Graduate School
How I got to my “current state” has certainly been a journey (I won’t go into all of it - but if you’re interested, please ask!). I quickly fell in love with Economics and data in general while working with economists to design, implement, and analyze experiments that mimicked the effects of affirmative action. This led me to applying to PhD programs. During my studies, my schoolwork as well as my research focused a lot on using causal inference techniques to tease out causal effects. I loved working with data so much, I started taking machine learing, statistics, and computer science courses.
WeWork and Learnings
After my fourth year of graduate school, I accepted an internship at WeWork to work as a research and applied scientist. This was my first real exposure to the tech world, and I loved it! A major part of my job was to assist in optimizing prices of office rental units. We used nautral experiments, real experiments, economic theory, and machine learning to inform our analyses and price setting. Although my tenure there was less than a year (and most of it was during the start of covid), this experience taught me a lot about my ideal job. First, I learned that I wanted to work on things that were meaningful and impactful. Secondly, I loved my coworkers and genuinely enjoyed going into work - I learned that culture as well as who you work with is super important.
Capital One
After my fifth year of graduate school, I graduated with a PhD in Economics as well as a Master’s in Computer Science (focusing on Machine Learning). I went on the job market to find a job where I could do meaningful and impactful work. I chose to accept an offer at Capital One after talking with the hiring manager multiple times as I believed that it fit what I was looking for. If you want to know more about my job market experience, you can read this post. I have been working at Capital One since June 2021 and enjoy the challenge of working on open-ended business questions that don’t have obvious solutions.
Non-work Life
My wife Lynn and I have four children: Kate, Emma, Danny, and Matty. Lynn and I are both from California, but we have lived in multiple states, including Washington, Utah, Texas, and now Virginia. When I am not working, I love doing the following things:
- Playing with my kids
- Going on dates or just spending time with the wife
- Playing and coaching soccer
- Kayaking
- Applying Machine Learning models to everyday problems (like esports prediction)
- Playing and creating video games (when I acutally have some time)