Spotlight on STEM-E Teams - Data Analyst Team

| Phoenix, Arizona

Virtually every organization and project you can think of is driven by strategies and information derived from data analysis, which is the process of collecting, cleaning, transforming, and modeling data into useful and implementable information. In STEM-E, the data analyst team does this to help the entirety of STEM-E improve as an organization and reach new audiences.

To do this, the data analyst team collaborates with many other teams within STEM-E to help those teams improve using data analysis. For example, the data analyst team often works closely with the social media team to collect data from the STEM-E profiles of various apps like Instagram and YouTube. When working with this type of team, they gather data on things like impressions, views, and other features. After gathering the data, they clean it up by locating and removing any errors before they start the process of examination. In this process, they find patterns and trends that they translate into applicable advice to give back to the team they are collaborating with. This can look like telling the team what they do well in or what could be improved on. 

Data Analysis

One notable example of this is when one of the data analyst interns analyzed some posts on STEM-E’s LinkedIn page. They studied how far the posts had reached, what types of posts did better than others, and more. With this information, the intern was able to tell the social media team what types of strategies and posts work the best to reach a large number of people and get high engagement numbers. Since this collaboration between the two teams, the STEM-E LinkedIn has grown faster and reached a lot more people because the social team implemented the data analysts' advice to finely tune their posts.

Within the team, they prioritize figuring out what methods work best for each intern, which oftentimes includes the intern's interests, so they can use data analysis in their own ways. This way of operating brings many unique perspectives to the team, allowing for individuality and personal growth to thrive. The team member I interviewed mentioned how a lot of members go into the team knowing nothing about data science. Which might seem a bit scary to new interns joining, but it is perfectly okay because the team teaches the skills their interns need to do their jobs. All members learn and practice skills like coding, primarily Python, and directory management together. Team members also learn skills not directly related to computer science, like collaboration and problem-solving skills.

The data analyst team currently meets as a group for an hour every other Saturday. This biweekly meeting gives them time to update each other on their progress since the last meeting, talk about updates within the industry such as new developments regarding data science and AI, and discuss new projects and collaborations within the team. They have also incorporated things like breakout rooms to help each other, work on new reports, and develop new ideas in the past. 

If any of this is of interest to you, feel free to join STEM-E, or just the team if you are already a new intern. They are always accepting new interns and will be happy to have you.