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Devinaa Mangal

Master’s of Science in Applied Economics and Predictive Analytics, 2021

For my first job, I wanted to work at a big size company where I could apply the knowledge that I have gained from my degrees and along with being able to interact with various people to enhance my hard/soft skills further. As an Economist at GM Financial, I got both. I am part of the Asset Valuation and Pricing team. We analyze the economy and specific markets and forecast them using machine learning using various coding languages to keep up with the market and generate company profits accurately. In addition, the position allows me to further improve my technical skills by maintaining big datasets, analyzing the data from different perspectives, and making decisions based on the results. The company culture is very enriching, with a good work-life balance and constantly working on ensuring each employee’s growth.

The courses that helped me with the technical aspects of my job were Computing for Economists (in R), Introductory Econometrics, Predictive Analytics for Economists, and Forecasting. My first coding language was R which has helped me apply the coding knowledge to learn Python, SQL, and SAS on my own. The other three courses helped me build a foundational understanding of machine learning and data science, which can be used in any industry nowadays. The courses that helped me with the economics side of my job were Economic Analysis I & II. These courses have built an advanced understanding of the markets and consumer behaviors during different times in the economy. In addition, they bring more perspective and reason to the data-driven decisions we make with the help of technical tools. Lastly, these courses bring in the sensibility to better understand the business, the competition, and the possible tradeoffs, to make better company decisions. In layman’s terms, the applied economics knowledge helps me answer the ‘what’ of my job, whereas the technical knowledge helps me answer the ‘how.’

One of the most memorable experiences at ÃÛÌÒ½´is how each professor diligently worked hard to help me, not just in the courses I was taking but even outside that. Dr. Fomby helped me take up a few online projects to develop my technical skills further and motivated me to learn SAS (which was tested in my job interview). Dr. Hayes personally reached out to the career center to help me with resume building and networking. Various other professors have helped me by suggesting future career opportunities and networking opportunities and even understood/ helped me navigate my visa status as an international student.