions that I had in Technology, Statistics, and Media, but also develop deep interests in Design and Finance.
As recruiting season is coming this Fall, I am beginning to search for Full-Time positions. While I enjoyed my time working within the technical space at Nielsen, I want to begin my full-time career in either the well-grounded sectors of the Finance Industry, or in working on User Interfacing/User Experience (UI/UX).
In this work, I will be detailing three job postings that I have taken much interest into, the reasons that I would be a great fit, the qualities that make me a competitive applicant, as well as additional skills I could acquire to elevate my qualifications for the position. Within these three job postings, I have included one local posting, one national posting, and one transnational posting.
My Time at Nielsen
This summer, I took on, and successfully completed the three major initiatives in Technology, as well as a Side project within Data Science. The C-DAR Program is Nielsen’s largest internal program, and is one of the many international program Nielsen has that reaches over 105+ countries. It stands for Continuous Digitization and Reinvention. Even though C-DAR doesn’t produce a physical product for clients, it digitizes manual processes & creates tools so that Nielsen can deliver products with more accuracy and efficiency.
Morgan Stanley — Baltimore, Maryland
I believe that I am a competitive applicant for this position at Morgan Stanley because I meet all of the qualifications/skills/requirements, and I have real-world experience that has allowed me to grow exponentially as a Technologist and a Leader. Through my time at Nielsen, I took on a project manager role within a database migration that allowed me the ability to drive a team of 10+ software engineers, and learn to communicate with offshore teams in India.
One of C-DAR’s big initiatives this year is to execute a database migration from Oracle to Postgres. Oracle and Postgres are both database management systems, but oracle hosts a heavy 2 MM in Licensing fees, whereas Postgres is Open source. Within this migration of C-DAR components, there are a total of 13 working streams within 3 main projects: C-DAR, ZTV, and QMS.
ZTV stands for Zero-Touch Validation . It is a module within C-DAR that works to reduce human touch points by automating operational process flow.
QMS stands for quality measurement system , and it measures global Auditor performance in order to drive standardization within Nielsen. With QMS, there is a 50% increase in quality control output.
For this project, I created an integrated project plan of all 13 project streams. With this integrated timeline, we are able to get a bigger picture of the migration, understand where the issues are, and document any changes. To do this, I had to understand open source technology implementation, the role of integration, and the agile process.
I made a significant impact on the project by creating a view of the bigger picture of the project by understanding agendas, financial gains, defining direction, and therefore, increasing efficiency.
In the job posting, they note that it is required for applicants to be an undergraduate senior perusing a Bachelor’s degree, have a cumulative 3.0 GPA, excellent leadership interpersonal, communication, and teamwork skills — all qualities that I believe that I excel at. In addition, I was able to complete not one, but 5 major initiatives this summer as opposed to the required one project because of my interest to further my technical abilities, and ability to multitask.
Because of my strong interest in financial services, I believe that I would make an excellent candidate for the position. However, in order to further my skill sets within the financial sector, I believe that additional classes within BTA, and understanding of accounting would work to my advantage, giving me a more competitive edge.
JP Morgan Chase — New York, New York
JP Morgan Chase is also one of my top choices as I look to move into the Financial Services & Investment Banking. For this rotational program, applicants are required to maintain a 3.2/4.0 GPA, attend university in the US, and possess excellent communication, interpersonal, and leadership skills. As a developed leader, I believe that I am a great fit for these qualifications. In addition, the posting details that they are searching for applicants who posses exceptional analytical, research, and project management skills.
Through my time at Nielsen, I wanted to explore another part of the business- to expand my knowledge past the bounds of the technology track. To be more specific, in Data Science. This summer I had the pleasure of working with within Digital Content Ratings (DCR), on the Watch side of the business, on a YouTube Data Validations project. YouTube gives Nielsen Census data that they collect from every single user that watches a YouTube Video. Nielsen takes this data to be true, and uses it to generate their measurements. In order to verify that that YouTube’s numbers are true, we (at Nielsen) must test for accuracy. I were able to work with the Nielsen DCR Team and the YouTube Teams, to develop theories about YouTube habits, methods in which to test those theories, and then to implement those tests to validate the census data provided to Nielsen by YouTube.
With this project, I was able to futher my analytical skills, as well as manage a project that was applicable to my daily life. When developing the theories and methods used by individuals when watching YouTube, we had to do our research. To do this we surveyed our co-workers in ranging ages in order to compile an exhaustive list of YouTube viewing habits.
For this posting, I believe that I can further my skill set by completing more projects that require extensive research with people, and with documents within the investment banking subject fields. Much of my research has been revolving around social cultures within media studies, or around statistical methods. Wit more experience in the financial field, I believe that I will be more qualified for the position.
Google — Singapore
As an avid traveler, I have always wanted to visit, and immerse myself in the cultures of Singapore. Google is a company that has always been on my radar, and is one of the technology companies that are driving the industry in numerous ways.
I have always been passionate about design, and my time at Nielsen over the summer has allowed me to grow my interests in the design and flow of User Experience.
For one of my initiatives, I designed & completed 15 rounds of testing on the Digital Collection Tool (DCT) in order to validate it on both Desktop and Mobile devices for Coke Data Collection in Chile. DCT is Nielsen’s survey tool that was created in order to digitize data collection for store auditors through a survey process. It is a survey application that allows store auditors, in over 70 countries, to execute custom client surveys with more efficiency. The collected data is then used to report back to clients.
As the teams in Chile transition their auditors to a newer, Android-based phone, for data collection, we must verify that DCT will work on these newer devices. Through the use of the application, I was able to validate DCT for use in Chile by authoring the survey. In addition, I worked directly with clients to to understand interactions and the visual execution that users experience when using the Mobile Application. From here, I prototyped 7 versions of the DCT, and worked with the software engineering team in order to redesign user experience, and clarify brand identity. A the conclusion of this project, I was able to identify and recommend 15 key improvements in order to enhance the UI, of which have since been given the go-ahead for implementation.
As per this postings minimum qualifications, I do meet all 3 of them. I am pursuing a BA, have programming experience, and have equivalent practical experience from my previous internships. I am well versed in the designing of mobile apps from my work on the DCT mobile application. I have designed more than 10 websites through my college career with the use of HTML, and have utilized JavaScript and CSS through my projects as well.
In regards to the Preferred qualifications, Unfortunately, I do not have plans at this time to pursue a Masters degree. However, I do keep up to date for the design of emerging markets, have a clean visual design aesthetic, and am passionate about the impact of designs on users and clients.
For this position, I believe that the further development of my skills with JavaScript, and experience with the pre-launch to post-launch experience of more consumer applications could better my skill set for this position.
In conclusion, I believe that my time at Nielsen within their OTLP Program was very rewarding and educational. I gained a plethora of experience that I can take on to other positions that I will be pursuing in the future.
